Blastosaurus

Blastosaurus is a comic book series by New Zealand writer Richard Fairgray. Inspired by 90s cartoons, it follows the adventures of Blastosaurus, a mutated dinosaur working as a policeman to keep Freak Out City safe.

The Blastosaurus series started in 2008 and is intended to capture the interest of children as well as adult comic book readers. Blastosaurus was originally drawn and written entirely by Richard Fairgray but now includes a writing credit to co-writer Terry Jones who wrote the teen fiction novel The Left Handed Gun. The titles of the story arcs are all references to film terms. Jeff Katz has announced in July 2009 that Blastosaurus will be picked up by his Top Cow Productions imprint American Original Press. In 2010 Blastosaurus was released at San Diego Comic Con. Blastosaurus has also begun to be released as a free, full colour webcomic.

The story so far

In the first story arc. Test Pattern, Blastosaurus is mutated in the past and follows some other mutated dinosaurs (the raptors), who have just killed his mother, through a time tunnel and into the future. He is thrown out of time further ahead than the 'raptors' that he follows and consequently they have had an impact on the place he arrives in. He meets three freedom fighters who give him a blaster and help him get back to the time when the raptors arrived so that he can stop them from wreaking havoc on Freak Out City. This was done just as the raptors attacked their hideout and killed all three. In the 'present day' Blastosaurus meets a boy called Richard Greene who hides him in his attic and gives him some clothes. Blastosaurus has a fight with raptors which gets him thrown in jail by the police. Eventually this misunderstanding is cleared up. Blastosaurus is made a cop. Blasto starts living in Richard's house with his three friends - Emma, Alana and Sam. Meanwhile, an employee of a company called "Factory Corp" - later revealed to be Robin King - picks them up and takes them to a hideout.

The second story arc, Deep Focus, has a strong horror influence. It begins with Richard, Emma, Alana and Sam skipping school and going into an old abandoned church - apparently haunted by ghosts - where a boy from their school called Chase disappeared after going there for a night out. The kids go into an underground cavern similar to a mine, but are scared out by ominous shadows coming towards them. Meanwhile, Blastosaurus is attempting to learn how to use his ray gun from the future,and accidentally discovers a bookcase spinning doorway where he slides down a fireman's pole and is met by a strange old man. In the city, the four kids go looking for Blasto, unsure of his whereabouts, and enter the homicide section of the police station, where they are discovered by Blastosaurus's superior - Officer Naomi Fenton. She is dubious as to their story of the church "ghosts" and evicts them. They go home and Blastosaurus comes back to the flat. he takes them down the fireman's pole and into a car that Richard's grandfather gave him. Sam does some research on the church and finds that it has a history of weird spiritual happenings - previously inhabited by an obscure cult. Blastosaurus goes in to investigate, telling the kids to go to school, which they defy, secretly walking in after him. Blasto goes into the underground mine and sees the two of the raptors (the big one and the midget)dressed in fire-retardant suits. Blasto is about to follow them but hears voices from the other direction, which turn out to be the kids. They keep on walking and find Chase, the boy who disappeared. He stands up and looks fine, despite the fact of a big hole in his back that mysteriously closes up. he and the kids leave the mine, while Blasto continues investigating. He is met by the raptor with the mohawk spikes called Spikes who electrocutes him and hangs him up from the ceiling of a large cavern. The raptors shoot nails at Blasto with nail guns, and are told to finish him by the Factory Corp employee named Robin King. Blasto then reveals he was putting on the screaming at the nail guns, and releases himself, defeating all the raptors in quick succession, pushing them off a cliff. Then Robin King comes back and fights with Blasto, but is defeated when a swinging hook impales him It is revealed he is a robot. Blasto leaves, bringing the whole mine and the church down into rubble. But King survives and is repaired by Jono Newton, who co-founded Factory Corp. Jono seems to have been in some kind of cyro-stasis. King receives a call from the Factory Corp CEO David Factory, and tells him that the church was the "last viable site". Upon finishing King's repairs, Newton starts to properly wake up and is zapped back into stasis. The arc ends with some guy named Josca (who seems to live under Blastosaurus' apartment building ) towing away Blasto's damaged car, and Blasto talking with Naomi Fenton, saying the raptors will be back.

