THE LIVING HAYSTACK

Real Name: Hank Muesli 

Identity/Class: Human mutate;
     presumably British citizen 

Occupation: Research doctor 

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Unidentified patron of the Saucy Pig pub 

Known Relatives: None 

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    likely U.K. (see comments)

First Appearance: Unsure (see comments) 

Powers/Abilities: The Living Haystack's touch sets alight anyone who has drunk beer. It's not confirmed if his touch also affects those who have drunk other alcoholic beverages, or just beer.

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed (but presumably light for his height, given that he's made out of hay)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: None
Straw: Presumably yellowish

History:
(Channel 33 1/3 Summer Special 1983) - Trying to find a perfect hayfever cure, Doctor Hank Muesli was accidentally transformed into the Living Haystack. All those who drank beer burned at his touch, as at least one unfortunate patron of the Saucy Pig pub found out. Unfortunately for the Living Haystack, he too was highly inflammable, and also ignited.

Comments: Created by Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett.

    The Living Haystack appeared as part of a half page humor strip allegedly showing part of how Marvel Comics were produced, in this instance covering the editorial phase. The strip depicted a writer proposing a new character, the Living Haystack, "the hero of the eighties," only for the editor to reject the idea by setting light to the story proposal in the writer's hand. The strip in question was a total of six panels, four of which featured the Living Haystack, and three of which are reproduced here.

    The strip in question probably featured as part of Bullpen Bulletins, a regular half page strip produced by the partnership of Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett, who created half a dozen different humor strips for Marvel U.K. titles in the early 1980s; I believe it originally saw print in Spider-Man and Hulk Weekly (a.k.a. Spider-Man and Hulk Weekly, incorporating Marvel Team-Up, a.k.a. Spider-Man and Hulk Team-Up - Britain's longest running Spider-Man title changed its exact name a ridiculous number of times during its 666 issue run, thanks to regularly absorbing other Marvel U.K. comics as they were cancelled). However, I can't pinpoint the definite issue at this moment, as I have the tale from when it was reprinted in the Channel 33 1/3 Summer Special; it gives you an idea of how popular and prolific the pairing of Quinn and Howett were that they warranted a special issue collecting a mere fraction of their Marvel U.K. humor output.

    Given he saw publication in a British comic, and attacked someone outside what appears to be a British pub, I'm assuming Hank Muesli was British.  

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Living Haystack has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Channel 33 1/3 Summer Special 1983, p37, pan3 (main image)
Channel 33 1/3 Summer Special 1983, p37, pan2 ("head"shot)
Channel 33 1/3 Summer Special 1983, p37, pan5 (burning)

Appearances:
Channel 33 1/3 Summer Special 1983 (Summer 1983) - Tim Quinn (writer), Dicky Howett (art), editor uncredited

First Posted: 03/09/2019
Last updated: 03/09/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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