Swamp Thing by Mike Mignola (1981)

So Nice !!! early Mignola does look awesome !! Congrats !!

Sweet inks and utilization of shadow and lighting even at this earlier stage for Mr. (master) Mignola! nice pickup from the Kennedy pedigree - and Happy New Year Rick!@

Bernie Wrightson influence? Reminds me of K Kong at first glance.

This might just be the oldest Mignola piece I've ever seen.  It sure looks like he loved those blacks from the jump.  Very cool.  Happy New Year bud.

One of Mignola's earliest pinups, and a great one at that. So cool to see how raw he was back then!

wonderful piece, congrats

This is really awesome! An awesome early  piece from Mignola and one of the best characters in comics! Major congrats Rick! Hope you have a Happy New Year!

I was working in the lab, late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
It was a Mignola monster on the rise
And suddenly to my surprise
he did the monster mash
(The monster mash) it was a swampland smash
(He did the mash) it caught on in a flash
(He did the mash) he did the monster mash

Great piece! Classic early Mignola, goes well with the early Elric. Congrats Rick! Here's wishing you joy, good health, and prosperity in the new year!

These early Mignolas are so cool. And evocative of a period when he and Art Adams both lived in Oakland and I'd see them at Berkeley comic shop, Comics & Comix. A lot of their early art passed through there. Maybe this one did, too!

Just wonderful how Mignola was finding his voice and being influenced by the rock star illustrators of the day!  This foreshadows that he would eventually gravitate towards horror comics!

Sweet evocative rendition of our favorite muck-monster with already a unique graphic voice blossoming...

Such a lovely piece!

Wow - that is vintage - nice foliage!

Loved when back in the day our future art masters had fertile ground like the fanzines to get published, and I love how today we have the tech to produce such convincingly cool mock-ups, congrats!

Nice choices for Shadows. Even early on, Mignola had a strong understanding of the production process and how the image would eventually look.

The -perfect- New Year's post to remind us all to look back in joy and be thankful for how far we've been able to come on the winding journey along the way! :) That is one early Mignola!  Special in and of itself for that reason, but getting to see his take on Swampy (even at this primordial stage) is a real treat - one of the mainstream heroes you'd most want to see his version of, right?  Congrats, Rick, and happy new year (sorry I'm late :) )! 

I love seeing early pieces like this, and being able to chart an artist's progression into their own space. Fantastic!

Outstanding!!! Those inks are beautiful! Love seeing the color version, but the original stands on its own. Fantastic Swampy from MM!