Man-Thing #4

This April 1974 Marvel issue puts the swamp's most unsettling inhabitant front and center — the massive, dripping Man-Thing looms over two terrified people scrambling across a vehicle, his clawed hands reaching as a blood-red sky and shadowy cypress trees set the mood perfectly. Gil Kane's pencils and Tom Palmer's inks give the creature a genuinely unnerving presence, all tangled vegetation and glowing eyes, with a second Man-Thing silhouette lurking ominously in the upper left corner. Steve Gerber's "The Making of a Madman!" promises the kind of moody, character-driven horror that made this series one of 1974's most distinctive reads.