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Roy Thomas Presents
The Heap: Volume 1: Roy Thomas Presents
Comics' original muck monster, The Heap, returns in this, the first of a three volume set collecting his original adventures! Featuring art by Infantino, Starr, Bolle, Peddy, Leav, Barry, and more, Roy Thomas Presents The Heap Volume 1 boasts a new cover by Michael Ploog and a 5,000 word introduction by Roy Thomas. Thanks from Capt Chuck!
240 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2012
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19 people want to read
About the author
Roy Thomas
4,448 books270 followersRoy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.
Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.
Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 12, 2022
Roy Thomas Presents The Heap Volume 1 collects all of The Heap's appearances from August 1941 to December 1947.
Untold aeons ago, I learned about The Heap in a monster book, possibly Science Fiction's Greatest Monsters. Yadda yadda yadda, thirty something years later I finally read some Heap comics.
This is good shit, especially for the time period. The Heap, progenitor of all muck monsters who came later, is a walking pile of rotten vegetation, barely sentient, his mind that of a downed German fighter pilot named Ulrich von Emmelman, lost during World War I.
The stories are an interesting mix. The first are war stories featuring Sky Wolf that the Heap wanders into. The second wave take place in America and feature Rickie Woods, a teenage boy The Heap has latched on to. These are crime stories with some horror elements. The third wave are crime stories with adventure elements that see the Heap in South America.
It's interesting seeing the genres shift. Since The Heap is almost a piece of furniture at times, he doesn't seem to mind much. The stories are formulaic as hell but also entertaining. Most feature the bad guy running into the Heap and dying at his shaggy hands.
So far, the Rickie Woods ones are my favorite. Picture the Rick Jones Hulk stories if Rick perpetually wanted the Hulk dead. The war stories were my least favorite until the Roman gods Ceres and Mars were shoe horned into things. I did not appreciate the tonal shift, although I did appreciate the resulting octopus fight in one of the stories, one of two in this volume.
I was not in love with this volume but I did LIKE-like it so I'm in for the duration. Luckily, I have the next two volumes on hand. Four out of five shambling plant creatures.
Untold aeons ago, I learned about The Heap in a monster book, possibly Science Fiction's Greatest Monsters. Yadda yadda yadda, thirty something years later I finally read some Heap comics.
This is good shit, especially for the time period. The Heap, progenitor of all muck monsters who came later, is a walking pile of rotten vegetation, barely sentient, his mind that of a downed German fighter pilot named Ulrich von Emmelman, lost during World War I.
The stories are an interesting mix. The first are war stories featuring Sky Wolf that the Heap wanders into. The second wave take place in America and feature Rickie Woods, a teenage boy The Heap has latched on to. These are crime stories with some horror elements. The third wave are crime stories with adventure elements that see the Heap in South America.
It's interesting seeing the genres shift. Since The Heap is almost a piece of furniture at times, he doesn't seem to mind much. The stories are formulaic as hell but also entertaining. Most feature the bad guy running into the Heap and dying at his shaggy hands.
So far, the Rickie Woods ones are my favorite. Picture the Rick Jones Hulk stories if Rick perpetually wanted the Hulk dead. The war stories were my least favorite until the Roman gods Ceres and Mars were shoe horned into things. I did not appreciate the tonal shift, although I did appreciate the resulting octopus fight in one of the stories, one of two in this volume.
I was not in love with this volume but I did LIKE-like it so I'm in for the duration. Luckily, I have the next two volumes on hand. Four out of five shambling plant creatures.
November 19, 2017
I love the Airboy heroes, but stuff reprinting their GA stories are scarce, so finding all three Heap volumes for cheap was thrilling for me.
As a piece of comics history it is great, as entertainment it is wildly uneven.
After his appearances in the WW2 Aizrfighters comics, the writers didn't seem to know what to do with the Heap, so they just tried a little bit of every genre they could think of in the hopes of striking pay dirt.
Some of the attempts are interesting and fun, but you never know how long they will give an idea so the stories change tone and setting almost on a whim.
Also makes it tricky that they can't decide if the title character is a good guy or a bad guy.
One story he saves an orphan, the next he'll randomly kill half the guest cast.
Add in a lead that never talks or even uses thought balloons and no real supporting cast and the writers had a constant uphill battle to make this title work.
When a story works it's a lot of fun, when it doesn't there's a constant stream of 'what the %^&*! am I reading...?" distracting you.
As a piece of comics history it is great, as entertainment it is wildly uneven.
After his appearances in the WW2 Aizrfighters comics, the writers didn't seem to know what to do with the Heap, so they just tried a little bit of every genre they could think of in the hopes of striking pay dirt.
Some of the attempts are interesting and fun, but you never know how long they will give an idea so the stories change tone and setting almost on a whim.
Also makes it tricky that they can't decide if the title character is a good guy or a bad guy.
One story he saves an orphan, the next he'll randomly kill half the guest cast.
Add in a lead that never talks or even uses thought balloons and no real supporting cast and the writers had a constant uphill battle to make this title work.
