High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Human Torch is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1961). A similar, unrelated character of the same name and powers had been created in 1939 by writer-artist Carl Burgos for Marvel Comics` predecessor company, Timely Comics.