Omni-Thing.
“So,” said Pal Cully to me the other day, “did you know that the Man-Thing Omnibus is now available for $40 on Amazon?”
“WHA—!?” sez I. “Why, that’s quite a bit less than the $125 retail price marked upon said book!”
And lo, shortly thereafter, this was in my swampy little hands:
And yes, as discussed previously, Marvel Two-in-One #1 is missing, despite the later issue #43 being included, and Daredevil #114, another very early Man-Thing appearance that would fit right into the chronology of stories here, is also AWOL.
Despite those omissions, which any true Man-Thing fan should have anyway, this is one good-looking volume, and, as hoped, the printing in this book does vastly improve the readability of these stories. I don’t mean the stories are suddenly better, but rather it’s physically easier to read, with the paper nice and bright and the occasional text piece, and the occasional white lettering on a black background text piece, are now far more legible.
There’s the other side of this, where, as I noted in my look at the Don Newton Batman book, actually seeing the artwork on white paper is something I’ll have to get accustomed to after reading them for decades on brown paper that’s getting browner.
Anyway, if I had a choice I’d have preferred the omnibus with the Frank Brunner cover, but at $40, I’m not complaining. And because I always have to know, here’s what’s under the dustjacket:
In addition to the stories, there are reproductions of trade paperback covers and such, as so:
…And there’s at least one table of contents illo from Monsters Unleased that sort of distractingly blacks out said table of contents:
…but, you know, whatever.
In case you’re wondering, the back-ups from the Giant-Size issues, including the Howard the Duck shorts, are not reprinted. Starring Man-Thing Only in this book, friends.
So I’m going to throw one of these things, here..yeah, it says like $100 or so, but if you click on it, you should see other offers in the $40 range. I mean, you know, if you feel like clickin’ an’ all:
Buy enough of these, maybe we’ll get that second volume collecting all the other Man-Thing stories. I mean, I just need one copy for me, Marvel doesn’t really need to print a whole lot of them.
There’s a sucker born every minute. Mine should be here any day now.
That’s a pretty big Man-thing you have there, Mike. Impressive, even.
The Howard the Duck stories from Giant Size Man-Thing 4 & 5 are reprinted in the Howard the Duck omnibus, which is right next to the Man-thing omnibus on my Book shelf.
That may be the BIGGEST Man-Thing I’ve ever seen!
” Marvel Two-in-One #1 is missing, despite the later issue #43 being included, and Daredevil #114,”
That IS odd.
Now that is one Giant Size Man Thing.
I’ve got the Brunner cover (pre-ordered when it came out – and LUCKILY obtained for 50% off cover price), but hated leaving the “variant” cover behind.
NOW I may have to get it.
(And need a Howard Omnibus too. It was allocated way back when and I didn’t get one.)
Thanks for the head’s up Mikester.
Mine just showed up. It’s beautiful.
Not mentioned. Missing also is Iron Man Annual #3, also written by Gerber.
Now your link goes to a $105 Man Thing. That’s more Man Thing than I really want.
Adam – If you click through, it’ll take you to offers from other sellers for the cheaper pricing I was talking about.
I think the entire 12-issue story from the first dozen Marvel Comics Presents is missing as well. Wasn’t that Gerber?
Smichal – that’s not in there, either, but it’s one of the later M-T stories so that wasn’t as obvious an omission as the missing comics that were within the ’70s/early ’80s timeline represented in this volume.
Maybe if that Man-Thing Omnibus Vol. 2 ever comes out…!
I’ve got both the Howard the Duck and Man-Thing omnibuses but at the usual premium price.
I live in hope there’ll be colour Defenders reprints someday…
Not sure about the Omnibus format though.. Really hard to hold etc.
I would certainly enjoy seeing that Man-Thing serial from Marvel Comic Presents by Steve Gerber & Tom Sutton receive the reprint treatment in the near future. It was such a wonderfully bizarre, grotesque story!