Number 1603: Heap big origin

“It walked in the woods. It was never born. It existed. Under the pine needles the fires burn, deep and smokeless in the mould. In heat and in darkness and decay there is growth. There is life and there is growth. It grew, but it is life and there is growth. It grew, but it was not alive. It walked unbreathing through the woods, and thought and saw and was hideous and strong, and it was not born and it did not live. It grew and lived about without living.”  Theodore Sturgeon, “It”

The classic story by Sturgeon, published in 1940 in John Campbell’s Unknown, has had an influence far past its initial publication.The novelette was hailed by readers as a classic. As far as I can tell the first “It” copycat was the Heap, who was a German flier of World War I. He died and then was resurrected during the next war as the shambling creature called Heap.

This is the origin of the Heap, told in Air Fighters Comics #3 (1942). The Heap was created by Harry Stein and artist Mort Leav, and probably wasn’t conceived as a permanent addition to the title. After appearing a few times, in 1946 the Heap found his way as a permanent back-up feature (sometimes featured on the cover) until Hillman closed out its comic book line in 1953.

The swamp creatures have come and gone in comics. They are always popular. Heap was, also, I believe, or he wouldn’t have been wandering about in different areas of the world for those years. But to the best of my knowledge all of those swamp creatures go back to Theodore Sturgeon’s incredible original story.

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 ...AND AS A BONUS FEATURE TODAY, HOME BUYING TIPS FROM PANIC AND JACK DAVIS

Today my son and his wife take possession and move into their new home in Western Pennsylvania. Mrs Pappy and I have their children staying with us, which is how we help the process. After all,we live 1600 miles apart (and it is a good excuse for me not to do any furniture moving and heavy lifting).

The last issue of EC Comics’ Panic (1955) featured this funny and well-drawn satire, “House Hunting.” The thing about the best satire is that it never gets too far from reality, just basically pointing out absurdities in any situation, such as looking for a house.

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Number 1441: “You in a Heap of trouble, boy!”

In 1971 I bought Skywald’s black and white Psycho #2, which had the origin of the Heap, drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and written by Chuck McNaughton. You can read that version in this 2010 posting at the Diversions of the Groovy Kind blog.

Surprisingly, a few months later along came a Comics Code-approved 25¢ color comic called The Heap #1,with the lead story drawn by Tom Sutton and Jack Abel, and written by former DC editor and writer Robert Kanigher! Both stories showed how the Heap was created from a plane wreck into some chemicals, but the stories surrounding the origin were different. The color Heap was the only issue, although its indicia claimed it to be a bi-monthly. Artistically, the character is drawn a bit differently: this version of the Heap, unlike the black and white version, does not have the long lolling tongue hanging out of the creature’s mouth. That might have been too gross for the Code, or maybe just the artist.

Knowledgeable fans know that the Heap was also a shambling monstrosity from the old Airboy Comics, and also a classic Mad comic book story by the one-and-only Will Elder. I'm sorry I can't show you the whole hilarious story featuring the Heap, “Outer Sanctum” from Mad #5, but here’s the Kurtzman-Elder version of...HEAP!

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Number 1042


A Heap of art styles


In the Wikipedia entry on artist Ernie Schroeder, it's said that Schroeder had several careers during his 90 years. His credits in comics run from 1945 to his last job at Harvey Comics in 1958, less than a decade-and-a-half out of a long and productive working life.

Schroeder might be best known to comic book fans for his work on Airboy Comics,, where for about four years he drew both the title feature and backup strip, the Heap. It's also stated in the article that he wrote much of what he drew in this period. I've chosen a Heap story from the fourth to last issue of Airboy Comics as an example of Schroeder's craggy inking style, and because I like the monster the Heap fights.

Schroeder's first job in comics is reportedly "The Black Lagoon" from Buster Brown Comic Book #23 in 1945. I believe it was inked by Ray Willner, who also had a distinctive and illustrative style of inking, with shorter pen lines than the usual longer brush strokes of most comic book art.

This page from the story shows that it might have been Schroeder's first comic book penciling job, but he already had his composition and comic art storytelling skills down.

From Airboy Comics Vol. 10 No. 1, 1953:







I got the scans for these originals of The Raven from Heritage Auctions. They are attributed to Schroeder, and show at the time he was closer to Will Eisner's style than his later work at Airboy Comics. I like this story, penciled and inked but left unlettered and unpublished. The look of the strip puts it somewhere around the mid-forties era at Harvey. There were various boom and bust cycles in comics, and it may have been intended for a book that was canceled before the strip went to the letterer.

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