Halloween countdown - Classic Comic Book Pages - Adams and Morrow Man-Thing

The story of how Savage Tales #1 (1971) and Astonishing Tales #12 (June 1972) are linked together is a strange one. Savage Tales #1 was Marvels second attempt at entering the black and white magazine market and would star Conan, Ka-zar, and feature other then new concepts including Man-Thing who would appear in an 11 page tale written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Gray Morrow. However, Martin Goodman Marvels publisher , was not keen on entering the non-code comic magazine market and cancelled the second issue but not before a second Man-Thing tale had been prepared by Len Wein and Neal Adams a tale that would eventually be prised into the pages of a Ka-Zar story over one year later. Regardless of the eventual reasons both tales were stunningly illustrated by two of the genres artistic giants .

The above strip was republished in Monsters Unleashed #3 ( illo at header and below) and in the first issue of The Book of the Dead in 1994.

As noted above Wein and Adams had produced a second 7 page Man-Thing tale for the aborted second issue of Savage Tales. Not wishing to waste work produced by arguably two of comics tops creators the strip was passed to John Romita to tidy up and add yellow tones, before adding it into a Ka-Zar tale.

Below the cover to Astonishing Tales issue 12.

Below the magazine where it all started the excellent Savage Tales issue 1 ( as you can see my copy is badly marked)