unofficial HANDbook of the marvel universe: blastaar the living bomb-burst
so here we have blastaar the living bomb-burst - can you guess who created him, i wonder...? ( - in case you can't: it was jack kirby, as usual - w/stan lee on the dialogue )
for some reason i like the idea of blastaar singing this song: " if you can't look inside you - find out who i am too - be in the position to make me feel - so damned unpretty "
( plse click or double click on drawing to enlarge it )
this is my fave HANDbook drawing since i did the absorbing man - i dunno why he's got no lower torso tho - it's a mystery! - my "interpretation" of blastaar also bears more than a passing resemblance to another j.kirby character: ulik the troll, out of the thor gomics - ( praps if i ever get to the letter U, i can just trace this 'un ) - he also looks a bit lord of the ringsy, i fear
his sad, introspective expression isn't really 100% appropriate for blastaar who is only ever angry or VERY ANGRY - never mind tho, eh? - it's still pretty goob by my standards
first appearance: fantastic four #62, may 1967
powers: super strength & energy blasts
occupation: living bomb-burst, former king of planet baluur
known relatives: nyglar ( wife ), burstaar ( son )
blastaar was tyrant king of the planet baluur in the negative zone - until his subjects rose up & banished him to float adrift in sub space for all eternity - until of course "the genius" reed richards found him, freed him from bondage & brought him back to earth - reed soon realised that this probly wasn't in his top 50 million goob ideas - cos blastaar = a v.nasty piece of work who decided he wanted to gonquer our own dear planet - so, after a big battle w/the fantastic four & the sandman who just happened to be passing - blastaar was eventually exiled back to the negative zone - but somehow he's been popping back & forth to menace the ff & others ever since
w.o.agwu "fun" fact: blastaar = the villain in xmen #53 - the first u.s. gomic book pencilled by then learner artist barry smith ( he'd previously done pin ups of marvel characters in uk mags such as fantastic & terrific ) - it was allegedly drawn on a bench in central park - in kind of a whacked out pastiche of kirby's style - here's the cover ( pencils by barry smith, inks by mike esposito ) - he later went on to great success w/gonan the barbarian et al as barry windsor smith - & had no further need of yr foolish park benches
it is possible ( imo ) that the plot of xmen #53 was possibly originally meant for the fantastic four - i mean reed richards usually arses abt w/the negative zone & accidentally frees blaastar or annihilus abt twice a week - whereas the xmen... well, they only did it the once afaik - on this occasion - so maybe stan the man said to scripter arnold drake: "take this ff plot & make it into an xmen story, plse" ( stan cld have even given him the plot of ff#62 to be honest - take out the origin & the story = not that different )
- any gonfirmation of this "theory" - or further behind the scenes info ( ie nerd facts ) abt this story wld be gratefully received