Essential Man-Thing, Vol. 1

Essential Man-Thing #1

by Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway

Whosoever knows fear will see just how much there is to know in this compilation of staggering swamp sagas! Explore the heights of the cosmos and the depths of the soul with the mindless Man-Thing! Guest-starring the Fantastic Four! Ka-Zar! Daredevil! Korrek the Peanut Butter Barbarian! And featuring the first web-footed steps into adventure of Howard the Duck!

Collecting: SAVAGE TALES #1, ASTONISHING TALES #12-13, ADVENTURE INTO FEAR #10-19, MAN-THING #1-14, GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING #1-2, and MONSTERS UNLEASHED #5 and #8-9.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comix, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

544 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1975

About the author

Steve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men, The Phantom Zone , and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.

He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.

In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.

In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of Marvel’s ‘70s horror titles, this time featuring the original comicbook swamp monster (sorry, Swamp Thing fans; Man-Thing came first).

I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s pure horror B-movie stuff, with some really great artwork, all in the old EC horror comic style.

Actually, I’m not giving it enough credit with that description. Steve Gerber did some very nice character studies in this book, that reminded me of some of Neil Gaiman’s early work on Sandman. It gets pretty political in places, too.

Let’s not forget the most momentous debut included in this book: the first appearance of Howard the bloody Duck! Lo, there shall come a weirdo! :-D

My next book: Aero vol. 2

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, the title does lend itself to gutter-minded jokes. In an attempt to keep this review family-friendly, I shall do my best to ignore them (“Yeah, but you should see my …” No. Stop.)

Comics fans have long debated which idea came first: Man-Thing, or DC’s Swamp Thing? (Answer: Heap, though Theodore Sturgeon’s classic story, “It” predates even that …) Okay, actually there's not much to debate. Swampy was the first of the two to be published. I always thought Man-Thing was the cooler looking of the two. And, although Swamp Thing had the legendary team of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson going for him, Man-Thing had Steve Gerber.

Reading these early stories, there's a sense of wild imagination that resists pigeonholing. Suffice to say that there is seemingly nowhere that Gerber wouldn't go in the quest of a story. His tales shift from Southern gothic to SF to horror to comedy to fantasy at the drop of a hat. They're very much a product of their times--the Nixon years--but they've aged pretty well. And the artwork, particularly from Mike Ploog, is gorgeous.

Man-Thing is one of the many delights that 70's Marvel had to offer. Recommended!

[Alex Sarll]

And if that title isn't suggestive enough, this also contains the first two issues of Giant-Size Man-Thing. Even compared to his DC peer Swamp Thing, poor Ted Sallis is fairly limited as a character; not just his body but his mind were lost to the classic experiment-gone-wrong/swamp combo, leaving him only with empathy and a few muddled flashes of recognition. As such, he's basically obliged to play the supporting character (or maybe not even that so much as plot function) in his own series, which soon takes on the lineaments of an episodic seventies TV show. Each issue, some new characters will wander/flee/get lost into the swamp, interact in heavy-handed fashion (often throwing light on Issues of the Day), and probably get threatened by an alligator. At which point the Man-Thing will shamble in, twat the alligator, and zap anyone who (not unreasonably) is terrified by the appearance of an enormous shambling muck-monster because of course "Whatever knows fear...burns at the Man-Thing's touch!". Fortunately if implausibly, that tends to mean poetic justice more often than innocent but legitimately afraid nice people with acid burns. But needless to say, after the first few drunk drivers, bikers, backwoods isolationists &c, it does get a bit tired, and it doesn't help when The Man! starts planning to drain the swamp and build a new airport (though it took me a shamefully long time to twig the significance of the construction magnate's name - F.A.Schist. DO YOU SEE?).

