Fantastic Four #144 (Pt 7) Up On the Rooftop

Or: just walk away, Ben J. (Grimm--natcherly!). 

Fantastic Four #144 Rich Buckler

                                                

Fantastic Four #50 Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four #144 Part 6 Johnny Storm

OMG, Johnny's pose in this panel on the last page of Fantastic Four #144 looked soooo familiar.  And then it hit me...

Fantastic Four #144 (1974) Rich Buckler

...it's from 1969's Fantastic Four #88!   Plus, it looks like #144's Alicia and Belle Thorne, above, are based on #88's Sue and Crystal.

Fantastic Four #88 (1969) Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four #144 (Pt 5) Doomsday

Dr. Doom, the chairman of the board in Fantastic Four #144...

Fantastic Four #144 (1974) Rich Buckler

...and Fantastic Four #85, from  a few years earlier (1969).  Love Kirby's details!

Fantastic Four #85 (1969) Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four #144 Part 4 Reed and Triton

More Triton influence in FF #144,  this time from #62.

Fantastic Four #144 (1974) Rich Buckler

Fantastic Four #62 (1967) Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four #144 (Pt 3) It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That...

1974: Fantastic Four #144 - Rich Buckler

1968: Fantastic Four #71 - Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four #144 (Pt 2) Seek and Ye Shall Find...Triton!

In this panel from Fantastic Four #144 (1974), the green, scaly guy lying on the ground in a puddle of water is the Seeker, one of Dr. Doom's androids.  

Fantastic Four #144  Rich Buckler

Hmmm, doesn't the Seeker remind you of everyone's favorite aquatic Inhuman? Well, as you can see the panel above is reminiscent of this panel from 1967's FF #63 featuring none other than Triton.  

Fantastic Four #63  Jack Kirby

Connections...or as a professor of mine put it "the wheels within wheels": earlier on there was a different Seeker who appeared back in FF #46 (1966) during the first Inhumans arc. That Seeker was one of the "evil" Inhumans who worked with Maximus and was in hot pursuit of one of Black Bolt's "good" Inhumans, namely--you guessed it--Triton. :)

Fantastic Four #144 Part 1

In Fantastic Four #144 (1974) there's a three-panel sequence of Ben and Reed that's based on--well, a three-panel sequence from FF #55 (1966). Poor Sue, she didn't make the cut in the Buckler version.

I love Ben's expression in this last Buckler panel!                

Fantastic Four #144 Rich Buckler

Here's the Kirby sequence from  #55: the last two panels at the bottom of page 18...

Fantastic Four #55 Jack Kirby

...and the first panel on page 19.    

Fantastic Four #55 (1966)

Fantastic Four #142

This has been posted before, but what the heck! Let's take another look at Rich Buckler's homage to an iconic Kirby panel. This is the last page of 1974's Fantastic Four #142,  Buckler's first issue as the regular FF penciler. 

1974: Fantastic Four #142- Rich Buckler

And here's Jack Kirby's page 14 from 1969's FF #87. You've got to love the mouth-watering details in Kirby's work! As many have noted, some years later there was a rather similar-looking scene in a certain very famous sci fi megahit movie. ;)

1969: Fantastic Four #87 - Jack Kirby

Buckler's Doom was immortalized on the Marvel Value Stamp. 

#142's Medusa and her head-tilt may be based on #87's Sue here.