I finished scanning in Fantastic Four 200, 1978 and I was about to start scanning in 201 when I realized that I'd remembered things a bit out of order. For a long time when ever I thought of FF200 I thought of it as the last issue before Byrne took over, but there are a lot of issues before then. I think I thought that because in FF200 a lot of storylines wrapped up. Reed had lost his powers, the FF split up and had solo adventure for issues, then Reed had his powers back, Ben, Sue and Johnny had been grabbed by Dr. Doom who had provided a way for Reed to get his powers back, a lot of stuff that had been building for a lot of issues was settled and in the end Doom is driven mad and Zorba was in charge of Latveria. It featured one of the better battles between Reed and Doom and Doom at his full-on villain best. But for some reason a lot of the issues in between had slipped my mind because when Byrne picked it up Latveria was falling apart, Zorba was going crazy and the FF had to help put Doom back in charge. Looking back I think of it as the end of an era because I don't think Doom was written this way again.
Replies
I always liked that cover. No one could draw stuff that couldn't possibly exist the way Kirby did.
If anyone's interested, Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four Vol. 18, reprinting #192-203 and Annuals #12-13, goes on sale September 14.
Thor#300 could also be seen as the end of an era. Jack Kirby's Celestial 50 year judgment of Earth is ended early, Odin is killed (he'll get better of course), and the Odinsword was destroyed. (Perhaps the reason Odin couldn't easily beat Surtur in #350-52?)
Essential Fantastic Four stopped just one volume away from getting to John Byrne. Pity they didn't finish. Good to hear Masterworks is still running. Hopefully they'll continue right up until the issue before Byrne comes in. I vaguely remember #200 being the last really major FF issue to me. I agree Doom wasn't written the same after this.
As far as I know, the Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus - Volumes 1 and 2 - cover Byrne's run.
Byrne comes in #232. The last artist before him was Bill Sienkiewicz, although he only did layouts and someone else, usually Joe Sinnott, finished the artwork.
Byrne had an earlier run as penciller on #209-#218 with Marv Wolfman and Bill Mantlo, and wrote and pencilled a two-parter in #220-#221.(1) Those issues seem to be in the first omnibus too (along with some stuff from elsewhere, apparently).
(1) The GCD says the two-parter, The Incredible Hulk Annual #9 and Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #2 were all intended "for a Coca-Cola promotion that fell through".
When Byrne came on the difference was jarring too me.
Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus, Volume One:
Marvel Team-Up #61-62; Marvel Two-in-One #50; Fantastic Four #209-218, 220-221, 232-260, ANNUAL #17; Avengers #233; and Thing #2.
Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus, Volume Two:
Fantastic Four #261-295, ANNUAL #18-19; Alpha Flight #4; and Thing #7, 10 and 19, and Avengers Annual #14, and material from Secret Wars II #2, Epic Illustrated #26-34, What If #36, What The? #2 and 10, Fantastic Four Roast #1, and Fantastic Four Special Edition.
There were also 8 trade paperback volumes of Fantastic Four Visionairies: John Byrne, published between 2001-2009. They covered his entire run (FF 232-295, FF Annual 17-19) plus most of the non-FF issues covered in those Omnibuses. After those 8 volumes, they had a "Volume Zero" which covered Byrne's FF work prior to FF 232.
As Jeff pointed out, the next FF Masterworks comes out next month. In the past 13 years, there have been 12 FF volumes, almost one every year. Based on the page count of recent volumes, around 328 pages, the next two could cover FF 204-219 and Annual 15, and then 220-231 and Annual 16, and then Volume 21 could start with the first issue of Byrne's run. FF 232-244 would be very close to 328 pages. I think once Marvel reaches the Byrne era those will be big sellers, but I wonder just how popular the volumes in between will be.
As far as the Epic Collections go, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the volumes covering Byrne's run. With these collections, the priority seems to be filling in periods not covered by previous collections, and also Silver Age material which has mostly been either in the hardcover Masterworks or black and white Essentials. Just guessing, but I think Marvel is in no hurry to duplicate the Visionaries trades.