A few years ago famed FF historian Sean Kleefeld, who hosted ffplaza.com, wrote an article about how John Byrne sketched an FF fanfic in the 1970's. Byrne revealed this in David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview #25. It was a series of pencils that was never completed; ie. it wasn't inked, colored, and scripted. Fast forward a few decades later (2004 to be precise) and a group of fans at Byrne's own forum Byrne Robotics announced a challenge to complete the work, and a team rose to the challenge. January 2005, the finished work was revealed and given the working title Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1. Sean goes on into other details about the project, but I'll post here the cover for that, as well as the actual covers that Byrne drew when he finally wrote the FF for Marvel that seem to be inspired by that, as well as a panel each from the fanfic and a canon FF issue again for comparison.


Sean Kleefeld's article
Byrne Robotics Art Challenge Reveal