[close] Capitalizing on the popularity of one of comics' hottest artists, Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez, Vol. 1 collects 11 issues of the "world's greatest comic magazine" from 1974-76 when Perez was making guest-penciler appearances (other artists from that run included Rich Buckler, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Ron Wilson, and Jack Kirby). It may not have been a pivotal period for the FF, but "Rascally" Roy Thomas was crafting a number of interesting story lines, such as both the Thing and Mr. Fantastic losing their powers, and Agatha Harkness's abduction of young Franklin Richards. The drawback, however, of basing a collection around an irregular artist is that the run of issues is not consecutive--in this case, the included issues are 164-167, 170, 176-178, and 184-186. That means stories are begun but not concluded, or they start out of nowhere with only brief recaps of what happened before. It's good reading, but not without a fair amount of frustration. --David Horiuchi [close]