Mostri!
After a prologue set in Philadelphia and detached from the main storyline in which Zagor manages to foil a scam against a wealthy widow carried out by Jonathan Clark (the man who had lured Zagor and Chico into the trap set by Mortimer in Haiti), beating him up and handing him over to justice the real story begins.
In the forests of Darkwood, near the village of Frame Cross, terrifying creatures with deformed bodies are roaming about, frightening the Penobscot and seemingly responsible for several brutal murders. Who are they? And why is the enigmatic Mister Sterling hunting them?
Alongside Zagor’s efforts to answer these questions runs the story of Doctor Sand, who is searching for Tabitha, the Indian woman he loves, kidnapped by two bandits. Their paths intersect with those of other characters, and both will have to deal with the strange “monstrous beings,” who turn out to be nothing more than unfortunate people afflicted by devastating diseases and malformations, those commonly known as freaks.
It is revealed that the cruel Mister Sterling gathered these deformed individuals to exhibit them in his small circus, treating them in an inhuman way: depriving them of food, whipping them, and even disfiguring poor orphans with acid in order to turn them into “monsters.” The only one loyal to Sterling is Polyphemus, a man suffering from gigantism, who is responsible for the murders.
The freaks managed to escape from their tormentor precisely in Darkwood, which is why Sterling was searching for them. Most of them die in the forest, but three of them: Bark, Benny, and Lenny are still on the run.
After many ordeals, Zagor confronts Sterling and Polyphemus: the latter dies accidentally because of his master, while Sterling is struck by acid that makes him resemble the very freaks he exploited.
As the other subplots are also resolved (in particular that of Tabitha and Doctor Sand), the three surviving freaks are welcomed into the Penobscot tribe, where they will be able to live a peaceful life.
Interesting fact:
This story was originally conceived for the Almanacco dell’Avventura, not for the regular Zenith series. Moreno Burattini planned it that way for several reasons: the delicate theme of the “freaks” (people with deformities) could be handled with less exposure and fewer polemics outside the main series; it would also prove that an Almanacco story could be “series A” quality, countering the idea that Almanac stories were second-rate. Another key factor was production: Gallieno Ferri needed to draw a shorter story so he could focus on the 50th Anniversary Special, and placing this adventure in the Almanacco allowed that flexibility. The character of Doctor Sand, who had first appeared in the Almanacco, would also return to his original publishing context, avoiding further controversy among readers who disliked him.
Only later did Burattini decide to move the story into the regular series, expanding it and adding the Philadelphia prologue. This solved a narrative problem, closing the Jonathan Clark subplot immediately after Zagor’s return from Haiti and ensured Ferri’s presence in the main series during a crucial period. The result is a hybrid story: born as an Almanacco project, later promoted to the regular series, and enriched by a prologue that both accelerates the action and thematically anticipates the central idea of “monsters” who are, in truth, human creations.
