Paolo Rivera is one of the comic book industry's top artists. From his work on Spider-Man and Daredevil, he has also done work from DC Comics. His art is best described as being a Norman Rockwell-type photorealism style, not unlike Alex Ross' work on the
Marvels and
Kingdom Come miniseries.
A few years ago, Rivera created a series of drawings to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Fantastic Four. Evoking visuals from the hit AMC series
Mad Men, he completed a poster titled "Pencils and Cigarettes." On his website, Rivera describes the poster as such: "This is the team as they first appear, with a healthy dose of inspiration from
Mad Men and my favorite 60s illustrators."
Actor Jon Hamm is used as a visual template for Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic. Indeed, the finished product does resemble Hamm's advertising executive character Don Draper, only replacing the alcohol and cigarette with a book. While the look of Sue Storm/Invisible Woman is inspired by January Jones, Rivera had a friend stand in as the model. For the artwork, Rivera used watercolor and goache in the underpainting process.
The end result is impressive in its visuals. One can't help but envision the lost possibility in which a
Fantastic Four period piece was made instead of the Tim Story films. It also brings to mind an alternate universe in which Jon Hamm goes from portraying an ad man to playing Reed. Now there's a bit of casting that isn't hard to stretch...