Don’t worry, I’m reasonably certain this isn’t leading into another two weeks’ worth of Man-Thing posts.

§ May 2nd, 2012 § Filed under collecting, giant-size man-thing § 13 Comments

Some follow-ups to Monday’s Man-Thing post, because why not?

Chad asks:

“Out of curiosity, is there enough Man-Thing material to generate a second omnibus?”

There’s more Man-Thing out there…there was this short-lived ongoing, the serial from Marvel Comics Presents, assorted cameos, that one Giant-Size Spider-Man issue, I think an Iron Man annual, this thing, and so on. I don’t know if it’s another 1,200 pages, or anywhere close to justifying another omnibus, but it’s a not-insignificant amount of Man-Thing.

Also, the more I think about it, the more I am coming to believe that the omission of Marvel Two-in-One #1 from the contents listing I reprinted in my last post was simply an accident. It’s not impossible that they left that issue out for whatever reason, but it seems very unlikely. I’m betting it’s in there. …Well, not enough to bet $125 on it, but I’ll let one of you buy it and tell me for certain.

Richard adds

“And of course we may never see the reprint of the Man-Thing appearance in ‘Micronauts’ because of all the legal rights involved.”

And that’s a shame. I feel pretty safe in suspecting the solution is “money, and lots of it” but I doubt the financial return in obtaining usage rights to reprint one story would be worthwhile. But, heck, it’s not like that particular issue is too hard to find. Ask a comic book guy near you! Or even ask me…I’ve probably got one or three in our back issue assortment, somewhere.

Someone remind me to poke through my Overstreet when next I have an opportunity to see if these reprint-verboten issues are suddenly commanding slightly higher prices than their freely-reprintable comrades surrounding them in those particular runs. I think there’s a Hulk trade paperback just recently solicited that skips over this issue, and of course there’s that one issue of Power Man and Iron Fist that’s forgotten by God and man and Marvel’s reprint department. I’ll have to see if the stockpiles of those issues I’ve been investing in are sellable now…wait, what? No, I didn’t say that. Must’ve been someone else.

And speaking of Man-Thing…I don’t think I’ve noted anywhere on the site yet that Steve Gerber’s final Man-Thing script is seeing print in the forthcoming three-issue mini Infernal Man-Thing (starting in June), illustrated by Kevin Nowlan. Here is Nowlan’s cover for #1:


…which is one of three covers for that first issue, and you can see the other two in this Marvel.com article about the series. …No, I’m not getting every variant cover for this series. Why, that would be crazy.

13 Responses to “Don’t worry, I’m reasonably certain this isn’t leading into another two weeks’ worth of Man-Thing posts.”

  • Nik says:

    I actually just picked up the Hulk/Rom issue (296 I think) as I definitely wanted those upcoming paperbacks collecting that great Mantlo era, and was highly annoyed to see it wasn’t in there. Set me back a whopping $4 so on my purely anecdotal evidence no boom yet.

    As an aside, does ANYONE know if they’ll ever sort out the ROM licensing rights to allow the reprints? I thought I’d seen somewhere that Parker Bros actually is somehow part of the Marvel/Disney empire now. Can’t imagine the rights for a failed toy from 35 years ago would be that dear, and I would very much love an ESSENTIAL ROM type book to have and hold and cuddle for my very own someday…

  • Snark Shark says:

    “that one issue of Power Man and Iron Fist ”

    LOVE that issue!

    “Infernal Man-Thing #1 variant cover by Gil Kane”

    written by a dead guy AND with a variant cover by a dead guy. HMMM…

    “Marvel Comics: Now from Beyond the Grave!”

  • Donald G says:

    The latest word on that INCREDIBLE HULK trade is that Marvel will include the Rom-less pages 4-13 on INCREDIBLE HULK #296 with little before and after text recap pages covering the Rom segments.

  • CW says:

    You can never have enough Man-Thing.

  • Rob says:

    I always wondered why Marvel couldn’t just whip up an expy for ROM or the Micronauts when it came time to reprint stories in which they appear. Have someone redraw the pages they appear on, and rewrite it so they’re “SHWOM” or “the Tinynauts” or something.

    Course, with our luck SHWOM would become insanely popular and we’d get “X-Men Vs. SHWOM.”

  • Chris K says:

    That’s really disappointing about the ROM omission from the Hulk book. I was under the impression that reprinting licensed characters like ROM, Doc Savage, et al was only an issue for the bargain-priced Essential / Showcases, since the licensing fee would need to be passed on in a higher cover price; I had thought it was not an issue for color trades & HCs, which were higher priced anyway (and in fact ASSumed that was the reason they were collecting the Mantlo Hulks in that format.)

    Clearly, sadly, I’m mistaken.

    (DC’s recent Diana Prince, Wonder Woman collections did include the Fahfrd & Grey Mouser issues with a Fritz Leiber copyright notice; I guess DC is just willing to spend the money…)

  • Chris K says:

    Re: ROM & Parker Bros: I think Hasbro owns Parker Bros now, which isn’t part of Disney… as far as I know… yet…

    Re: Man-Thing appearances: the Iron Man Annual is by Gerber & would be nice to have in the book. It is also a sequel to Marvel Two-in-One #1, so if they are leaving out the one, it makes sense to leave them both out. Shame, though.

  • adam says:

    I find it hilarious that ROM and the Micronauts are some sort of hot property, jealously guarded and unobtainable. I mean, I haven’t given Rom or the Micronauts a thought (as toys or comic book characters) since the 80’s. I’ve honestly given more thought to Madame Fatal than those properties.

  • C. Elam says:

    MTIO #1 isn’t in the Man-Thing Essentials. I suspect it’s not going to be in the book. Which is a pity.

  • A.L. Baroza says:

    There was also a 3-part Daredevil story featuring Man-Thing during Gerber’ s run on the book, that tied into the origin story. What’s up with omitting all these Gerber stories, unless they want a substantial Gerber presence in a second omnibus.

  • Lawrence Fechtenberger says:

    So, no one is going to mention MASTER OF KUNG FU #19?

    Rob, what are you suggesting was tried by DC back in the 1970s. A decade before, the company had published a comic based on the children’s book character Bomba the Jungle Boy. After it had lost the rights to the character, it tried reprinting the stories as back-ups in its Tarzan comic, with the hero renamed “Simba.” As I recall, it quickly received a cease & desist letter from the owners of Bomba.

    But, there are really no absolute rules in these matters. It really comes down to the particular contract in each case–and, of course, to how litigious one side is, and how averse to fighting lawsuits the other is.

  • C. Elam says:

    MOKF is unfortunately a non-starter due to Fu Manchu and related characters, similar to Micronauts. This may be the first and last time Sax Rohmer was compared to a toy line.

    DC also published a book called WINDY AND WILLY, which is altered reprints of old Dobie Gillis comics. Yes, really.

  • Steven E. MCDonald says:

    Ah, the Marvel Comics Presents Man-Thing story. Steve Gerber decided to Tuckerize a bunch of his friends for the story, which is is how there comes to be a Dr. McDonald in there, speaking in fruity tones and being a pompous git. My one request to Steve was that I die a suitably horrible death. I will note, incidentally, that my noggin was not and is still not bald as depicted. Artistic license! It’s a righteously nasty story. :)