Fantastic Four (1961)

Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961), cover by Jack Kirby with inks by George Klein A giant monster bursts up from below a city street while four new heroes take it on, and Marvel's whole house style starts here. The word balloons were lettered straight onto the board before inking, so the characters announce themselves from the cover, and two extra bystanders were added for the printed version to crowd the street further. That mix of a creature rising from beneath, a team at its edges and loud speech balloons is what homage artists copy when they want a new cover to feel like a historic first issue. For the team's 60th anniversary, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines recreated it as the cover of Fantastic Four Anniversary Tribute #1 in 2021.