The next arc, a one-off issue, is called Retardation. This term is often used in film theory to describe the process of revealing information to either the viewer or certain characters without letting some characters know. This is what Retardation is about.

Tone and genre

Blastosaurus is an adventure/comedy series. It falls into the superhero genre but because of the way Blastosaurus uses his powers within the scope of the law he is less elevated than a superhero so it is more of a procedural. Gritty violence is contrasted with the banter of children, creating a strange blend of humour and brutality. This pushes the boundaries of main-stream comic entertainment.

Characters

Blastosaurus: A crime fighting mutant triceratops with a futuristic blaster and a love of candy. His mother was killed by the raptors in the past when they gained intelligence via the Factory Corp toxic waste - they opened her stomach with a tree trunk. He is a police officer working for the Freak Out City Police. He lives in Richard's grandfather's apartment as Richard's grandfather (Terry Greene) has been 'on holdiay' for a year. He also drives Terry's car.

Richard Greene: 12-year-old friend of Blastosaurus. Lets Blastosaurus live in his missing grandfather's flat. He appeared in the post-raptors future as a freedom fighter against the raptors, going by the name of Nightshadow. He was killed by the raptors just as Blasto was transported to the future by their stolen time machine.

Alana: Richard's best friend who tries to convince Richard to go to school. She is one of the freedom fighters in the post-raptors future, and cut her hair short. She is the first killed by the raptors, wounded by an energy ball. She is well behaved, the kind of girl who doesn't like missing school. She also believes whales can breathe air.

Emma: Older sister of Sam. She is the third freedom fighter in the post-raptors future, and goes by the alias of Starlight. She is the second to be killed by the raptors, as she cradles the dying Alana in her arms. She suffers from slight arachnophobia.

Sam: Younger brother of Emma. Generally good with computer stuff. In the post-raptors future he was ripped apart by the raptors, and has a little remembrance shrine in the rebel's hideout in Platt's 247. He is an extremely proficient video-gamer and can beat Richard and Blastosaurus any day. He often refers to himself as "Destroyer of Worlds".

Josca: A creepy mechanic who lives (or probably just works) under Blastosaurus' apartment. Not much is known about him. He smokes heavily, and gives Blastosaurus a car.

The Raptors: a group of mutated velociraptors who work for Factory Corp. They gutted Blastosaurus' mother with a tree trunk in the past, and killed future versions of Alana, Emma, Richard and Sam. There are four of them; a large, heavily-built one named Club, a midget named Max, a normal one named Claw who appears to be their leader, and Spikes - he has significant spikes jutting from his scalp in mohawk fashion. The Raptors got their names from the stitched names on the leather jackets they stole from a gang they beat up upon arriving in the present. They were all thrown off an underground cliff by Blastosaurus and buried under cement. They are currently presumed dead.

Naomi Fenton: Blastosaurus' partner on the Police Force. Naomi brings Blastosaurus on board as a cop in the first story arc and now works alongside him.

Captain Harris: The Police Captain for Freak Out City's Upper West Precinct. A decorated war hero, Harris moved to Freak Out City initially to assist with rebuilding the town after the war but also to get out of some trouble he had gotten into with an organisation called the List Forlorna. In his first encounter with The Raptors, Harris has his left eye gouged out. This, along with various other encounters with mutants over the years, has left Harris with a disdain for dinosaurs in general.

I Fight Crime

I Fight Crime is the daily comic strip that the kids in Blastosaurus read. The strip exists within the Blastosaurus universe (it can be seen in the background at the comic convention in Slugs) and because of this only contains pop-culture from the Blastosaurus universe. The strip itself is about Rob and Ernest, who work in a comic store that seems to be infested with monsters, and documents the various things they do to amuse themselves at work. It is written by Richard Fairgray and Tara Black under the pseudonym of Mary-Ann Cotton (who is a character in the Blastosaurus universe) and drawn by Tara Black. It is posted on the Blastosaurus website on weekdays. Characters are Ernest, the other guy, his girlfriend and the bear that convinced his girlfriend it was him.