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The Fantastic Four: First Dreams Artbook

The Fantastic Four: First Dreams Artbook

Medium
Literature
Dimension
8 x 10 in
reading time
~21 min
Date
December 2025 - Ongoing
Project
The Fantastic Four: First Dreams
Description

Everything else in this project ends up here. The Fantastic Four: First Dreams is a fan-art publication celebrating Marvel's First Family through my perspective as a designer. Combining historical research, retrofuturist aesthetics, and original poster designs, this book reflects my passion for editorial design and typography, exploring optimism and the feeling of living alongside superheroes in New York City. This project allowed me to dive deep into the visual language of the 1960s, the era that introduced the Fantastic Four to the world. Each spread is carefully crafted to balance bold, dynamic typography with clean, structured layouts, integrating my original writing with extensive thesis research. Ultimately, this artbook serves as a tribute to the enduring legacy of these heroes and the timeless appeal of their optimistic vision for the future.

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The First Dreams artbook seen face on, a deep blue hardcover with the title the Fantastic 4 First Dreams in silver, the circled four at the right and four small character panels at the corners.
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The artbook cover resting on an open copy of itself, the spread behind it showing the illustration of the Excelsior crossing the curve of Earth.
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Close angled view of the artbook cover, raking light across the silver title and the circled four, with the edges of further copies stacked behind.
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The artbook photographed from the right, the closed cover in front, an open copy showing the Excelsior spread, and a third copy fanned open behind.
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The artbook photographed from the left, the back cover with its large circled four at the left, an open copy in the middle and the front cover laid across the front.
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Overhead view of the artbook, the full jacket laid flat showing back cover, spine and front, an open spread headed From Explorers to Protectors beside the Excelsior page with its data panel, and a closed copy at the front.
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TAKE A DEEPER LOOK AT project

The Fantastic Four: First Dreams

Previous workNext work
Gouache portrait of Jack Kirby in blues and teals, hand resting at his cheek, against a ground patterned with four-pointed stars.
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Jack Kirby

March 2026
Gouache portrait of Stan Lee smiling in blues, in dark-framed glasses and a shirt patterned with circled number four motifs.
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Stan Lee

March 2026
Graphite and coloured pencil presentation drawing of the Baxter Building and the Excelsior tower in perspective, with hand-lettered callouts and a circled number four mark.
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The Baxter Building & The Excelsior in Perspective

December 2025
Alcohol marker, acrylic and coloured pencil still life of the Fantastic Four uniform, a blue suit with a circled four, a white glove in the sleeve, grey boots and a buckled belt, against cream with turquoise stars.
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Fantastic Costume

November 2025
Oil painting on canvas of an open hand held palm out with the thumb tucked, hand-lettered four three two one we have lift off, with the First Steps logo at lower right.
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‘Four’ The Stars

November 2025
Composite poster of a torso in a blue Fantastic Four suit with arms crossed over a city skyline, lettered PREPARE and LAUNCH beside the circled four, with the First Dreams lockup below.
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Prepare 4 Launch

December 2025
Mock magazine cover composite with a large serif masthead, a portrait in a blue Fantastic Four suit beside a futuristic tower and launch spires, and cover lines reading Fantastic Dreams.
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NY Times Cover

December 2025
Composite poster of a young man in a knitted four jumper looking upward through blue confetti on a New York street, crowds holding hand-painted good luck and we love Fantastic Four signs.
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Look Up To My Heroes

December 2025
Composite poster in forced perspective, a white-gloved hand reaching toward the camera past a portrait in a blue suit, with towers, a rocket and a small robot saying hello.
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Four Fingers

December 2025
Digital illustration of the Excelsior spacecraft, a swept silver craft with blue wingtips firing orange engine trails above the curve of Earth, stars and distant planets behind.
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Excelsior In Space

December 2025
Retrofuturist vector poster on cream, the numeral four repeated as nested rounded shapes in blue, cyan, orange and red receding to four small figures at the centre, with a monogram and Future Foundation lockup along the base.
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44444444

December 2025
Retrofuturist vector illustration of a figure in a blue suit with gloved hands crossed, the Excelsior arcing overhead on an orange trail among planets and starbursts, inside an orange and blue border.
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First Dream

March 2026
Four Fantastic Four First Steps flyers arranged in a two by two grid on cream, their shattered blue glass, orange rock and flame shards meeting in a single burst at the centre.
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Fantastic Four Flyers

October 2025
Final frame of the animation, cream ground with pale teal atomic starbursts, a blue rocket trailing yellow, the circled Fantastic Four badge and the words Happy 4-4 Day.
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Happy 4-4 Day

April 2026
Animation frame with a scanline texture, four flat-shaded figures in Santa hats standing inside rounded orange, red and teal outlines that recede behind them on cream.
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Message from Marvel's First Family

December 2025
The First Dreams artbook seen face on, a deep blue hardcover with the title the Fantastic 4 First Dreams in silver, the circled four at the right and four small character panels at the corners.
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The Fantastic Four: First Dreams Artbook

December 2025 - Ongoing
The printed research paper laid out flat, the cover carrying a blue painted portrait of Stan Lee smiling in his glasses inside a gold keyline, with interior pages either side.
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Stan Lee — A Hero Beyond All Superheroes

April 2026
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Literature

Previous workNext work
The First Dreams artbook seen face on, a deep blue hardcover with the title the Fantastic 4 First Dreams in silver, the circled four at the right and four small character panels at the corners.
View

The Fantastic Four: First Dreams Artbook

December 2025 - Ongoing
The printed research paper laid out flat, the cover carrying a blue painted portrait of Stan Lee smiling in his glasses inside a gold keyline, with interior pages either side.
View

Stan Lee — A Hero Beyond All Superheroes

April 2026