Spanning The Glob!

In a real way the Glob from Incredible Hulk #121 was my first swamp monster. I was a devoted Hulk fan when old Jadejaws first ran up against a weird creature from the depths of a musty swamp. In a story written by Roy Thomas and drawn with gusto by the late great Herb Trimpe, this is a story that stuck in the memory more than most because of the "Glob".

This was not the first "Glob" produced by Marvel, as the name had been used for one of the myriad monsters developed by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for Journey Into Mystery part of the line when it was still dubbed Atlas.

This new Glob was very much in the tradition of his forebears, a shambling concoction of deceased human being brewed up and brought back to some semblance of life by noxious chemicals and the particular glamour of a murky swamp. Before he became the Glob, he was Joe Timms, a small-time criminal who escaped from jail to get to his dying wife. He fails at that mission, instead falling to a radiation-filled mire and emerging as something else entirely. Before you can say "Hulk" he's mixing it up the Jade Giant.

The Glob proved to be a bit popular and returns in less than a year's time, this time to battle the Hulk again but this time at the behest of the Hulk's longtime enemy The Leader. The Glob seems to meet his end once again, but of course that's not the case. It's clear that Herb Trimpe drew a great Glob!

In the pages of the debut issue of the exquisitely titled Giant-Size Man-Thing the Glob emerges yet again. This time his brain somehow falls into the clutches of a desperate cult who end up losing it and it combines with the murk to recreate the Glob, but this time with some refinements. He is more a  being of pure clay as opposed to a shaggy tumble of murk and plants. This was likely done to distinguish him from the Man-Thing who had taken control of the swamp monster motif. As illustrated by Mike Ploog, he looks great, but looks aren't enough and by the story's end he's met his demise yet again.

Three great stories featuring a creature who caught the imagination. The Glob was a forerunner of the Man-Thing and not really needed, but in these stories he fills his role magnificently.

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