Fantask #3

History

Fantask was conceived after Claude Vistel — daughter of Editions Lug co-founder Auguste Vistel — returned from a 1968 trip to New York and persuaded company director Marcel Navarro to license Marvel material through Transworld Features, the syndicate representing Stan Lee and Martin Goodman. Vistel personally selected Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Silver Surfer and translated the earliest episodes herself. The Lyon-based Atelier Lug studio — comprising letterer/adapter Jean-Yves Mitton alongside Rémy Bordelet, Yves Mondet, and Claudy Bordet — handled page retouching, French lettering, and recolouring for the run. The magazine was formatted as a 96-page 'petit format' digest (approximately 15×21 cm), a size mandated partly by French periodical-press regulations requiring multiple distinct features to qualify for reduced postal and kiosk rates, which is why each issue bundled Fantastic Four instalments with a Silver Surfer serial. Publication ceased after issue #7 (August 1969) when France's Commission de Surveillance et de Contrôle des Publications Destinées à l'Enfance et à l'Adolescence condemned the magazine for 'terrifying science fiction' and 'traumatising monster combat'; Navarro then relaunched Marvel characters in Strange (January 1970), this time in a self-censored, initially bichromy format to pre-empt further regulatory action.

Trivia · 8 facts

• On-sale date: 5 April 1969, published by Editions Lug (Lyon, France); edited by Claude Vistel; approximately 96 pages in the 'petit format' digest size (~15×21 cm).
• Reprints Silver Surfer #4 (February 1969) — 'The Surfer vs. Thor!' by Stan Lee (script), John Buscema (pencils), and Joe Sinnott (inks) — in truncated form (33 of the original 39 pages), titled 'Le Surfer d'Argent contre Thor' in French. This is the first French-language printing of that story.
• Reprints Fantastic Four #7 (October 1962) — 'Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X' by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — the first French appearance of Kurrgo and his robot from Planet X, appearing here as 'Kurrgo le maître de la planète X.'
• Reprints Fantastic Four #8 (November 1962) — 'Prisoners of the Puppet Master!' by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — the first French appearance of Phillip Masters (the Puppet Master) and his blind stepdaughter Alicia Masters, appearing here as 'Le Maître des Maléfices.'
• Silver Surfer #4's story features Loki manipulating the Silver Surfer into battling Thor, with cameo appearances by Odin, Balder, Sif, Heimdall, and the Warriors Three (Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg), as well as a flashback appearance of Shalla-Bal — making this issue the first French printing of many key Asgardian supporting cast members.
• Fantask #3 was later collected in the first Fantask hardcover recueil (Album N°1, April 1969), which bound issues #1 through #3 together.
• The French-language character names introduced or continued in this issue — 'La Chose,' 'Monsieur Fantastique,' 'La Fille Invisible,' 'La Torche Humaine,' 'Le Surfer d'Argent,' 'Namor le Prince des Mers' — became the canonical French translations used in all subsequent Editions Lug/Semic publications for decades.
• Fantask as a series ran only seven issues (February–August 1969) before being shut down by French youth-press censors; the characters next appeared in Strange #1 (January 1970), where Lug adopted self-censorship to avoid a repeat ban.

Cast · 29 characters

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