Friday, October 21, 2016
Making a Splash: Fear the Man-Thing!
What it is, Groove-ophiles! We can't let another October slip by without a loving look back at the macabre Man-Thing! After a thimble-full of nigh-legendary appearances (Savage Tales #1 and Astonishing Tales #'s 12-13), Manny finally got a regular swamp to haunt in Adventures Into Fear. He Burned Anyone Who Knew Fear for issues 10-19 (July 1972-September 1973) before graduating to his own mag (which ran for 22 issues, plus five unfortunately named Giant-Size issues). Check out the spooky/sludgy splashes with art by Gray Morrow, Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin, Rich Buckler, and Val Mayerik (usually inked by Sal Trapini)...but whatever you do--don't let Man-Thing know you're afraid!
The early issues of Fear featuring the Man-Thing were a round-robin of artists until they settled on Val Mayerik as the regular penciller. Unfortunately his pencils were mangled by the awful inks of Sal Trapani. I especially liked the early Jim Starlin effort, surprisingly inked by Rich Bucker, who had pencilled the previous issue.
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