Dweller in the Black Swamp!

 

Looking at monsters drawn by Jack Kirby never gets old.  It's been over six decades since the publicaion of Tales to Astonish #11 (September 1960), but "I found Monstrom, the Dweller in the Black Swamp!" is still fun to look at. 

The plot is tentatively credited to Stan Lee, with Larry Lieber just as tentatively credited with writing thre script. It's a story that has only 7 pages in which to tell its story, so it doesn't waste any time in getting to the good stuff.

A writer from the north is looking for atmosphere for his next novel, so he brings his wife and son to the Black Swamp. The locals are suspicious of these visiting Yankees, but that's not what causes trouble.

Trouble comes when the son is lost in the swamp. The writer finds him, but also discovers a large monster. The monster is immune to bullets (as most monsters are), but a fight with an alligator allows the man and boy to get away.

They grab the wife and drive to town, only to discover that the locals won't believe his story. Heck, he's a writer. He's probably just trying to generate publicity.

But their doubts are put to rest when the monster attacks the town. Nothing seems to be able to stop the creature until a lightning strike causes a fire and obviously frightens it. 

This, of course, is further evidence that the Universal Monster Movies from the '30s and '40s are mankind's most important achievement. If anyone in that town had ever watched Frankenstein or Bride of Frankenstein, they would have known to try fire right away.

The monster is driven back into the swamp and seems to sink to its doom in quicksand. But, we learn, it is actually just returning to its space ship, after learning that mankind was not yet advanced enough to help him repair the damaged vessel. He'll go back into suspended animation for a few eons and then try again.

It's a neat twist, though the story does have a couple of weak points. After clearly setting up that the locals don't trust the writer, this is resolved quickly without affecting the plot in any real way. And why the heck does the monster go on a rampage if it's looking for help? No matter how advanced or primitive mankind might be, shooting at something that's destroying a town is a reasonable reaction.

But it really doesn't matter. Jack Kirby gives us a great monster, a great looking swamp and outdoes himself with the oversize panel shown above in which the monster attacks the town.  I could look at that panel all day, by golly. 

So there are moments in a comic book story when visuals take precedent over sound story contruction. This is one of them. 

Next week, we'll see even MORE rampaging monsters as Hawkman fights dinosaurs and cavemen.