So why did I persevere? Because the budget is higher in comics than on the networks. Which means the swamp can also be a Nexus of Realities, and draw in stranger things than hippies. Atlantean wizards, demons, entropy cultists, the first appearance of Howard the Duck (who promptly gets killed off), a barbarian made of peanut butter...when Gerber lets his freak flag fly, it lifts the comic to another level and suddenly the book's rep starts to make sense. There's a two-issue story tying the swamp to Ponce de Leon's search of the region for the Fountain of Youth, which reads like someone tried to make a low-budget monster movie from Herbert Read's quietist minor classic The Green Child, and very nearly succeeded (though it also has immortal conquistadors prone to exclaiming 'Bueno!', which for the modern comics reader can only have unfortunate associations). Another two-parter sees the Man-Thing and supporting cast forced to act out a suicidal clown's life story for three otherworldly judges, as if Scaramouche Jones were hybridised with The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Artists including Val Mayerik (who for me does it better, at least in the black-and-white reproductions here) and Mike Ploog (whose name at least has a suitable swampy onomatopoeia) are called upon to deplot malign alarm clocks, and Disney-style living landscapes gone bad in a horror book - and mostly they manage it. There's even one story with a flying pirate ship, because who doesn't like a flying pirate ship? And it's still a bit portentous in places, a bit prone to heavy-handedness, but all so fabulously bizarre that it's quite forgiven.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential Man-Thing: Vol. 1 collects the first appearances of the lesser known of the 1970s "muck monsters." Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, the Man-Thing first appeared in Savage Tales No. 1 (May 1971). The better-known Swamp Thing, created by Conway's roommate Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, premiered one month later in DC's House of Secrets No. 92. While the friends claimed synchronicity, they were most likely influenced by their memories of earlier comic-book marsh monster the Heap, who first appeared in Air Fighters No. 3 (December 1942). The oft-reprinted Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing tales attracted acclaim and served as the source materials, along with a popular revamp from Alan Moore, for two movies and a TV series. A dreadful 2005 Man-Thing movie went direct-to-video. Ironically, Wein scripted the second Man-Thing adventure (Astonishing Tales No. 12), which introduced the monster's most unique characteristic: Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch. Soon after the initial appearance, writer Steve Gerber took over Man-Thing, producing a spate of often goofy yet engaging stories centered around the empathic swamp creature with no personality of its own, who guards the Nexus of All Realities. Within this framework, Gerber littered these far-out adventures with an intriguing supporting cast – including the first appearance of Howard the Duck – exploring Seventies politics and alternative culture with humor and particular insight. In Man-Thing No. 1 – the previous tales appeared in other Marvel comics, primarily Fear – Gerber and artist Val Mayerik took us through several layers of reality on a quest for the mysterious Overmaster, who turned out to be a man in a suit toting a briefcase. This collection also contains the two issues of the most misleading comic title of all time: the distinctly unpornographic Giant-Size Man-Thing. Throw in art by cult favorite Mike Ploog and eerie covers by Frank Brunner, and Essential Man-Thing: Vol. 1 offers a wild ride through a forgotten piece of weirdness.

(Originally appeared in The Austin Chronicle, January 19, 2007.)
Link: [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyroba...]

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice collection of this horror/supernatural 1970s comic. Recommended

[Printable Tire · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original Florida Man!

In fact, I started reading this collection when I moved down to Florida to feel more comfortable down here: now I can imagine the Man-Thing sloshing through the swamps, a familiar face in a place that has been otherwise so lonely and alienating.

I noticed Man-Thing is a bit like Conan the Barbarian, in that he is presented as amoral but seems to "accidentally" always do the right thing. I also noticed some of the early plots seemed to be lifted
by Alan Moore years later when he did his greatest work (in my mind) on Swamp Thing.

I started this collection two years ago but I stalled out in the middle of the epic saga concerning Howard the Duck and the end of the world and the blah blah blah. This time around, however, I had more reason to read than ever, as I was avoiding working on my thesis and plan to (hopefully) leave Florida come May.

I don't know if it was for these two reasons, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed the rest of the stories. I think Steve Gerber is a little overrated but he's still at his best when he's indulging some political or philosophical rant in a satirical way. Most of the time the plots seemed rushed and the pacing is poor, and characters are abandoned in lieu of ones who might "stick" with the Man-Thing this time around (none ever do) but I sympathize with Gerber probably being forced by editors to condense elaborate story lines into a single issue or two at the most. I did tear up during a certain compulsory tear-jerking issue.

It's an interesting collection because you can read all the "apocrypha" and stumbling blocks of Marvel's process in figuring out what the hell to do with Man-Thing. It's a great hodgepodge of artistic styles, too, and there's even a text story ("Several Meaningless Deaths" and that's exactly what it is, and a real damper to end the collection on).

I think there's enough variety in here (horror, humor, superheroes, post-hippie 70's liberal polemics, straight-up weirdness like "Song Cry of the Living Dead Man") to satisfy anyone into the offbeat like myself. It's a pity I left volume 2 in Rhode Island and won't get a chance to read it until after I leave Florida for good.

Finally, "Giant Sized Man-Thing" must make one chuckle.

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Negli anni '70 la Marvel non si limitava ai super eroi e consimili. Man-Thing, pur nascendo in quel contesto, si sviluppa come un personaggio dalle forti tematiche horror e filosofiche. Non manca l'avventura, ma ciò che Gerber e soci cercavano erano nuove strade narrative per una nuova epoca.
A livello di testi queste avventure appaiono parecchio verbose oggi, e non tutte sono invecchiate bene. Le didascalie sono effettivamente sovrabbondanti, ma bisogna ricordare che all'epoca il fumetto era visto come una lettura che doveva impegnare per circa 40 minuti il ragazzo, e non qualcosa da sfogliare in fretta come oggi. Le storie erano dense di avvenimenti ed idee, non diluite come oggi. I temi caratteristici del periodo sono tutti presenti: speculazioni edilizie, sfruttamento indiscriminato, le rivolte indiane, la sottocultura dei figli dei fiori e della new age, lo spiritismo e la delinquenza giovanile.
I disegni, invece, sono per lo più di ottima fattura, in genere valorizzati dal bianco e nero della ristampa: maestri come John Buscema, Alcala, Mayerik e Mike Ploog la fanno da padrone in queste 600 pagine. Alcune tavole sono esemplari di come un fumetto dovrebbe essere, e dovrebbero essere prese a modello anche oggi.

