Comic: The Ice-Monster Cometh (1962)

As previously blogged about, the great Steve Ditko drew one of the first yeti stories in comics for Strange Worlds called "I Captured the Abominable Snowman" in 1958.

In 1960, he inked a Kirby-drawn story, "I Found the Abominable Snowman" for Tales to Astonish # 13, but in 1962, he was back holding the pencil for Amazing Adult Fantasy # 11 (later reprinted in Giant-Size Man-Thing #1 (1974)) for yeti 'nother yeti comic story.

It was called "The Ice-Monster Cometh!" and although it takes place in some unmentioned Germanic village, and not the Himalayas, it still counts as yeti in my book.

Plot:  Hugo Bogg, a jewel thief,  hid his stolen gems in a village. In order to dig them back up, he needs to clear out the townspeople - but how?  There's a local myth of an "Ice-Monster", so Bogg cleverly (and heroically) makes a costume and pretends to be the creature so he can scare everybody off...

Nice one, Bogg

Source

The plan works, but unfortunately, it garners the attention of the real Ice-Monster!

The Ice-Monster speaks English and says the following...

"I have found another of my kind! Someone to keep me company! Never again shall I be lonely! Never again shall I prowl where humans dwell! For fate has sent you to me and we shall be...inseparable."

Note to self: Please add "I have found another of my kind! Someone to keep me company! Never again shall I be lonely! Never again shall I prowl where humans dwell! For fate has sent you to me and we shall be...inseparable." to Everything Yeti Has Ever Said page.

And then it drags Bogg away to its lair to keep him company forever, and to hug him and squeeze him, and call him George.

The End.

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Hmm, you know, I've noticed that almost all of these early comics stories have similar elements:

1958:  I Captured the Abominable Snowman
A man seeks the yeti and gets magically transformed into one as a fitting retribution for his greed and violence.

1960:  I Found the Abominable Snowman
A man seeks the yeti and gets naturally transformed into one (after losing his mind and letting himself go) as a fitting retribution for his greed and violence.

1961 "The Abominable Snowman"
A man seeks to imitate the yeti (for a sleazy TV show) and gets mistaken for a real one by an actual yeti, who takes him away to its lair to be its companion, a fitting retribution for his greed and violence.

1962: "The Ice-Monster Cometh"
A man seeks to imitate the yeti (to get his stolen gems) and gets mistaken for a real one by an actual yeti, who takes him away to its lair to be its companion, a fitting retribution for his greed and violence.

1963: Incredible Hulk
The Hulk seeks to imitate the yeti (to play on his enemy's superstitions), but it doesn't work and he himself falls for a 3-D projection of a dragon and jumps at it like an idiot, falling into an electronically-charged cage, a fitting retribution for his greed and violence.

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OK, so maybe the Hulk story doesn't really fit in, but otherwise, the most prevalent theme to these early stories seems to be:

Seek the beast and you shall find him, for he will be you.