Giant-Size Man-Thing #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeGiant-Size Man-Thing #4 (cover-dated May 1975) contains 'Frog Death!', the nine-page backup story that gave Howard the Duck his first solo adventure — a pivotal step between his debut cameos in Adventure into Fear #19 and Man-Thing #1 and the ongoing Howard the Duck series that launched in early 1976. The story establishes Cleveland, Ohio as Howard's Earth home base, a setting that would define his satirical, fish-out-of-water existence for years. It also introduces Garko the Man-Frog, a villain whose absurdist premise — a man sitting on a window ledge debating whether world conquest is worth the bother before simply drinking a potion to become a giant frog — perfectly distills the anti-superhero social comedy Steve Gerber was pioneering. Fan demand for more Howard was loud enough after this issue that Marvel fast-tracked the character toward his own ongoing title within months.
In "The Kid's Night Out! [Part 1]," a Russian farmer stumbles upon a hidden doorway to a dimension teeming with malevolent forces while working as a gold miner. When military forces arrive to seize his find, ignoring his desperate warnings, they meet a fate that leaves him alone with the sealed portal—and a quiet vow to reopen it if democracy ever fails. Steve Ditko handles both pencils and inks for this eerie, atmospheric tale, with Phil Rachelson’s colors adding depth to the otherworldly dread, while Frank Brunner’s cover captures the story’s unsettling tone.
In "I Entered the... Doorway to Doom!", a Russian farmer turned gold miner stumbles upon a mysterious doorway buried deep beneath the earth—its presence a silent threat to all who approach. When soldiers arrive to seize his find, he pleads with them to leave, but their disbelief leads to their swift and terrible end. Left alone with the portal's dark power, he vows to seal it once more, yet holds fast to the hope that one day, if democracy returns, he’ll open it again.
In "The Man with No Past," an artist haunted by a year-long memory gap and crippling claustrophobia seeks answers from a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to unlock his past. As each attempt to recall earlier memories yields only the same year—his time working with a publisher—the artist hires a detective, only to find no records beyond that point. When the psychiatrist pushes deeper, demanding a drawing of the earliest memory, the result is a chilling image: a man lying in a casket.
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The solo Howard story was originally slated to appear in Giant-Size Man-Thing #3, but it was delayed because the script was sitting, undrawn, on the board of Neal Adams, the artist initially assigned to the piece. Frank Brunner, fresh from a long run co-writing and drawing Doctor Strange, stepped in after learning the script was available, and he penciled, inked, and colored 'Frog Death!' himself — a rare case of one artist controlling an entire story's visual production in the Marvel Method era. According to Brunner in a later interview, Val Mayerik, who had drawn Howard's original Man-Thing appearances, was not interested in returning to the character, which opened the door for Brunner's interpretation. Copyright records place the actual on-sale date as January 21, 1975, despite the May 1975 cover date; Len Wein served as editor on the issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Contains Howard the Duck's first solo story, 'Frog Death!' (9 pages), written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Frank Brunner — marking the character's transition from supporting-cast cameo to solo feature.
- First appearance of Garko the Man-Frog, a Cleveland-based villain who transforms via a mysterious potion and serves as Howard's inaugural solo antagonist.
- The story establishes Cleveland, Ohio as Howard the Duck's permanent Earth setting, the city where he lands after falling through the dimensional void at the end of Man-Thing #1.
- Frank Brunner penciled, inked, and colored the Howard backup entirely himself; he also drew the issue's cover, though the original cover design — which included a portrait of Howard — was modified before publication, and the replacement text blurb misspells 'Garko' as 'Gorko.'
- Carl Barks, the celebrated but long-anonymous Disney duck cartoonist, is credited inside the issue as 'spiritual guide' to Howard the Duck — a notable and candid creative acknowledgment.
- The lead Man-Thing story, 'The Kid's Night Out!', was written by Steve Gerber with pencils by Ed Hannigan and Ron Wilson; the issue also includes two vintage reprints: a Steve Ditko story from Strange Tales #72 (1959) and a tale from Journey into Mystery #21 (1955).
- 'Frog Death!' was reprinted in Marvel Treasury Edition #12 (October 1976), a Howard the Duck-focused treasury that also reprinted his Fear #19 debut, and has since been collected in Essential Howard the Duck Vol. 1, the Howard the Duck Omnibus, Marvel Firsts: The 1970s Vol. 2, Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection Vol. 1, and Marvel Masterworks: Howard the Duck Vol. 1.
- The story was originally supposed to run in Giant-Size Man-Thing #3 but was delayed because the assigned artist — reportedly Neal Adams — had not completed the pages; Frank Brunner stepped in, making this one of the most production-historically notable backup features of the Bronze Age.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Journey into Mystery #21 (1955), Strange Tales #72 (1959)
Reprinted in Comic Reader #115 (1975), Marvel Treasury Edition #12 (1976), Captain Britain #7 (1976), Eclipso #70 (1980), Essential Howard the Duck #1 (2002), Howard the Duck Omnibus #[nn] (2008), Essential Man-Thing #2 (2008), Marvel Firsts: The 1970s #2 (2012), Man-Thing Omnibus #[nn] (2012), Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection #1 (2015), Die offizielle Marvel-Comic-Sammlung #29 (2016), Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection #2 (2016), Marvel. Официальная коллекция комиксов #130 (2018), Marvel Masterworks: Howard the Duck #1 (2020), Giant-Size Marvel Omnibus #[nn] (2025)
Key issues in Giant-Size Man-Thing
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