When a story works it's a lot of fun, when it doesn't there's a constant stream of 'what the %^&*! am I reading...?" distracting you.
September 29, 2023
Decades before Swamp Thing and Man-Thing came the original comic book swamp monster, The Heap. As Roy Thomas explains in one of his famous encyclopedic Archive introductions, The Heap itself was possibly influenced by Theodore Sturgeon's 1940 short story from the pulps called It. Golden Age comic books liberally borrowed ideas from pulps and literature, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that the concept was lifted, either intentionally or subconsciously.
The origin of the character come from the Sky Wolf strip in Air Fighters Comics, where a World War I German fighter ace, Baron Emmelmann is shot down over a Polish swamp. Due to the Baron's immense will to live, he somehow merges with the vegetation, drawing nourishment from the oxygen as a plant would. As the decades pass this shambling mockery of life begins feeding on sheep and cows. He/it ambles into the middle of a storyline where Sky Wolf, the World War II fighter pilot, shoots down Nazi pilot Von Tundra. In a bizarre twist, The Heap recognizes the Germans and becomes fond of anything with German markings.
The character goes through a few incarnations before settling on his plant-like appearance, which was completely ripped off for Marvel's Man-Thing character. It is his fifth appearance where he gets spun off into his own strip. Here he meets a boy named Rickie Wood who makes a model plane of a German fighter. The Heap sees the markings and befriends the boy because of this. Like Swamp Thing and Man-Thing after him, The Heap is a semi-mindless creature. I found the character's fascination with German things to be curious, seeing as how it was being published during World War II.
The Heap follows Rickie on a series of misadventures, often saving the day in spite of himself due to his fascination with Rickie's remote controlled model German airplane. The scenarios get more ridiculous and less plausible with each passing issue. They remain a fun read but it gets to be groan inducing at times. This is easy for me to say here 70 years later. Audiences are more sophisticated today, and this comic easily stands up to anything published at the time. Indeed, this is a rather bizarre character for the era, predating Horror comics by a fair clip.
The strip then banks left, where we see Ceres and Mars have a wager whether or not The Heap is a creature of peace or of war. I sat there scratching my head wondering why they went this route, but to be honest with you this is when the series started getting even more interesting. The artwork also became more sophisticated, with the team of Frank Bolle and Leonard Starr turning in beautiful work.
The first four stories were a tough read. When The Heap became fascinated with Rickie Wood the tone changed and The Heap went on different kinds of adventures. The third shift is when things really kicked into high gear. The Heap is a great read, and the entire series has been collected across three volumes. I am looking forward to reading them.
The origin of the character come from the Sky Wolf strip in Air Fighters Comics, where a World War I German fighter ace, Baron Emmelmann is shot down over a Polish swamp. Due to the Baron's immense will to live, he somehow merges with the vegetation, drawing nourishment from the oxygen as a plant would. As the decades pass this shambling mockery of life begins feeding on sheep and cows. He/it ambles into the middle of a storyline where Sky Wolf, the World War II fighter pilot, shoots down Nazi pilot Von Tundra. In a bizarre twist, The Heap recognizes the Germans and becomes fond of anything with German markings.
The character goes through a few incarnations before settling on his plant-like appearance, which was completely ripped off for Marvel's Man-Thing character. It is his fifth appearance where he gets spun off into his own strip. Here he meets a boy named Rickie Wood who makes a model plane of a German fighter. The Heap sees the markings and befriends the boy because of this. Like Swamp Thing and Man-Thing after him, The Heap is a semi-mindless creature. I found the character's fascination with German things to be curious, seeing as how it was being published during World War II.
The Heap follows Rickie on a series of misadventures, often saving the day in spite of himself due to his fascination with Rickie's remote controlled model German airplane. The scenarios get more ridiculous and less plausible with each passing issue. They remain a fun read but it gets to be groan inducing at times. This is easy for me to say here 70 years later. Audiences are more sophisticated today, and this comic easily stands up to anything published at the time. Indeed, this is a rather bizarre character for the era, predating Horror comics by a fair clip.
The strip then banks left, where we see Ceres and Mars have a wager whether or not The Heap is a creature of peace or of war. I sat there scratching my head wondering why they went this route, but to be honest with you this is when the series started getting even more interesting. The artwork also became more sophisticated, with the team of Frank Bolle and Leonard Starr turning in beautiful work.
The first four stories were a tough read. When The Heap became fascinated with Rickie Wood the tone changed and The Heap went on different kinds of adventures. The third shift is when things really kicked into high gear. The Heap is a great read, and the entire series has been collected across three volumes. I am looking forward to reading them.
February 18, 2015
Fantastic introduction, but the stories are 50's vintage. There's a lot of coincidence, the link between the stories is tenuous. And the stories themselves are not stunningly brilliant. And yet, this is a fascinating historical document for a strange corner of comics history, the very first swamp monster from which so many others have grown.
I have already ordered the second volume.
I have already ordered the second volume.
April 4, 2016
Finally got to read about the grand daddy of the Swamp and Man-Thing .
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews