I came up with this piece solely as an illustration for a poster I was planning for the Wizard World in Philadelphia, and in conjunction with upcoming release of the feature film.

I Thought it would be interesting to specialize the art by putting in some familiar Philadelphia landmarks like Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and of course their world famous cheeseteak sandwiches.

The FF has been one of my favorite groups in comicdom since the late 70's. I think one of the highest creative points in the series history was artist/writer John Byrne's run on the book, which lasted over 50 issues.

The Philadelphia Wizard World convention was my first WizCon and my first visit to the city of brotherly love, since I was a child. The cheeseteak that the ever lovin "Thing" is about to tear into,(and the rest of the FF are trying to get their hands on), is from "Jim's Steaks" a Phillie landmark since 1928.

The addition of Franklin Richards was a last minute thing. I decided I would make it a family outing-turned parade, thrown in Their honor, by the city.

Some details to note, look closely and you'll spot the planet devouring GALACTUS and his herald the SILVER SURFER paying the the city a visit, also the parade balloons floating in the background feature the faces of some of the FF's most dangerous villians;Mole Man, Annihilus,and of course Dr. Doom.

The piece was digitally colored by Robert Wawrizniak (his first color job), the creator/writer of the sci-fi maxi series "SUPER-7".