Marvel Comics ‘wacky writing and drawing team’ of Tim Quinn & Dicky Howett turn their cartooning eye on that most eXtraordinary of subjects, the super hero team. Where to begin the story of the Fantastic 400? They are truly the stuff of legends. They have been killed off and returned to life more times than any other super hero team. They have appeared on more underpants and socks than any other comic book characters. You’ve seen the movies, the TV series and the musicals. You’ve probably even brushed your teeth with ‘Fantastic 400’ toothpaste. But where did it all start? That’s a good question and the answer lies inside this book, so step inside and prepare to meet Aqua-Lung, Tall Man, Captain Chelmsford, Cyborg Cyd, The Green Thingy, Asparagus Jones, Jet Lagg, Yak Man, Blue Herbert, Super Ape, Frost Bite, Captain Carb and hundreds more in the wackiest super-hero adventures of all time.

Dicky Howett has been a part of popular culture since 1962 when his cartoons started appearing in newspapers and magazines across the UK. By the Nineteen Seventies he entered the comic book marketplace and soon became a fan favourite after being signed up by Marvel Comics to recreate their super-hero universe with the accent on humour. The worlds of Doctor Who were next to be reimagined by Dicky as he created a monthly strip with collaborator Tim Quinn that ran for fifteen years. Books, greeting cards, posters, more comic strips and t-shirts were to follow, allowing him to further a lifelong passion by acquiring redundant movie and TV studio equipment. His timing proved to be perfect as film and television studios lined up to hire the equipment for period productions. And so was formed Golden Age Television. Dicky’s company not only hired the gear but also started filming videos with top names in the Pop and Rock world. A long list of high profile TV programmes soon followed, sometimes with Dicky himself manning the cameras. Happily, cartooning was not forgotten with two new books of comics and cartoons being released in 2023. I Filmed The Horrors The Baddies The Kills and The Dead tells the inside story as we venture behind the scenes of the extraordinary worlds of comic books, movie and video production conducted by a master storyteller. - Tim Quinn, author of Argh, Who's 60?, Fantastic 400, Heroes, and The Queen