Post by geneweigel on May 7, 2013 18:07:20 GMT -5
Remember me and GT were going on about "THE HEAP"?
piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1980/where-did-they-come-from?page=2#.UYklH8qnB8E
Well, as the years have progressed (9 years?) I have since read AIR FIGHTERS COMICS with the relevant issues and its fairly certain that it was the inspiration for the shambling mound in spirit if not exactly.
The Heap was 1942 from 10 years after that a comic came out called THE THING! in 1952. Which featured an alien product from another dimension who also inspired the various "things" of the 1970's. It had fierce eyes although it was not as killer as the Heap making it the seeming blueprint for the "heroic" monsters (Man-Thing, Swamp Thing) but not for the shambling mound.
One noted aspect about "the heap" is, when I read the reprints in B&W, the cover had a green Heap but he is white-furred throughout the first two original stories AIR FIGHTERS volume 1 #3 (DEC 1943) and volume 1 #9 (June 1943) .
The "Heap" is mentioned in story context in the second appearance as being white-furred over and over.
The 3rd appearance in AIR FIGHTERS volume 2 #10 (1945) the "Heap" is colored brown throughout and he has a vague but large proboscis-like piece of hair over its maw that in the first "white" appearances seemed to be just hair.
An anomaly called "The Heap" was printed in 1971 by an independent publisher (Skywald comics) that had zero to do with the original "Heap" it was just a rip off but it was a swamp creature with a face caused by a human falling into chemicals. One was a serial for PSYCHO magazine #2-13 (March 1971 - July 1973) and another version was a 1971 one shot comic. The one shot version destroys his "Heap" form with lightning but he revives almost immediately from ashes.
In the 1980's the Heap was acquired by an independent comics publisher (Eclipse comics) along with other Air Fighter characters and made green and a duplicate of the Man-Thing and/or shambling mound.
Another seeming influence might have been a monster from the Hulk in 1969 called the Glob.
With the exception of the 1952 "Thing" all were conceived from human corpses however the glob made two prior appearances without any human element to the story. The 1974 Giant-Size Man-Thing revived the Glob character and retconned him into being derived from a human corpse. The story by Steve Gerber was sort of psychedelic and surreal where the Glob becomes human again but an ideal human and his brain is being used by a cult of Entropists as the "golden brain". Talk about overbaked! Anyway, this new version is reused with every version ever since. An interesting element about the Glob was that he was destroyed with electricity which is notable.
The Thing (1952) differs because however could shape change into whoever touched it and could become gaseous to travel. So the Thing is out but notable as an influence on the two "THINGS".
So I think the mound as a monster was probably a take on the Heap with a "shambler" Lovecraftian element.
piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1980/where-did-they-come-from?page=2#.UYklH8qnB8E
Well, as the years have progressed (9 years?) I have since read AIR FIGHTERS COMICS with the relevant issues and its fairly certain that it was the inspiration for the shambling mound in spirit if not exactly.
The Heap was 1942 from 10 years after that a comic came out called THE THING! in 1952. Which featured an alien product from another dimension who also inspired the various "things" of the 1970's. It had fierce eyes although it was not as killer as the Heap making it the seeming blueprint for the "heroic" monsters (Man-Thing, Swamp Thing) but not for the shambling mound.
One noted aspect about "the heap" is, when I read the reprints in B&W, the cover had a green Heap but he is white-furred throughout the first two original stories AIR FIGHTERS volume 1 #3 (DEC 1943) and volume 1 #9 (June 1943) .
The "Heap" is mentioned in story context in the second appearance as being white-furred over and over.
The 3rd appearance in AIR FIGHTERS volume 2 #10 (1945) the "Heap" is colored brown throughout and he has a vague but large proboscis-like piece of hair over its maw that in the first "white" appearances seemed to be just hair.
An anomaly called "The Heap" was printed in 1971 by an independent publisher (Skywald comics) that had zero to do with the original "Heap" it was just a rip off but it was a swamp creature with a face caused by a human falling into chemicals. One was a serial for PSYCHO magazine #2-13 (March 1971 - July 1973) and another version was a 1971 one shot comic. The one shot version destroys his "Heap" form with lightning but he revives almost immediately from ashes.
In the 1980's the Heap was acquired by an independent comics publisher (Eclipse comics) along with other Air Fighter characters and made green and a duplicate of the Man-Thing and/or shambling mound.
Another seeming influence might have been a monster from the Hulk in 1969 called the Glob.
With the exception of the 1952 "Thing" all were conceived from human corpses however the glob made two prior appearances without any human element to the story. The 1974 Giant-Size Man-Thing revived the Glob character and retconned him into being derived from a human corpse. The story by Steve Gerber was sort of psychedelic and surreal where the Glob becomes human again but an ideal human and his brain is being used by a cult of Entropists as the "golden brain". Talk about overbaked! Anyway, this new version is reused with every version ever since. An interesting element about the Glob was that he was destroyed with electricity which is notable.
The Thing (1952) differs because however could shape change into whoever touched it and could become gaseous to travel. So the Thing is out but notable as an influence on the two "THINGS".
So I think the mound as a monster was probably a take on the Heap with a "shambler" Lovecraftian element.