CLYDE HIGGENS

Real Name: Clyde Higgens

Identity/Class: Human (1950s era)

Occupation: Adventurer/hunter

Group Membership: Explorers Club (see comments)

Affiliations: Sewall, Tiyanga, extraterrestrial circus owner

Enemies: Mammoth

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "The white hunter" (as referred to by Sewall, to Tiyanga)

Base of Operations: Mobile in Africa

First Appearance: Astonishing#53/4 (September, 1956)

Powers/Abilities: Having no paranormal abilities, Higgens was skilled in the use of a hunting rifle.

    While on safari, Higgens was determined to bag himself a trophy he could be proud of, but he encountered a beast beyond his wildest dreams.

Height: 6' (by approximation)
Weight: 190 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black

History:
(Astonishing#53/4 (fb) - BTS) - The past of Clyde Higgens is largely unrevealed, but at some point he joined the Explorers Club--to prove himself, Higgens vowed to bring back a worthy trophy from Africa.

(Astonishing#53/4) - Higgens and Sewall were in the tangled African bush country, following the trail of a water buffalo. But as dusk approached, the tracks led off into treacherous marshes, so the two decided to end their hunt for the day; they headed to a nearby Masaibi village to spend the night.

   When they reached the village, they saw a group of tribesmen gathered around a hunting scout--Tiyanga--who had just returned to camp. Higgens and Sewall listened with half smiles as the hysterical Tiyanga told a terrifying tale, claiming he encountered a creature as big as five elephants. As they retired for the evening, both Higgens and Sewall doubted the veracity of Tiyanga's wild story.

   The next morning, Higgens and Sewall continued with their hunt into the open veldt, where they spotted huge tracks, so they followed the trail--Higgens was burning to get his sights on the gargantuan beast.

   For three hours, the men followed the fresh spoor, then Sewall spotted the creature: An immense mammoth! Sewall thought the behemoth to be some sort of fantastic throwback to prehistoric times; but Higgens only thought it would be the greatest hunting trophy in history, so he raised his rifle and fired at the creature--although he hit it three times, the mammoth was unharmed. As the enraged juggernaut charged at them, Higgens and Sewall were forced to flee, but even as they crossed a river on a rope bridge, still the mammoth chased after them. The two men took shelter in a cave, but the mammoth had them trapped within--Sewall advised Higgens not to fire his gun again, because it would only torment the gigantic creature.

   For hours, the beast slashed with its tusks at the cave entrance, breaking off a tip of one tusk in the process, but doing no damage to the two hunters. Then at dawn, the mammoth suddenly turned its attention from the trapped men and began to follow a strange trilling sound that floated over the jungle. Driven by curiosity, Higgens and Sewall followed at a distance, until they saw what appeared to be another hunter confronting the beast...and he was guiding and dominating the mammoth with only a whip! They watched in amazement as the pacified creature stepped into what seemed to be some sort of a vast cage concealed in the jungle growth.

   But as Higgens and Sewall got closer, they saw that the other "hunter" was not human at all, but an alien being! The extraterrestrial apologized for his pet breaking loose, and assured them that it would never happen again. Suddenly, the entire "cage" rose out of the surrounding jungle and took flight, revealing itself as a spaceship--the two men thereby learned that the mammoth was actually a circus animal from outer space!

   Later, Higgens retrieved the broken tip of the mammoth's tusk--he finally had his prize trophy, although Sewall advised him that the Explorers Club would probably list it as just a prehistoric fossil. Higgens agreed and thought it would be best not to try to convince anyone otherwise, because no one would ever believe him...

Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Dave Berg.

... Yeah, I guess they never would have noticed that the fresh piece of tusk wasn't fossilized yet (he says sarcastically).

In this 4-page story--The Hunter's Prey!--the name of the organization was only mentioned once as "Explorers Club" (no apostrophe) by Sewall (see fourth image).

Although the opening caption identified Higgens as an American, Sewall's nationality was never mentioned--since he referred to Tiyanga as "the old chap," perhaps he was British.

Also, it was unclear if Sewall himself was actually a member of the Explorers Club--since he seemed to be the one most familiar with the territory, I'm guessing that he lived there, and that Higgens just hired him to be his guide.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Clyde Higgens has no known connections to:

• Ted Higgens, ocean explorer, discovered Oceaniers @ Journey into Unknown Worlds#45/2
• any other characters with similar names

Sewall has no known connections to:

• any other characters with similar names

Tiyanga has no known connections to:

• any other characters with similar names

The mammoth has no known connections to:

• Mammo, Bardu's tamed elephant @ Lorna the Jungle Girl#19
• Mammoth, giant robot, used by HYDRA against Hulk @ Aurora Comic Scene Model Book#182, with the Hulk
• Mammoth (Willie Amos), of the Underground, @ Blackwulf#1
• Mammoth of the Power Pachyderms @ Power Pachyderms#1
• Mammomax, of Exodus' Brotherhood of Mutants @ X-Men II#161
• Mastodon, named after the same prehistoric creature, one of the original Weapon X experimental subjects, mentioned in Wolverine II#50, first appearance @ Wolverine II#61
• Mastodon (David Landers), of Earth-148611 @ DP7#1
• any other characters with similar names, or any other elephants

The extraterrestrial circus owner has no known connections to:

