Tales of Evil #3|
Published and © by Atlas (Seaboard), July 1975
Title: “Man-Monster!”
Synopsis: A “hitherto undiscovered bacterial force” “activates” algae and turns a washed-up Olympic swimmer into Man-Monster.
Writer: Tony Isabella
Penciler: Rich Buckler
Inker: Mike Vosburg
Review: There’s a fine line between capitalizing on trends and completely lacking originality. This sad little origin story clearly falls on the wrong side of that line. Beyond its hackneyed concepts, the script suffers from painful period dialogue and, at times, seems out of sync with the art.
•••
Title: “Bog Beast”
Synopsis: Bog Beast discovers the slaughtered victims of a werewolf, battles said werewolf, then gets blamed for her carnage.
Writer: Gabriel Levy
Artist: Enrique Badía Romero (as Romero)
Review: This story is less than stellar, but “Romero’s” art is some of the best of the entire Atlas (Seaboard) run.
Grade (for the entire issue): C
Second opinion: “Man-Monster was yet another man-turned-into-beast strip. … Not recommended.” – Frank Plowright, FantaCo’s Chronicle’s Series Annual #1, 1983 … “Bog Beast and Man-Monster starred in 2 and 3, and the paucity of imagination applied to their names reveals all you need to know about the content.” – The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide (second edition), 2003
Cool factor: The villainous Hell-Blazer seems to have some bad-guy potential.
Not-so-cool factor: Another Bronze Age Man-[Fill in Blank] comic.
Notable: The lead features promises “to be continued” in the never-published Man-Monster #1.
Character quotable: “Look and admire, chicks!” – Paul Sanders, lady’s man and future man-monster
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on Oct. 26, 2012.
