Man-Thing

This volume of Man-Thing caused a slight stir as it launched Marvel's short lived Strange Tales 'imprint' that was intended to be published without the comics' code authority stamp. There were 3 Strange Tales titles; 1 of which, Warren Ellis' 'Satanna' would never even see print. The other title was Paul Jenkins' 'Werewolf by Night'. Man-Thing lasted 8 issues and Werewolf lasted six before both titles were cancelled and were combined into the 'Strange Tales' anthology; a projected series of 4 issues where each would include a full issue-length Man-Thing story and a full length Werewolf story, plus a short horror story featuring another horror character (Strange Tales #1 features Simon Garth the Zombie). Only 2 of the 4 issues of Strange Tales were ever printed; leaving Man-Thing and Werewolfs' intricate stories forever to remain in cliffhanger. Despite launching at a respectable 40,000 copies (the projected orders had been 20,000) it was eventually cancelled when it dropped to 20,000 (the amount that it had been predicted to launch at!) The entire 12 issue story had been written and drawn, two parts of which appeared in "Strange Tales", a mini-compendium that united "Werewolf by Night" and "Manthing" under one cover, unsuccessfully. While not setting the comic word alight the series garnered some great reviews and remains a fond favorite collaboration of both J.M de Matteis and Liam Sharp.

This run of Man-Thing focuses largely on Ellen Sallis, wife of Ted Sallis (who became Man-Thing).

Not too long after the series' cancellation, DeMatteis and Sharp would reunite to sort-of tie up loose ends in the 1999 'Spider-Man & Man-Thing Annual'.

It is also worth noting that a character extremely similar to this volume's villain Mr. Termineus appears in DC's Spectre volume 3, which was also written by DeMatteis some years later.