So whatever happened to Skywald's very own muck-monster, The Heap, in the end? Well, it was an open secret that editor / writer Al Hewetson hated this particular character so, after some great opening shots from Ross Andru, Mike Esposito & Tom Sutton, Archaic Al let the strip slide a bit.
Episode after episode passed by, each one more nonsensical than the last, with Al clearly writing the whole thing through gritted teeth.
But then he decided to end the serial in the most bizarre way possible. With a happy ending.
Following a story where The Heap loses all intelligence and reasoning, putting him at about the same level as Atlas' The Brute, Hewetson gave up the ghost entirely and provided the bog beast with a finale Swampy, Manny and the rest would give their right ( regrown ) arm for.
As for the poll at the end, where readers are asked to write in if they want The Heap back, well, Skywald went out of business before Al had to make good on that promise.
Which is a shame, because when he started, Heapy was a pretty great strip. Still, as I say, I don't recall any other character ever ending his series quite like this.
