Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man! The melancholy satire of The Man-Thing, by Steve Gerber

The MCU is wildly popular entertainment. It’s made to appeal to several age groups. I embrace much of this. I also have love for some of the young adult writing of years gone by, too.

There is a downbeat, thoughtful quality in the comic series, Man-Thing. While the creature was created- a mix of strange magic and a failed formula meant to help soldiers adapt, a Super Soldier Serum-in 1971, the black and white version of the slime beast only briefly appeared in the magazine, Savage Tales, premiering in its first issue. When Man-thing was revived for a regular strip, ghouls of the vampire/wolf man/ mummy/swamp monster sort popular at Universal Pictures were in vogue. Marvel took cues from the success of smaller publishers like Warren. They took advantage of the relaxed Comics Code of Approval’s standards to bring in nightmarish creations, like Shelley’s Frankenstein.

These appealed to some of the young kids, but they also opened more mature story telling possibilities.
This was the thinking in giving the anthology reprint title, Adventure Into Fear, to writer Steve Gerber.

Steve had graduated from University of Missouri and begun writing advertisements, before coming aboard at Marvel as an assistant editor. His sleep habits- similar to Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati- led to editor-in-chief Roy Thomas offering a shot at freelance writing.

After almost a year of stories, paired with artist Val Mayerick (and spawning Howard the Duck as a throwaway character), Man-Thing graduated to his own title. After a terrific stint under the cartoon styling of Mike Ploog, in issue twelve, we get this stand-alone story. Illustrator John Buscema, who had drawn The Avengers a while before jumping at the chance to do non-superhero work like Conan The Barbarian, drew this tale, “Song Cry of the Dead Man.”

Briefly, the Man-Thing is an empath, virtually devoid of intelligence. So long as he keeps contact with the fen waters of the Everglades, he is weirdly indestructible. (The next issue shows a pirate jumping into him and getting stuck!) He also constantly runs into bizarre supernatural dangers spawned by the swamp, which contains The Nexus of All Realities (as visited in his Fear stories).

The Man-Thing becomes activated by extreme emotions of people who wander through. In this story, he walks up on an abandoned insane asylum, on a stormy night. Equal to the tempest is the precarious state of mind of Brian Lazarus, a copywriter who’d been making a good living, at the cost of his spirit. He’d written a poem about his revulsion towards the cynical capitialism, the lies, of commodity-driven life in America. This poem is his ‘Song Cry,’ written on his last day on the job.

His artistic nature rejects his trade, after, one day, he realizes he’s been hearing a Beatles song, but everything sounds cacophanous, devoid of meaning. If meaning and pleasure in Art are slipping away, then Brian realizes his grip on Reality is too tenuous. He’s trying to expand upon his macabre poem, meeting Hurt with Truth. This conflict draws the empathic Man-Thing from the shadows.

Another character, Sybil, a dancer who was kidnapped by some disfigured Viet Nam vets wearing horrible, metallic masks, is staying the night at a motel. In the previous issue, she got help, and a lift, and an understanding of the Man-Thing, from semi-regular supporting character, Richard Rory, who departs to work his radio station shift as a deejay. Sybil makes a point to the sarcastic hotel clerk that she is not hung up on her young hippie gallant. She does not get too close to anyone. This may be one reason she feels happy- a feeling she assumed most people feel. Then, fresh from fleeing the abandoned asylum, Brian Lazarus slips into her stormy evening. She connects with his alienation, touched, even. Then, she meets the phantasms, given form by the Nexus.

Brian’s predicament yields some familiar thoughts. (The essence of feeling a backlash for letting money needs steal his creativity, personified here rather than being stomach-sickening principles.) Interesting meditation for me, because later today, I created Tik Tok ads for my original game. Very different, advertising your own self-expression as the product!

The angst is rather appealing to the brooding, late adolescent mind set. The career predicament is one already familiar to everyone of working age. The emotional cast- of trying to not let some authentic self, die- is particularly endemic to Americans in their twenties. I still encounter this conflict to this day! My work is still very important to me. I want it to feel Purposeful and conduct Wholeness.

A person can only integrate, best they can, take the job that compromises them least, and try to be happy as they survive. Until there's a living wage, we have this symbiosis. I think the cynicism of Advertising and its use of Brian/ Steve Gerber's creativity is reflected in the demeanor of the phantasms, representing de-sensitized people- which became the crux of Lazarus' ugly point of view.

Sybil is a warm person who does not share that, and sees humanity in the wounded beast before her, moving her. She also represents the freedom of artistic expression.
Yes, deadlines and commercial needs still loom, but for these years, in his humble roach-infested apartment in New York City, Steve feels freed, by this life, to be himself.

After Gerber’s death, an extended revisitation of this one-and-done saga was released, as The Infernal Man-Thing #1-3, with art by Kevin (Batman) Nowlan. I bought the first two issues while trying to stock Galactic Comics in San Diego, with our t-shirts and comics for D’n’A #1, plotted by Angela Disharoon, drawn by her with me.

If only I hadn’t sold out of my print run before I ran out of shirts! Indie Comics is rough.

The story may have some baffling elements- why can Sybil see Brian's visions, for example? But there is a valuable theme, about Truth and Integrity, dramatized here. The lies of 1974 had their cumulative impact, just as the lies of 2021 do today. While Gerber didn't plot out the two-parter format he'd use for most Man-Thing issues to this point- what if this was too much psycho-drama, for a title created from, chiefly, a superhero publisher?- he answered in the letters page, later, that he'd written the Song-Cry whle rebelling against his advertising work.

Lazarus became a vessel for Gerber's desire: it was not enough. It needed more. He was so intrigued as to take another pass at it, decades later. Whatever flaws were generated by the quick publishing schedule, I think he met his Inspiration to ask his work to say something more about the human condition, in a bizarre, unique way.
Steve inspired me, with just two pages of his Son of Satan take on The Exorcist (1973), to borrow the demonic name, Allautou, and try my own exorcism story- a game you can enjoy by clicking here: https://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2021/11/versus-curse-of-allautou-integr8d-soul.html I've not read this, but Man-Thing and Gerber and his wonderful artists continue to inspire at Marvel.