Issue(s): Man-Thing #9, Man-Thing #10
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 74
Title: "Deathwatch!" / "Nobody dies forever"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Mike Ploog - Plot on #10
Mike Ploog - Penciler
Frank Chiaramonte - Inker

Review/plot:
This is a bizarre story about an old couple living alone in the swamp. The wife, who is unhappy that her husband brought her here to live, gets ill after a fright from seeing the Man-Thing...

...and the husband heads off through the swamp to get medicine for her. The Man-Thing accompanies him and defends him as the swamp's trees and gators become evil and attack.

It turns out the swamp is being haunted by the wife's anger, or a demon feeding off of it.

After the old man has a bad encounter with the local townies...

...he heads back to his home and finds the demon...

...which ultimately kills the dog that has become the focal point of the wife's complaints. It then departs, leaving the couple to reconcile.

Surreal, extra-cartoony art from Ploog, and just a weird story. Note that Ploog has a plot credit for #10.

Gerber also dedicates the story to "the memory of Margo's Napolean". Someone's dog, i assume.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place after Giant-Size Man-Thing #2, so i've pushed this forward in publication time a bit. See the note there for more details.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Man-Thing vol. 1 (#9 is an original)

Dawg was actually important enough at the time to get named in a Marvel Fun Book.