I'm not sure why it popped into my head, but for the life of me I can't remember who Franklin Richards is named after(if anyone).  I'm pretty sure he first appeared during your run of FF so hopefully the question is right up your alley.  If not, I'm betting your knowledge of their history is pretty darned good.

So, is Franklin named after someone and if so, who?

Thanks.

Hey, I was right and didn't know it.  I kept thinking that he was named after the Thing but it didn't make sense since he was named Franklin.  I didn't realize his middle name was Benjamin. 

I guess my FF reading started too late, I had no idea that Franklin Storm ever made an appearance(s?).  Was he a favorite character of yours JB?  I don't understand why his death would compel you to stop buying comic books.

QUOTE: the issue... that made you stop buying comics

Mr. Byrne, you stopped buying comics at 13-14 years old [FF #32 dated to 1964], is that right? How did you keep up reading comics without buying them afterwards?

QUOTE: his FF's began with (drumroll) issue 32

Amazing!

Follow-up question: when you work at a comic book company, do they have a library of back-issues to help authors and artists familiarize themselves with characters and storylines?

I don't know if Franklin Richards was a mistake, but I know that I never cared for him.

In my first story (FF #208) he didn't appear and, when I started to read regularly the book I found him grown up... And I didn't know there was a Franklin Richards, either!
I don't know, it's almost like Franklin weren't part of the legend, for me...

Here's a question for everybody.  Was Franklin Richards a mistake?  It seems that having children almost always leads to characters aging, so that the children can age as well. 

++++++++++

Wehn Reed and Sue got married, it was merely the illusion of change. Their relationship, as well as the group dynamic of the FF, didn't change a whit.

Franklin was simply a new character, and his introduction didn't really cause any changes, or lead the FF down the path of aging.

As to the question of whether Franklin was a mistake -- yes, most definitely. And Agatha was brought in by Stan and Jack as a way of rectifying that mistake. A way to get Franklin out of the book in a more or less permanent way, back in those days when killing characters was not considered a first option.

Didn't cause any changes? I cranked him back several years in age when I got on the book, but there was no getting around the "fact" that something like half a decade had passed in "Marvel Time" since his birth -- half a decade for Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, Peter Parker, the X-Men and everybody else.

***

Could not disagree more. When you have a cast composed largely of adults, years can go by, decades can go by, and even the most moronic, brain-dead, anal jerkoff fanboy will not be able to complain that time is not passing as it "should". But when you have a baby, every issue s/he is in cries out "TIME IS NOT PASSING" -- unless the kid ages. Which is, of course, what happened to Frankling. Any by inference, everybody else in the Marvel Universe.

Didn't cause any changes? I cranked him back several years in age when I got on the book, but there was no getting around the "fact" that something like half a decade had passed in "Marvel Time" since his birth -- half a decade for Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, Peter Parker, the X-Men and everybody else.

++++++++++++

Ah. Forgot to put on my thinking cap this morning. I was referring to immediate changes during the Lee-Kirby era, not later on. Overall, yes, it did cause problems, but that was down the line when FRANKLIN aged and became a toddler.

I think Franklin has stayed more or less around the 4-6 year old mark you regressed him to JB.

As for Agatha Harkness, she was revealed as dead in Avengers Disassembled.  I don't know if she's still dead but of course the Scarlet Witch was involved so . . .