Art Gallery: Thirty Years of the Heap

I’m a fan of swamp monsters. Over the years I’ve drawn a few versions of the first big name comic book swamp monster – The Heap. He’s a got a simple, interesting design and he’s in the public domain. It’s always more fun for me to draw my version of a public domain character than another version of some corporate possession. But, yes, one of those illustrations below does feature both Swamp Thing and Man-Thing. The final two images are swamp monster portraits I did for Jason Levine. The first is, again, yes, the Man-Thing, done in 2011. Both Jason and I love the Man-Thing’s design. The second is a pin-up I did of Jason’s character Mishmash and a random sewer monster back in 2006.

Story Seed

The Heap regains/retains Eric von Emmelman’s mind.

I have the three volume collection of the original Hillman Comics adventures of The Heap. The fact that the Heap was born from the body of Baron Eric von Emmelman, a WW1 fighter pilot, makes little difference in most of the stories. He could just as well have been born from the body of Vladmir the plumber or Olga the shopkeeper. The Heap doesn’t speak and so far as the reader knows, he doesn’r quite think. The Heap never really remembers who he was. In some stories he encounters former family members and helps them out but neither he nor they know why. In other stories he follows an American boy because the kid carries around a model biplane. Mostly he wanders the globe and acts as deux ex monstrum to take down evil doers and monsters.

Two possibilities:

1. Stories set during WW2, the era when the original Hillman Comics were published. When the Heap rises out of that Polish swamp he awakes with the mind and memories of Eric von Emmelman. It’s 1942. How does a former German aristocrat react to the Nazis?
2. Stories set in modern day. Perhaps the Heap regrows von Emmelman’s memories. Perhaps he is granted (or cursed with) those memories by an outside force. One hundred years have passed since his death. How does a man from 1918 deal with the world of 2020?

In both versions von Emmelman must interact with the world in the form of a huge swamp monster. Chances are he won’t be able to speak. There’s no guaranty that either version of the new Heap will be heroic. In life, von Emmelman doesn’t seem to have been a bad guy but the original comic stories are short and light on details about his character. Waking up as an inhuman pile of vegetation might have toxic effects on his attitude toward humanity.

Recommendations

Mythcreants is a website for creators of speculative fiction. It features a host of posts looking at SF cliches and tropes and suggesting ways to address or remove sid cliches and tropes. I’m a nerd. I both love SF and I love endlessly examining what makes (or doesn’t make) a good SF story so I’ve happily gotten lost for hours on this site.

Current Events

Let’s see –

My Big Sister dropped off another cooler full of amazing, ready-to-cook dinners. I think this is cooler #7. This week’s menu is:
Broccoli mushroom stir fry and shrimp/pork pot stickers with dipping sauces
Large cherry tomato, bacon, shallot, mushroom, garlic, pepper tart with fig tartlettes
Lamb tagine with couscous.
Avocado/bacon snack toast using Sea Wolf sourdough bread.

Of course she delivered the latest the day after I’d stocked up the fridge with supplies from Costco and Trader Joes and I’d baked two large lasagnas. No chance of starving this week.

I got my copy of An Inner Darkness from Golden Goblin Press. I’d backed the project on Kickstarter and then Oscar Rios commissioned me to color some of Reuben Dodd’s black and white illustrations. The work looked good on my computer screen and it looks good on the printed page. That’s not a given. Kudos to Mark Shireman for his excellent production work. I’ll be posting one or two these pieces in a future newsletter. The book is available for purchase here.

I got word from the 42 word anthology folks that my story had been accepted. I’ve no idea when that story will see print (or other form of publication). They’re still accepting new work. They also rejected my brother’s story. That says something about their taste. I don’t mean that as a dig. I think he’s a brilliant writer. Not everyone likes my stuff. Tastes vary. I just think, given their goal of 1764 stories and they are still looking for stories after almost two years, perhaps broader tastes are needed.

Work at USPS continues, same as ever. I wear a mask and gloves while sorting mail and packages in the station. I mostly don’t while I’m delivering since that part of the job is a solo affair. Mail volumes are still down. Parcel volumes are up.

I’m grateful that life is pretty much the same as last week and the week before. I’m lucky. For those of you whose lives are seriously impacted, you have my sympathy. If I can do anything to help out, please let me know.