[Professor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd heard older comics fans praise the initial run of Man-Thing for it's creativity, influence on later comics, and it's morality play nature, but I somehow still expected the comic to basically be: shambling monster in a swamp. Instead, reading this volume I was pleasantly surprised. The character did start off, to an extent, just being a shambling swamp-monster, but eventually sets into a strange combination of Pogo (the populist fable set in a swamp with outlandish characters like industrialist F.A. Schist), horror comics tropes, and other Marvel mystic titles like Doctor Strange. It's a very interesting mix of elements and the comic really has a unique feel, although the occasional interlopers from the rest of Marvel continuity sometimes feel out of place and some of the sermonizing and parallels seem dated and a bit pat now. Still, Man-Thing is better than, well, any comic with that title has any right to be.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too few people read the classics. True, it's a Quixotic venture but travel this Florida swamp with these companions and you will be well rewarded. Learn that god is two cute dogs. Meet Howard the Duck for the first time, a barbarian made of peanut butter and a DJ that dedicates George Harrison's "Art of Dying" to a homicidal bad guy with a self righteous ray gun. I reserve the right to add more drunken comments later since I am still reading this.

[Apothekari Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very underrated horror fantasy from Marvel's smokie acid days in the early 70's.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second greatest series about a scientist transformed into a swamp monster via a chemical compound he was experimenting with in comic book history!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

only in Florida

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

The 70s just had some really far out comic stories. This volume is no exception. The basic origin of the Man Thing is much like the Swamp Thing. Scientist plus chemicals plus swamp equals swamp monster. Man Thing is a little different as he's an empath and can feel peoples emotion. Fear effects him the most, and whatever knows fear burns at his touch. And he's a giant monster, so yeah, most people fear him. But he also is very human despite his appearance, and most "good" people can sense it and get over their fear quickly. Not so for the bad guys.

Some of the stories are straight forward horror, but there's a lot of existential psycho drama going on, as well as the whole "nexus of all realities" sci-fi story. It's really a very eclectic collection as the stories are all over the place as far as content. The art is top notch as we have, among others, Val Mayerik, John Buscema, and the great and underrated Mike Ploog.

Overall this is a good collection of comics, although you have to keep in mind the experimental nature of 70s comics as some of the material here is just plain weird.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will you be afraid? Will you burn?

Essential Man-Thing collects the earliest appearances of the guardian of the nexus of all realities. The good news not be afraid, though all those who know fear burn at the touch of the Man-Thing.

Ted Salis should have left well enough alone…but he was just one of many to try and duplicate the super soldier serum. He also suffered the most for it…being transformed in the Florida swamps after being betrayed by his girlfriend.

Afterwards, he prowls the swamps with an almost animal intelligence, encountering Florida’s fiends and the unusual entities that find themselves drawn to the nexus at the center of it all.

From Ka-Zar, Jennifer Kale, the original Foolkiller, and myriad transplants from space or other dimensions (including a talking duck of some reknown), the Man-Thing walks alone while serving its own kind of justice for this who die in the swamps.

You wouldn’t think that a silent protagonist that barely shares its thoughts would be so intriguing from a fiction perspective, but somehow the mix of science, horror, human travails, and the Florida setting make it work…

[Woody Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a kid, we eschewed Marvel Horror in favor of "real" superheroes, only occasionally delving into such characters when they made guest appearances. We NEVER laid out the $ for the B&W magazines with a more (ahem!) adult content. Not that we were forbidden from doing so, but the outlay was the equivalent of three or four 4-color comics. Now? No regrets as I probably would not have appreciated many of these stories like I did these last couple/few days. Reading them in an ordered/orderly progression gives them a cohesiveness that would have been lost on me as an adolescent. Now, on to Vol. 2!

[Dan McCollum · Rating 5 out of 5]

After discovering Gerber's work with Howard the Duck, I was drawn naturally to his legendary run on Man-Thing. I first read about his run back in the 90s when I was in Middle School, especially the episode about the young man who dies due to the negligence of his gym teacher. In any case, this book was a revelation - Gerber, a writer who I was only minimally familair with a few months ago, is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic writers. Gerber continues to be my doorway into Marvel during the 70s. I love this book so much!

