Cutaways of Fantastic Four's Baxter Building

Arglebargle! lovingly compiled a bunch of cutaway drawings of the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building.

One of the great things about the Fantastic Four comics was all the super-nutty Kirby gizmos and gadgets. Crazy stuff --like James Bond gear on steroids and acid! And talk about high maintenance... the team needed enough space for a Fantasti-car, a Pogo Plane, a Fantasti-Copter, a Private Passenger ICBM, an Observatory, an entrance to the negative zone, a computer room, a chemical lab, a photo analysis lab, a projection room, a gymnasium, trophy room and living quarters (just to name a few).

Link

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Moon

I’ve got to get off the internets. I read that as “Inside the Baxter blog”

Sheesh.
pauldrye

@3: Warren Ellis had Invisible Woman ask the Thing that of him particularly. His answer? “You don’t wanna know.”
Anonymous

To Father Brown:

The Thing doesn’t poop. Have you met a rock that poops? Q.E.D.

The Human Torch just burns his poop.

The Invisible Woman’s poop is invisible, and she’s a girl, so it doesn’t smell. Therefore, no one minds if it just lies around.

As for Mr. Fantastic, well… what do you think the rocket runs on?
glugenwog

The rocket exhaust empties into the river? Someone call the EPA, I think there’s a new candidate for a Superfund site.
JohnnyWeird

I’m a long-time fan of the FF, and this was a particularly fun treat for me. Thanks!
MacBastard

So Sue and Johnny commute from the suburbs? That could be an interesting train ride.

“Attention passengers! There will be a slight delay this morning as Galactus has decided to devour Earth, starting with this rail line. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
webted

I have this issue… FF Annual #3

The best part?

Jack Kirby’s autograph on page 1!

It’s kind of sad it’s just been sitting in storage for over 25 years…

Oh yeah, the bathrooms are on the other side.
Infinite Decay

This is really cool. But did anyone else find it strange that the cutaway shows that there are different rooms on the adjacent sides of the corner of the building shown? It looks like the different rooms occupy the same space — for example the electronic lab and biological research lab, or the gymnasium and the telestar monitor room.
cbarreto

The most disturbing thing about these cutaways is that they call attention to ICBM silos hidden inside buildings in urban areas.

Not a thing that a rational government would do but… where can we find rational governments anyways ???
fancycwabs

Anybody who’d put the garage and storage facilities in the penthouse isn’t quite the brilliant mind he pretends to be.

Also, “sending?” Was this in the days before “transmission” was invented?
lightrocker

Awww… another favorite cutaway

Bongo’s Dream House
http://www.geocities.com/lifeinhellperson/lih002.html

Gotta have sharks
License Farm

Zorak finds the coolest stuff.

Back in the early ’90′s heyday of technical manuals (spearheaded of course by Star Trek, the technobabbler’s wet dream), Marvel published books with the specs of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youths, Stark Industries and the Punisher’s arsenal. Is it still escapism when you have to work so hard to make it tangible in your mind?
Drhaggis

I predict that the “Giant Map Room” will be the must-have specialty room for 2008.
zenhammond

Why aren’t the FF referred to as underwear perverts?

I thought that was standard operating Boing Boing procedure.
Anonymous

I’ve got a ton of old comics with similar cutaways of the Batcave and the Fortress of Solitude. Also worth checking out is the book TV Sets in which an architect and TV junkie created blueprints for the Brady Bunch house, the penthouse apartment on Diff’rent Strokes, etc. Good stuff.
webted

I want to know what Ted Baxter ever did to get a building named after him?
eclectro

I have a couple of problems with this. First, the super-hero rooms are more like closets. Really, if I was a superhero, I’d demand better digs because of all the hard world-saving work that I was doing. Second, I find the ICBM problematic. Pumping toxic exhaust gases in the river just doesn’t seem cool. Also, ICBM’s tend to be one-off, often inaccurate, and probably very little leg room for a super hero. I think a scramjet would be far more utilitarian and eco friendly. Also, this looks like it requires a large support staff. But I realize that this is sixties era tech, so these things would not have mattered then. But surely there should be a library next to the map room?
devophill

Great post. Kinda reminds me of the one my good pal Bully, The Little Stuffed Bull made a couple of months ago.
chef

@Halloween Jack: “And I always did wonder what was on the side of the building that they didn’t show. Probably the Rooms of Awesome Shit That They’re Going To Show Next Month, Honest.”

Bathroom, bathroom, bathroom, quarry.
Chris Tucker

What must it have been like, before the FF bought the Baxter Building, for the poor sod who was the rental agent for the Baxter Building!

Can you imagine what it must have been like, trying to get people to rent office space there?

Every other month, the Skrull are ripping it from the very bedrock and hurling it into space, or Doctor Doom is using some new energy projector to melt it into slag or Iron Man stops by to schmooze with Reed and The Mandarin shows up to wreak vengence upon Tony Stark, yet again.

Sure, it’s only $5.00 per square foot, an incredable bargain for Manhattan, but Jeebus! It’s the frigging BAXTER BUILDING!

And what about the other buildings in the neighborhood? Man, Damage Control must have had retainers from EVERYONE!

If the FF had only moved to the World Trade Center, those planes wouldn’t have gotten within a mile of the WTC before the tractor beams snagged them in midair.
stevemars

‘…Headquarters of the most colorful super-hero combo the civilised world has ever known!’

So is there a super-hero combo that we’ve never heard of, in the jungle somewhere?
Bob

What I love is in one cutaway they have an Ammo Room. Just for ammo. And in a couple the rocket exhaust is vented into deep places in the earth, rather than the river. Might be one reason Mole Man was so upset! And who in the world would want to ride in an ICBM type missile??
Anonymous

In New York’s real estate market, this thing would have been converted to condos years ago. Hopefully they would keep the amenities intact.
SFSlim

Quite pleased to see that I’m not the only Happy Mutant who uses “ArgyBargy” (or variations upon it) as a multi-purpose exclamation. It just has that sound, evidently.
Moon

WebTed, if was named after Mr. B, Hazel’s boss!

/If you get that one, go lie down, you are too old to be up this late.
Jack

My favorite Fantastic Four issue is issue #12. When the Sub-Mariner devises a scheme to defeat the FF once and for all. He went to the bottom of the sea, gathered up riches and BOUGHT the Baxter Building so he could EVICT THE FANTASTIC FOUR!!!

Now that’s devious!
Halloween Jack

Kids, kids–remember, this is New York in the 60s and 70s. Emptying rocket exhaust into the Hudson or East River only would have made them cleaner.

Bathrooms? Two words: Negative Zone. Ever wonder why Blastaar and Annihilus were always so pissed off?

And I always did wonder what was on the side of the building that they didn’t show. Probably the Rooms of Awesome Shit That They’re Going To Show Next Month, Honest.
kuanes

Of course, the best part is Torch’s “Asbestos Room.” Keep inhaling that stuff, Johnny!