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The Heap is the name of three fictional, comic book muck-monsters, the original of which first appeared in Hillman Periodicals' Air Fighters #3 (Dec. 1942), during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. It was created by writer Harry Stein and artist Mort Leav, and revived in the 1980s by Eclipse Comics. Similar but unrelated characters appeared in comics stories published by Skywald in the 1970s and Image Comics in the 1990s.
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Publication history
Following its debut, the Heap re-appeared as a guest character sporadically in Air Fighters, and with its fourth appearance, in the by-then re-titled Airboy Comics vol. 3, #9 (Oct. 1946), became the star of a backup series. That series continued until the final issue, vol. 10, #4 (May 1953). Other artists associated with the feature include Jack Abel, Paul Reinman, and Ernie Schroeder. The character was well-remembered and influenced the creation of Man-Thing. A similar character called The Heap, who did not share the original character's origin or identity, appeared in the black-and-white horror-comics magazine Psycho, published by Skywald, from issues #2-14 (March 1971 - July 1973), and in the one-shot The Heap #1 (Sept. 1971). The company went defunct later that decade, and historians are uncertain whether it had formally acquired character rights from Hillman, which had ceased publishing in the mid-1950s. In 1986, Eclipse Comics, having acquired rights to some Hillman characters, began publishing a new Airboy comic with the Heap as a supporting character. The Heap also appeared in the Eclipse title The New Wave, where the creature was considered by some members of that group to be a member. Eclipse Comics went bankrupt and ceased operations in the 1990s. Image Comics purchased the Eclipse assets, including the Heap. [1] Another similar character debuted in Image Comics' Spawn #73 (June 1998), reimagined by writers Todd McFarlane and Brian Holguin and penciler Greg Capullo.
Fictional character biography
Hillman
The Heap was formerly Baron von Emmelman, a World War I German flying ace who was shot down in 1918 over a Polish swamp. He arose from the muck decades later as The Heap and met the Allied ace Skywolf.
Image
The Image Comics version in Spawn, a series about a conflicted, mostly Earth-bound servant of Hell, reimagined The Heap as a bum named Eddie Beckett. Beckett was murdered after finding a bag of necroplasm, a supernatural substance of which Spawn's body is comprised. While dying, the necroplasm reacted with his body, causing the Earth and trash around him to collect and meld with his corpse. The Heap fought Spawn on at least two occasions at the behest of the Keeper, an incarnation of the Man of Miracles. Each time, The Heap swallowed and engulfed Spawn, sending him to the mysterious Greenworld, an other-dimensional representation of nature.
