As long as we're digging around in the creepy Charlton creature feature back issues, how about another wild one from the December 1975 issue of Monster Hunters #3, with cover and story art by terrifyin' Tom Sutton! The color register goes a little wild in a few places here too, but it's an interesting Swamp Thing / Man-Thing style tale of mad science gone viciously veggie-- not to mention we have a rockin' redhead caught up in the middle of it all too! Also have to admit, as much as I love that eerie Sutton cover painting, I kind of like Gredown's early 80's one-shot re-issue (and uncredited) re-do cover of Monstrosities just a bit better. So let's lead off this post with that one instead... oh hey, your shoe!!
4 comments:
OK I got absolutely lost in this one. I thought for a second I missed a page, went back, and then realized that Martin was the beast all along. I thought the beast put the boyfriend ahead of him to absorb the blast (I didn't even register the gun!).
But then it still feels like it's missing a page! Did Martin just turned back? Who caught him? Who convinced the cops to put him in the chair? What kind of wild trial was that???
I don't know but when they show the monster up close, that's a pretty cool beast! I love the toothy carrot like teeth, the kind of man-thing-y nose, the weird whisker-y things on the arm.
The Man-Thing/Swamp Thing parallel creation is really cool. The two authors were roommates and both had the same idea at the same time, probably because they got in a discussion about the much older character The Heap. Poor Heap! There's been multiple man-thing movies and swamp thing got into the Marvel WWbN show ... and nothing for the Heap!
Martin being the beast was telegraphed when he just materialised out of nowhere next to the girl, but my particular attention was drawn to Page 4 bottom left panel. Now that permanent scowl directed at the reader, that's what I call Resting Superhero Face.
See, when Martin appeared and had all that wild white seventies hair, that's when I said "Aaah! So that's what the blob in the middle of the beast's chest is all about" (see panel one of page two). But now I know that detail was only the inside of that beast's pie hole all along, and I suspect my clue was just a mistake the colorist made. One of plenty--page three is especially boinked. At any rate, it isn't as if the ending would have been in much doubt anyway. Most of these things are written like mysteries, and so you know one of the characters probably dunnit. And it wasn't the ones in the car.
I kind of like Sutton in this mode. Here he's all sketchy and brief instead of the usual formless lava lamp of groovy mood (I kinda like him in that mode too, of course). That page two is a doozy. I like the splash a lot, too, but think maybe the creature is a bit too hidden? I'm chalking that one up to the colorist also.
The issues Brian brings up about the last page are all on point, but I feel like the story dodges all criticism of its preposterous plot holes by dint of turning page seven into a gag straight out of Cracked. I mean, for a horror story it's as daft as can be, but for a humor joint it's pretty darn cogent!
They were aiming for horror but ended up with Plan 9 type horror, a so bad its good horror, much like so many horror films of the sixties and seventies.
I agree with you on this one, Mr. Cavin, had it been drawn with corny puns, jokes and a touch of satire, this could have been featured in Cracked magazine under the title "Swamped Think"
"You mean it has a cabbage for a brain?" So That's how all politicians are made! Mystery solved.
This was an interesting take on the swamp monster sub genre, a fun read and great art.
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