In the latest edition of Comics to Read Before You Die, Jessie Robertson looks at Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 1…
Swamp Thing issues #20-27 (Jan- Jul 1982)
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Dan Day & Rick Veitch
Colors by Tatjana Wood
Lettering by John Costanza & Todd Klein
Original Series Cover Art by Tom Yeats, Stephen Bissette & John Totleben
Original Series Cover Colors by Tatjana Wood
“THERE IS A RED AND ANGRY WORLD.
RED THINGS HAPPEN THERE.
THE WORLD EATS YOUR WIFE.
EATS YOUR FRIENDS.
EATS ALL OF THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HUMAN.
AND YOU BECOME A MONSTER.”
When you hear the phrase, “Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen” you think it’s a sales pitch for something that you probably have seen before; but in the case of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, it’s dead on the money. When people think of Swamp Thing, they probably think of the 1982 Wes Craven movie, with the damsel in distress in silky revealing nighties and a monster covered in green moss and rubber. But, Swamp Thing was a popular comic book character when he was first created by Len Wein & Berni Wrightson in 1971. He also had a live action television series on in the early 90’s on the USA Network that despite being complete camp, was one of their best rated shows for a time.
The origins of Swamp Thing are not unlike most any other super heroes; Dr. Alec Holland, a noted botanist, was working on a chemical that could grow plant life anywhere when a treacherous bad guy wanted the formula for himself and caused an explosion in Holland’s lab. His formula splashed all over him and mutated him into the muck-covered swamp creature. He was like a hulking green zombie, incoherent speech and slumped shoulders; he was straight out of the Black Lagoon. But in 1982, when a newly discovered writer named Alan Moore ventured from the UK and took over Swamp Thing (which at the time was on the verge of cancellation), he revolutionized the character and created one of the most bizarre and thought-provoking comic titles of all time.
Saga of the Swamp Thing is a complete reinvention of the character from his origins and one that melds the human psyche with that of a natural living thing in ways that no one had conceived of to that point. The plot is so twisting and engaging I hate to even spoil any of the major details here, as this is a book you simply need to experience yourself. I’ll try to be as vague as possible.
This collection is a true comic book run so when you read it, there are ongoing threads but each issue becomes its own storyline so there are a couple of different things going on. When the story opens, Swamp Thing has discovered the body of his arch-rival Anton Arcane, a noted scientist who wanted Swamp Thing’s formula to use on himself to gain power and control over plants. Arcane is discovered dead and Swamp Thing has a dialogue with his skeleton during the issue. It’s a journey of self-discovery as now that Swamp Thing is the only creature of his kind around, he starts feeling lonely and displaced.
“We’re things of shadow, you & I….and there isn’t as much shadow….as there used to be.”
There’s a lot of introspection from him as he pontificates to a withered and deformed skull, meandering through the murky depths of the Louisiana swamps. Elsewhere, a mogul named Sunderland wants Swamp Thing for research and is dispatching a team to procure the unique specimen. Arcane’s niece Abigail, a friend of Dr. Holland, is with her husband, Matt Cable, also trying to distance themselves from Arcane’s death while trying to locate Dr. Holland at the same time. Abby doesn’t realize that Matt is holding a dark secret that is both morbid and perverse, but she knows something isn’t right. Just looking at the images of Cable in the book will creep you out. From there, the story moves forward into territory undiscovered, from a man with spray-painted on skin, to a demented monkey that inhabits a young child’s dreams and everything in between.
Issue #21 (the second of the book) is narrated by a Dr. Jason Woodrue, who is the Floronic Man, a completely obscure character from the DC canon that Moore brought to the forefront to use in this story, a trademark of his that would lead to his penultimate work, Watchmen (which we’ll be getting to later.) This issue is the nucleus of what Moore is trying to accomplish and the writing here is as amazing as it is prolific. It’s the best of the book. Issue #22 provides another great quote that digs deeper into the issue of what exactly Dr. Holland has become:
“Imagine all those years hoping that one day he’d retrieve his humanity only to find out he never had any in the first place.”
Woodrue is a tremendous villain for Swamp Thing, as he strives to be come what Holland is; one with green life all around him. He quips that he “likes the sound of steak sobbing” as he tortures a young woman from a nearby town. He provides some of the more grotesque moments in the story. There’s another great aside, no more than 5 panels of a man and wife who realize the green is going to turn against them as he burns his own lawn, and looks up to see a tree outside their house that he and his wife carved their names into when they were young kids in love, knowing he has to chop it down or else it would become their doom.
There are even guest appearances from the Justice League and the Demon as the issues tick down but the focus is kept on the Swamp Thing’s struggle to find his own identity and place in the world; simultaneously we follow Abby Arcane as she is doing the same thing, which brings her and Holland closer. The artwork in this series is both gothic and stringently real. The people are drawn with straight lines, but come off the page as real people through the fleshy colors and human dialogue. Some of the panels have borders around them, one page using Swamp Thing himself as the bookends to the pages; another using a medicine ball ticker you would find on someone’s desk, as Sunderland starts it in motion, the balls clicking together, knocking the last in the line up and back until they split their tiny strings and collapse during a pivotal moment in the story.
Saga of the Swamp Thing is a title that is so good, I can’t just recommend this first volume but the next several after to get a full rounded view of what Moore accomplished during that run. The story travels farther and farther out, to the reaches of what you would expect in a comic book and doesn’t relinquish its hold on you as it goes. It’s a dark journey, a disturbing one but one of self-discovery for the characters you embark on it with and one that is a must read for all comic book fans.
Next time: the most mysterious man’s mystery is revealed
And: if you have any suggestions or books you’d like to me include in this series, feel free to comment below and let me know!
Jessie Robertson
