CONCRETE 115
the end of its run in 1995, Concrete tells the story of Ronald Lithgow, a middle-aged
American divorcé whose human body has been replaced by aliens with a body made
of living rock. Although passing comparisons can be made to Marvel’s Ben Grimm/
Th ing, Chadwick’s work uses the melancholy of a man literally trapped within his own
body and somewhat ostracized by society for a serious examination of the benefi ts
superhuman ability might bestow upon an individual who wishes to explore and un-
derstand the world and the human condition. Part heroic action, part philosophical
rumination, Concrete alternates between Lithgow’s daily concerns about how best to
live with himself and others, and a series of adventures that frequently return to the
themes of environmental ethics and the beauty of the natural world as two causes most
worthy of human concern.
Lithgow becomes Concrete during a mountain hike with his friend Michael. Aliens
abduct the two men and transfer their brains into living bodies made of a substance
closely resembling concrete. Th e two men use their newly gained abilities and wits to
escape their captors, but Michael dies in the attempt. Lithgow survives to see an entire
mountainside collapse as the alien ship rises from it and fl ies away. He is left alone in an
alien body and attempts to return to human civilization.
Lithgow turns to a range of friends for help reintegrating into society. Having been
a political speechwriter for Senator Mark Douglas, Lithgow asks his past employer for
help managing the media reception of his new body and persona. With the Senator’s
help, Lithgow fabricates a story and goes public as “Concrete,” a living robot produced
by secret government experiments. Th e subsequent overexposure he receives via talk-
shows and marketing campaigns permits Lithgow to hide the real truth of his origin in
plain sight.
After the initial media frenzy and governmental quarantine, Concrete is left to de-
cide what to do with the rest of his life. Since he retains his human personality and
interests, Concrete decides to continue writing and to use his body to travel to locations
and take on challenges too remote or too dangerous for typical human survival. Among
the abilities his alien form bestows is exceptionally keen eyesight, which Lithgow uses
to become an ideal observer of nature and humanity in his travels. His outdoor ex-
peditions include swimming the Atlantic Ocean and climbing Mount Everest, but his
adventures also put Concrete in the midst of human society, where he grapples with the
problems of celebrity. In the Fragile Creatures collection, Concrete works on the set of a
Hollywood movie; in “An Armchair Stuff ed with Dynamite,” he befriends and counsels
a rock-and-roll star troubled by the pressures of fame and fortune.
Concrete frequently puts his abilities to a humanitarian end. He has in various
issues saved miners trapped by a cave-in, worked to save a family farm doomed to
foreclosure, and rescued a friend from a brutal kidnapping. One of Concrete’s more
controversial story arcs is the collection Th ink Like a Mountain, in which Concrete
enters a loose alliance with a group of radical environmentalists who employ the tactics
of eco-terrorism to prevent the logging of an old-growth forest. Typical of Chadwick’s
attention to both graphical and intellectual design, Concrete bounds dramatically
