Reed Richards - Stretch Armstrong - Max Barnard

The Preamble: Yeah... Does this really need me to explain what the core idea is? No? Okay, let's party.

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Page 1

Visually I'm looking for us to really bridge the gap between Stretch Armstrong and Reed Richards, so something along the line of Seth Fisher's much-lauded chibi take on the FF characters presented every so often in the astonishingly beautiful Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big In Japan may well serve that purpose.

1.1
And so we join our 'chibi' Stretch Armstrong-esque Reed Richards in his lab, full of twisted, warped and completely pointless messes of metal and wires, presumably being technology far beyond the comprehension of anyone other than our crazed savant.

REED: 2+2=4. 4+4=8. 8+8=16


1.2
As Reed peers over a pile of wires that are tied in an endless knot (reference), a door opens behind him, with three child-like and deliberately non-descript silhouettes visible in the doorway.

REED: E=MC^2. π=3.141592653589793

Note to letterer: the equation for pi should be shrinking away to nothingness in his speech bubble. After all, Reed may well be able to say it infinitely, but do we really want to listen to it?


1.3
The silhouettes in the doorway have revealed themselves as Franklin Richards, Leech and Artie, who are now running towards Reed with nothing but sheer glee upon their faces. Rather hilariously they themselves are only slightly shorter than our incredibly deformed Reed, who is looking back at them in terror, mouth stretched agape in fear.

REED: π r^2!!


1.4
The three rambuctious youths grab ahold of various parts of Reed and start stretching him out, Armstrong style, across the lab, laughing maniacally the entire time. Reed's face is screaming out in anguish, less from pain and more from his uncomfortable predicament. Oh and considering Artie's lack of speech, he's projecting a large laughing smiley face from his helmet. The silhouette of Sue Richards can be seen in the same doorway the kids came through, although if that's not viable in the panel a sort of shadow coming from that general direction would still manage to get the core idea across.

FRANKLIN & LEECH: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

REED: x-1/(3*45)=r^55!!


1.5
Sue Richards (the only normally proportioned person on this page) is walking into the room, yelling angrily at the kids and picking them up in forcefield bubbles. Reed is twanging back into his original shape, continuing the whole Stretch Armstrong deal.

SUE: !!


1.6
Sue is cradling Reed, who is now stretched out into something resembling his normal human proportions. The children have now presumably been shooed out of the room by Sue between panels.

SUE: Oh Reed, what would you do without me?

REED: I'd bend, stretch, tie in knots. But with you I'd always return to my original shape.

SUE: I don't even know how to respond to that. But that's sweet, honey.