Fantastic Four #6: Yancy Street Pranks 1

Fantastic Four #6, page 4, panels 7-8

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Uncredited Inker: Dick Ayers

The Yancy Street Gang  is one of the most important long-running jokes in the Fantastic Four. In the 1980s, John Byrne would give us Ben’s upbringing and history with the gang, but for the twenty years previous, their main purpose in the book was the be an ever-present source of irritation to Ben, puncturing his pomposity and taking any opportunity to humiliate him, almost entirely from off-panel (We have Roy Thomas to thank for this, as an early letter to the comic contains the suggestion to never see the gang, an idea Stan and Jack were happy to go with).

Their first appearance in the Fantastic Four merely hints at their later greatness, a letter threatening to take Ben down if he ever shows his face. Ben is not too worried by the letter, laughing it off in a panel that, thanks to some strained perspective, makes it look like he’s about to bite Johnny’s head off.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #6 on our fourth episode: Super-Villain Team Up