• Calliope's Circus, worked for Swami Rihva, sought the treasure of Kamman-Ru @ Werewolf by Night I#6
• Circus of Crime, criminals led by Ringmaster (Maynard Tiboldt) @ Incredible Hulk I#3
• Circus of Death, Nazi agents led by Ringmaster (Fritz Tiboldt) @ Captain America Comics#5
• Circus of Crime of the Old West @ Kid Colt, Outlaw#106
• Circus of Moon Sun, Dark-Strider allies, fought by Shang-Chi @ Master of Kung-Fu I#36
• Circus Vandenberger, hired Daughters of the Dragon, Rudy Vandenberger and Bobo turned out to be criminals @ Marvel Comics Presents I#42/4
• Farnum & Daly Circus, animal show @ Avengers VI#11
• Keibler Circus, circus that unwittingly employed the Hulk @ Avengers I#1
  
• any other circuses (extraterrestrial or otherwise)

Sewall Sewall (first name unrevealed) guided American Clyde Higgens on his hunt through the jungles of Africa, so that Higgens could bag a prize trophy that was worthy of his membership in the Explorers Club (see comments). After a failed attempt to track a water buffalo through the African bush country, Sewall guided Higgens to a nearby Masaibi village so they could rest for the night. But when they reached the village, they overheard the hysterical Tiyanga telling of his frightful encounter with a huge creature. Although the two dismissed Tiyanga's story as being the product of the tribesman's wild imagination, Sewall assured Tiyanga that the "white hunter" would seek out the beast's trail in the morning. The next day, the two hunters encountered the creature themselves, and Sewall thought it to be a mammoth from Earth's prehistoric times. Higgens eagerly fired several shots at the beast, hoping to bag the greatest hunting trophy in history. But when the mammoth was unharmed by the bullets, Sewall and Higgens were forced to take shelter in a cave--during this time, the beast slashed with its tusks at the cave entrance, breaking off the tip of one tusk in the process. Some time later, the mammoth turned its attention to follow a strange trilling sound that called it from the jungle, and the two hunters followed in curiosity. Sewall and Higgens eventually learned that the mammoth was actually an escaped animal from an interplanetary circus! Later, after Higgens retrieved the piece of the mammoth's broken tusk, Sewall told him that he finally got his prize trophy, but that the Explorers Club would probably just list it as a prehistoric fossil. --Astonishing#53/4

Tiyanga A native of Africa, he was a Masaibi tribesman. While Tiyanga and another tribesman were hunting, they encountered a huge creature rampaging through the jungle--the two were forced to take shelter behind rocks to hide from the gargantuan beast. Later, Tiyanga and his companion followed the creature's path of destruction to a river village, where they saw that it had crushed a hut. The hysterical Tiyanga eventually returned to the Masaibi village, where he told his fellow tribesmen his frightful story; but Clyde Higgens and Sewall overheard Tiyanga, and they dismissed his claim as just a "madcap yarn". --Astonishing#53/4

mammoth Resembling a mammoth from Earth's prehistoric past, it was actually an extraterrestrial creature from an unidentified planet. It had immense size (according to Tiyanga, it was as large as five elephants) and strength; it was also impervious to conventional gunfire. It had been brought to Earth aboard the spaceship of an interplanetary circus, but it somehow broke loose and roamed an African jungle. It eventually menaced hunters Clyde Higgens and Sewall, during which it broke off the tip of one of its tusks. But the mammoth was eventually retrieved by the owner of the circus, who guided it back into the spaceship with a whip, then departed from Earth. --Astonishing#53/4

extraterrestrial circus owner The owner of a traveling space circus, he was a humanoid alien (race unidentified) with a slender build, grayish skin, and pointed ears. For some unrevealed reason, he landed his spaceship in the jungles of Africa. Somehow, one of his circus' animals--a huge creature resembling a prehistoric mammoth--broke loose, and the beast went on a rampage. But when the mammoth menaced Clyde Higgens and Sewall, and it had the two hunters trapped in a cave, the circus owner called the beast back with a strange trilling sound. When the mammoth returned to him, the circus owner used a simple whip to guide the behemoth back into the spaceship. As the curious Higgens and Sewall approached him, the circus owner apologized for his "pet" breaking loose, and he assured them that it wouldn't happen again. Shortly afterward, the spaceship took flight, presumably to make a voyage to the circus' next engagement. (Comment:It was unrevealed whether he was the actual owner of the circus, or only an employee--I'm just going to assume the former for simplicity's sake. And I'm going to consider that English lettering on the side of the alien spaceship to just be artistic license.) --Astonishing#53/4

images: (without ads)
Astonishing#53/4, p2, pan6 (Main Image - Clyde Higgens)
Astonishing#53/4, p1, pan2 (Headshot - Clyde Higgens)
Astonishing#53/4, p3, pan3 (Clyde Higgens fires his rifle at mammoth)
Astonishing#53/4, p4, pan7 (Clyde Higgens (right) holds broken tip of mammoth's tusk; Sewall (left) )
Astonishing#53/4, p1, pan1 (Sewall)
Astonishing#53/4, p3, pan1 (Sewall first sees mammoth)
Astonishing#53/4, p2, pan1 (Tiyanga)
Astonishing#53/4, p2, pan2 (in flashback, Tiyanga and unidentified tribesman in shadow of mammoth, as Tiyanga narrates)
Astonishing#53/4, p3, pan2 (mammoth standing by tree; Sewall and Clyde Higgens (background) )
Astonishing#53/4, p3, pan4 (mammoth proves to be resistant to Clyde Higgens' rifle)
Astonishing#53/4, p4, pan4 (mammoth guided back into spaceship by extraterrestrial circus owner using whip, as Sewall and Clyde Higgens watch)
Astonishing#53/4, p4, pan5 (extraterrestrial circus owner apologizes to Clyde Higgens)
Astonishing#53/4, p6, pan6 (spaceship of extraterrestrial circus takes flight, as Sewall and Clyde Higgens watch)

Appearances:
Astonishing#53/4 (September, 1956) - unidentified writer, Dave Berg (pencils and inks), Stan Lee (editor)