From Fantastic Four #3 (March 1962), art by Jack Kirby
From Fantastic Four #6 (September 1962), art by Jack Kirby
From Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963), art by Jack Kirby
From Fantastic Four #201 (December 1978), art by Keith Pollard and Joe Sinnott
From Fantastic Four #249 (December 1982), art by John Byrne
From The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4 (April 1983), art by Eliot R. Brown
...just in case you're ever lucky enough to visit the fabulous Baxter Building in beautiful midtown Manhattan:
It IS very considerate of Reed to vent the rocket exhaust stuff. A bit tough on the Morlocks though.
ReplyDeleteI think it lost a little bit of its charm when they renamed the "Giant Map Room."
ReplyDeleteJust wait until I get my Sleestak doll
ReplyDeleteI imagine when it changed from "Giant Map Room" to "Geographic Tracking Room" Reed had invented something to project a big arrow and dotted line on the map...like from the Indiana Jones movies.
ReplyDeleteI find the history of the rocket exhaust pipes more amusing. First they cooked the Morlocks, like SallyP said. Then they rerouted the pipes to the river, until a bunch of dead fish started floating on the surface, presumably. Then they tried some sort of decontaminating devices (HEPA filters?), but finally decided to dig into the Earth's crust instead.
Which is fine until New York is swimming in liquid hot magma...
I want to live in the 1962 Kirby version because HOLY CRAP! They have a long-range passenger missile that can reach any part of the world in minutes! That 1983 version is a tedious nightmare of city planning and building codes. Fie, I say. Fie!
ReplyDeleteHey, Bully, when you talk to Mr. Grimm, ask him about the day he got to move into Reed's old apartment! Looks like the place might've gotten a little crowded once Johnny and Sue were living in the Baxter Building full-time, and Franklin came along!
ReplyDeleteTrue story: One of my happiest moments as a Computer Software Person was learning that my little application's data... would be displayed in the Giant Map Room of a major Federal Agency! With flashing red dots on the Big Board, even!
Wow, I love this kinda stuff, Bully! One question: do you have any larger scans that I can pore over on the living room floor? Because I can only barely read these...
ReplyDeleteHey Bully, you know that building in the last photo in this post is 4 Times Square. Conde Nast Publishing is there. I've been in that building many times. Throw a rock through a 20th floor window and you may hit The New Yorker's Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff.
ReplyDeleteMy Blogger word verification: qaewnsrg
Old Spidey comics did stuff like this once in a while. As a kid, I was obsessed with the deets of how Peter Parker kept his gear hidden. (One secret: false-bottomed shoe boxes! Brown Hush Puppies on top, Spider-Boots below...)
ReplyDeleteY'ever see the Kirby-cross-section diagrams of his proto-FF team, the Challengers of the Unknown? "Challenger Mountain" diagrams are pure coolness.
To maintain its faux-mountainosity, Challenger Mountain had windows made of "one-way arti-rock," that let light in but looked like rock from the outside.
Sweet.
Anyone remember a diagram of Hank and Jan's Dayton Building HQ in Tales to Astonish?
ReplyDelete