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man-Thing is an interesting character by not being interesting. In most of these stories he is little more than a presence with little to no agency. Yet, his tragic existence gains my sympathy.

The stories involve him in imaginative ways. His swampy setting is The Nexus Of All Realities and that tends to generate countless fun characters (Howard The Duck, Wundarr the child like Superman pastiche who thinks Man-Thing is his mother, Korrek the Barbarian who arrived on Earth through a jar of peanut butter, etc.) and situations.

The art is quite good as well.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stellar collection of 70s Marvel horror. Gerber's writing as top-notch as stories veer from a spooky strangeness into a more surreal strangeness as you get Howard the Duck or one of the more shameless Superman parodies out there. And the pencils! I find the Essential format ideal for these books as the impeccable art just shines all the more in the black and white format. Now to see if I can track down an affordable copy of Vol. 2

[Markel Tumlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic bronze age comics. I read Man-Thing when it was originally published in the early 70s. One of the first comics I read that had a lead character who wasn’t a superhero. The Steve Gerber stories are consistently well-written. The series features a lot of different artists, but all were at least competent. Enjoyed this a lot.

[Kyle Pennekamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 words:

Mike. Motherfuckin'. Ploog.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of Swamp Thing, but never really knew much about his counterpart in Marvel Comics, the Man-Thing. Both feature similar origins with a scientist, a secret formula and an accident that lead each of them to become monsters. However, while Swamp Thing is a little more man-like, Man-Thing is a little more monstrous. Indeed, he lacks any real higher brain functions and reacts to emotions, burning that with knows fear with his very touch.

I really enjoyed this first volume of Essential Man-Thing, that collects his early appearances and series. He's a very sad character, brought down by love and forced to live a lonely existence in the swamp, interacting very little with people. Unwittingly, he's often their savior, wandering into drama because of detecting emotions running wild and laying smack down on the bad guys who fear him because he looks so horrific. He fights gators, construction workers, devils, demons and more as he lumbers along through the muck. The stories and art are top-notch, and I often found myself wanting to read just one more story, especially the ones with Jennifer Kale, who I was aware of but not really familiar with her origins. It's some great stuff. Check it out.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Gerber did not always have a very optimistic viewpoint on humanity, but he wrote honestly
and believed in our best values. If you want to read a thoughtful- not to mention occasionally horrific- graphic novel, this collection of serialized stories does the job.
IF there's one glaring weakness, it is the strength that makes the stories unique: the protagonist is essentially mindless. This means the other random characters are necessary to give dimension to the conflicts, and they change over time. Richard Rory, hippie Everyman, is as close to a constant as the title has, and he's an interesting ordinary guy, never transformed by the usual power fantasy plot twists, but often swept up by them.
I enjoyed this volume, but Gerber really turns up the heat in the remainder of the series.
How dare I forget Val Mayerick and Mike Ploog? They turn in some terrific art. Ploog in particular has become an in-demand fantasy artist with a cartoony style here that was not simply a Kirby/Romita Marvel House Style.

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jsem v půlce Man-Thing omnibusu a musím si dát pauzu. Hororovou postavu primitivní potvory z bažin, která reaguje na emoce, vytvořil v sedmdesátkách Gerry Conway, vydržel u ní však jen dvě čísla. Na post scénáristy přišel Steve Gerber a po dvou sešitech jsem se těšil, až zase odejde. Bohužel se tak nestalo a Gerber jich napsal snad 30. Ale postupem času se zlepšil, takže už mě to i baví.

Komiks trpí nadužíváním rámečků vypravěče (Man-Thing neumí mluvit). Gerber má občas výborné nápady, ale nedokáže z nich už udělat výborný scénář (a občas tu jsou úplné WTF momenty) a vedlejší postavy jsou dost nesympatické. Na skvělej hororovej příběh tak zatím furt čekám. Až to dočtu, možná udělám video.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Argh... it seems I have once again lost the ability to rate my books. I would give this 4 stars. Man-Thing is a really unusual character, the world's most passive superhero! And unlike Harry Potter, he's actually intended to be passive, with his mindless, empathic nature serving as an emotional mirror to those around him. And of course, credit must be given to writer Steve Gerber and his offbeat, satirical eye. And one last thing... remember that WHATEVER KNOWS FEAR BURNS AT THE MAN-THING'S TOUCH!

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit choppy as it features a bunch of stories from before Man-Thing got his own series, but it's still a fun monster comic, with some hints of the serious weirdness to come.

Man-Thing was always the best of marvel's monsters and he has such a great visual design that even the weak stories are still fun to look at. Really liked the art in the Ka-zar story.

[Karl Kindt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch! When Mike Ploog starts illustrating this, it really picks up; unfortunately, the Steve Gerber writing drags it back down again.