GARKO, the MAN-FROG
Real Name: Garko
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Unknown
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Source of interest to people of Cleveland
Enemies: Howard the Duck, Cleveland police
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Cleveland, Ohio
First Appearance: Giant-Size Man-Thing#4/2 (May, 1975)
Powers/Abilities: As the Man-Frog, Garko possessed superhuman strength, great enough to crush a car (or maybe he was just heavy enough that his weight did the crushing?). However, this form was very unstable, and it lasted only a minute or two.
Height: 5' 9"; (Man-Frog) 9' 2"
Weight: 63 lbs.; (Man-Frog) 1141 lbs.
Eyes: Blue; (Man-Frog) red with extra large pupil
Hair: Brown; (Man-Frog) none
History: Who was Garko?
We don't know.
What were the origins of the Juice?
We don't know.
Why was he sitting on a ledge debating
conquering the world?
We don't know.
Here's what we do know: The man known only as Garko showed up, sitting on a fourth floor window ledge of an apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. He sat there for days (at least), staring at a funny jar containing the Juice. Sometimes he would shout out "I'm gonna conquer the world! You hear me?" Anyway, Garko debated whether to drink the Juice and conquer the world, primarily because he wasn't sure if he wanted to conquer it. Finally he decided it would be worth it to be able to get rid of his enemies.
So, Garko drank the Juice, and transformed into the Man-Frog. He rampaged briefly (very briefly), before encountering Howard the Duck, who whacked him with a board with a nail in it. About that time, the effects of the Juice kicked into overdrive, and Garko went from the Man-Frog to just plain frog. Howard was mistaken for the rampaging humanoid animal that had been reported, and arrested by the cops, who unwittingly ran over Garko the frog with their car...SPLAT.
(Howard the Duck III#5-6) - Garko, now back in human form, could be seen sitting on the sign above Job's place, a bar in Hell, in which Howard shared a few brews with God.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber (naturally) and Frank Brunner.
This story marked Howard's first solo story, in between his guest appearances in the Man-Thing saga and his own series, which followed his encounter with Betsy, the Hellcow.
Perhaps Garko gained power from Tsathoggua. Then again, perhaps not!
Actually, as demonstrated in one of the Halloween episodes of the Simpsons, the board with a nail in it is a very powerful weapon...in some cases sufficient to drive off an alien invasion.
Gerber rules! If you don't read Howard the Duck, you are a chucklehead!
Thanks to our own "Voice of Doom" for pointing out Garko's cameos in the Howard the Duck MAX series.
A Garko-looking frog was seen on Earth in Fantastic Four III#38 when Abraxas started screwing with the dimensional walls, but it was not necessarily Garko.
According to Will U:
Sometime in the 1970s, I forget the date, a Loveland,Ohio
police officer saw something he described as a giant frog jump
out of the river and back in again. TRUE STORY. It's in one of my
Loch Ness Monster books. I wonder if the sighting came from the
Marvel story, or the Marvel story was based on it.
Garko the Man-Frog has a profile in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update#1.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Garko, the Man-Frog, has no known connection to:
Appearances:
Giant-Size Man-Thing#4 (April, 1975) - Steve Gerber (writer), Frank Brunner (artist), Len Wein (editor)
Howard the Duck III#5-6 (July-August, 2002) - Steve Gerber (writer), Phil Winslade (pencils/inks), Stuart Moore (editor)
Last updated: 07/16/14
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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