I've been wanting the Twomorrows publication Swampmen -Muck Monsters And Their Makers ever since I first caught sight of it in one of their house ads in Alter Ego or Back Issue or one of those. It's been out several years now, but somehow I never got around to actually getting it. Well that's been fixed and my copy rolled in last week and I've been reading it up since. It gives you the lowdown on all of the swamp monsters in comics over the many decades with of course special emphasis on the three most famous - Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, and The Heap.
There are of course many others, some I knew about and some I didn't know much about at all. One was Marvin The Dead Thing, a muck monster from Warren which gave us a muck monsters written by a fledgling Al Milgrom and drawn by a zesty Estaban Maroto. I also didn't know much about the Gold Key version featured by Don Glut and Jesse Santos Dr. Spektor but who had a few appearances beyond that. Aside from the detailed articles and lengthy interviews there is a swamp raft full of beautiful artwork by the likes of Berni Wrightson, Mike Ploog, Jim Mooney, Val Mayerik, and many many more.
The real beautiful heart of this volume though is background on Theodore Sturgeon's "It", the 40's short story from Unknown which was in many ways the genesis of the many muck monsters who shambled forth after. The best thing is that story is included along with the original Ed Cartier artwork. I've never owned a published copy of the story, rather having to rely on online sources. It pleases my somewhat cantankerous 20th century heart no end to have it in my mitts in a good old fashioned paper form.
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