Man-Thing #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMan-Thing #5 — 'Night of the Laughing Dead' — is one of the most thematically audacious single issues of the Bronze Age, centering on the suicide of a circus clown at a time when mainstream Comics Code-approved comics almost never engaged with that subject directly. It marks the first issue drawn by Mike Ploog on the series, whose Will Eisner-influenced, deliberately unglamorous figure work proved a defining aesthetic match for Steve Gerber's existentialist storytelling approach. The issue introduces Ayla Prentiss and Darrel the Clown, whose two-issue ghostly arc through #6 became a touchstone of how Gerber used Man-Thing's swamp as a moral stage — a space where ordinary people's failures, grief, and guilt were dramatized through the supernatural. Its cultural reach extended beyond the page almost immediately when it was chosen as the basis for a Power Records audio drama the same year.
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The issue was written by Steve Gerber, penciled and cover-drawn by Mike Ploog, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, lettered by Artie Simek, and edited by Roy Thomas, with a cover date of May 1974 and an on-sale date of February 12, 1974. Ploog's arrival represented a significant artistic shift for the young solo title, which had previously cycled through Val Mayerik; Ploog had just completed his celebrated run on Marvel's Monster of Frankenstein and brought a similarly gothic, character-focused sensibility to the Citrusville swamp. Research by historian Nick Caputo, documented in the Grand Comics Database, identified that John Romita also made alterations to Man-Thing's face on some interior pages — a behind-the-scenes production detail consistent with Marvel's editorial practice of the era.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Story title: 'Night of the Laughing Dead' — a two-part arc concluding in Man-Thing #6 (June 1974).
- First appearance and death of Darrel the Clown (Darrel Daniel), whose post-mortem ghost anchors the story's supernatural second half.
- First appearance of Ayla Prentiss, Darrel's circus acrobat companion, who recurs through Man-Thing #7.
- First appearance of carnival antagonists Garvey (the exploitative circus owner) and Tragg (his strongman enforcer).
- Mike Ploog's debut issue as penciller on the Man-Thing solo series; he would continue through issue #11, producing what critics consider the defining visual run on the title.
- Adapted that same year as Power Records Book and Record Set #PR16 ('Night of the Laughing Dead'), a 45 RPM audio drama produced by Peter Pan Records — one of the most unusual media adaptations of any 1970s Marvel comic.
- Reprinted in: Peter Pan Book and Record Set (1974), French anthology Eclipso #55 (1975), Marvel UK's Planet of the Apes #90–92 (1976), Chiller Pocket Book #15 (Marvel UK, 1981), Essential Man-Thing Vol. 1 (2006, black and white), Man-Thing Omnibus (2012), and Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (2015).
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Man-Thing: Night of the Laughing Dead! [Book and Record Set] #PR16 (1974), Eclipso #55 (1975), Planet of the Apes #90 (1976), Planet of the Apes #91 (1976), Planet of the Apes #92 (1976), Chiller Pocket Book #15 (1981), Essential Man-Thing #1 (2006), Man-Thing Omnibus #[nn] (2012), Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection #1 (2015), Marvel Masterworks: Man-Thing #2 (2025)
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