Once, he was a man, a chemist named Ted Sallis, until a top-secret experiment went awry...and he changed. The serum that was to have made him a super-soldier combined with strange forces in the shadow-haunted swamp to turn him into a shambling, mindless mockery of his former self...part man, part monster!

Who, or what, is a Man-Thing?

Man-Thing, formerly the human scientist known as Ted Sallis, made his comic book debut in a self-titled story by writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow set within the pages of 1971's Savage Tales #1. When his research into developing a new Super-Soldier Serum attracted the attention of A.I.M., Ted seemingly lost his life in an ambush orchestrated by his scorned wife, Ellen.

Rather than losing his samples to the attackers, Ted injected himself with his creation which, upon being combined with the raw mystical energies deep within the Florida Everglades where his body was located, caused his transformation.. In the years since, Man-Thing has gone from being relegated to the realm of horror comics to standing alongside the likes of Earth's Mightiest Heroes throughout some of Marvel's most epic storylines as a living guardian of the Nexus of All-Realities.

Welcome to the Man-Thing Web-Thing. One of the first comics I can remember reading was Fear # 16, where the Man-Thing becomes involved in a dispute between a tribe of Native American Indians and some property developers who want to reclaim the swamp. Ecologists verse big business, a popular theme today but not so common in the early seventies. Back then it wasn't the well executed story line that attracted my attention so much as the Man-Thing itself, a silent witness feeding off the emotions of the other characters, delivering a wounded Native American to a Doctor, being run over by a bulldozer and emerging from the ground to cast a fiery judgement on a red-neck construction worker, for whoever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!!!!

Since then I have picked up the occasional Man-Thing guest appearance and back issues of most of the Man-Thing comics, along with a few of the other Muck-Monster titles. Reading the first issue of the 1997 Man-Thing series gave me the motivation to start work developing these pages, where you will find newsof upcoming appearances of the Man-Thing character along with bibliographies cataloguing his publication history, links, as well as information on the Man-Thing movie. I've also collected together information on other muck monsters in a range of mediums. Hope you find it of interest.

My recommendations

A visitor to the page asked I'm extremely curious about the character and I plan to buy some comics chronicling his adventures; what would you recommend me?

Anything written by Steve Gerber is essential reading. I strongly recommend the Fear (Adventure into...) series plus the first volume of Man-Thing, so for those on a budget the Essential Man-Thing trade-paperback fits the bill, or if you have bit more income to spare you can get everything Gerber did with the character, including Marvel Comics Presents (#1-12), in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection Volumes 1 to 3.

Do you have favorites?

Fear #16.

My thanks to the following people for helping out with information for the site: Todd E. Dominik, Renato Santiago, Steve Bergson, Rich Handley, Pearce Duncan, Nikki Pearl, Scott Andrew Hutchins, Strovei, Matt Love, JJ Reynolds and George

Man-Thing is a Marvel Comics character so all the MT material on this page is copyright to them, I am just using it to show my appreciation for the good work of their artists and writers, and encourage others to have a look at the book.