Writer: Alan Moore
Artists: Stephen Bissette, Rick Veitch, John Totleben
Issues Included: Saga of The Swamp Thing #20-27
What do you do when a comic title just doesn't sell anymore? I'm asking "you" not as a reader, but as a publisher, who does this to feed his family, and thousands of other families including the talent, the assistants, the distributors, the stockists and what not!
You cancel the book. Painful to the demographic who has been heartily supporting your book, but it gets done. Look at X-Men. Sixty-six issues into it's initial run (by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, and later Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Neal Adams and more) and the company stopped new issues.
Or you give it to an A-list writer, who'll probably turn him into an A-list character. It's worked with Green Lantern (Geoff Johns), The Incredible Hulk (Peter David), The Flash (Mark Waid), JLA (Grant Morrison) and Neil Gaiman (Black Orchid, Sandman) among others. Hell, did we ever imagine a day when the top selling characters at DC & Marvel would be Green Lantern & Iron Man, respectively?
I for one didn't.
But that's old hat.
DC pulled the ultimate success story way back, in the early Eighties, when a relatively unknown writer (Alan was pretty active in British Comics back then, but an unknown in the US) took over the reins of Swamp Thing from veteran Michael Fleischer.
And you know what?
It worked.
Third time's the charm, but the first matters the most.
But Alan Moore was brought in mid story. It fell upon him to complete the earlier arc in a story fitting the description, "Loose Ends".
The next issue was the one which garnered the maximum acclaim and was voted universally as the best story of the year. Alan would continue for some forty-odd issues and take Swampy to places that he's never been before. It was comic book history. When the themes were termed too "mature", the Comics Code was junked. This was the (unofficial) beginning of the VERTIGO label - an imprint which would go on to give us stellar titles like Fables, Y: The Last Man, The Sandman, Hellblazer, Preacher, The Losers and The Invisibles. A picture perfect run that many doubt will be repeated....ever (Sorry Scott!). And it all began with a simple lesson.
'The Anatomy Lesson' has The Floronic Man, aka Jason Woodrue, studying the corpse of the Swamp Thing under General Sunderland (the big bad of the previous storyline) in exchange for a reduced prison term. What he discovered would change Swamp Thing forever. Until now, Swamp Thing thought it was Alec Holland, burned by the lab explosion, merged with the Swamp.
But that wasn't it at all.
Alec Holland was dead. As a doornail.
But his consciousness survived the explosion. Permeated The Green (the one-mind all beings with chlorophyll are supposed to be a part of, just as the one-mind of animals is 'The Red') and built a new body for itself.
Swamp Thing was just a bunch of plants that thought they were human.
And this was just the first issue.
Subsequently, Swamp Thing journeys through the green. Matt and Abigail Cable find his body rooted to the swamp, under Jason Woodrue's watch. Jason Woodrue then makes use of Swamp Thing's connection to the green to wage war on Earth's population. And Swamp Thing solves the Justice League's problem for them.
Jason Blood and Etrigan guest star for the last 2 issues when a planchette gone wrong ends up summoning the symbolic deity of fear.
And if you think I've dedicated most of this review to the second issue, go and read it once. It's mindblowing, and what I've conveyed will never even be fit to kiss the feet of what Mr Moore accomplished oh-so long ago.
Series artist Stephen Bissette is an extraordinary talent who conveys the lush greens wonderfully and ably, aided by Rick Veitch and John Totleben.
This hardcover collects issues 20-27. There is a softcover edition available, but it doesn't collect issue 20, which wraps up the previous storyline. It has a beautiful cover by Michael Zulli, but the same cover is included in the hardcover's interior pages. Sadly, Alan Moore's introduction from the softcover isn't.
One word of notice, though. Once you begin, most of you are going to be hooked to this one for the rest of Mr Moore's run at least.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Artists: Stephen Bissette, Rick Veitch, John Totleben
Issues Included: Saga of The Swamp Thing #20-27
What do you do when a comic title just doesn't sell anymore? I'm asking "you" not as a reader, but as a publisher, who does this to feed his family, and thousands of other families including the talent, the assistants, the distributors, the stockists and what not!
You cancel the book. Painful to the demographic who has been heartily supporting your book, but it gets done. Look at X-Men. Sixty-six issues into it's initial run (by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, and later Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Neal Adams and more) and the company stopped new issues.
Or you give it to an A-list writer, who'll probably turn him into an A-list character. It's worked with Green Lantern (Geoff Johns), The Incredible Hulk (Peter David), The Flash (Mark Waid), JLA (Grant Morrison) and Neil Gaiman (Black Orchid, Sandman) among others. Hell, did we ever imagine a day when the top selling characters at DC & Marvel would be Green Lantern & Iron Man, respectively?
I for one didn't.
But that's old hat.
DC pulled the ultimate success story way back, in the early Eighties, when a relatively unknown writer (Alan was pretty active in British Comics back then, but an unknown in the US) took over the reins of Swamp Thing from veteran Michael Fleischer.
And you know what?
It worked.
Third time's the charm, but the first matters the most.
But Alan Moore was brought in mid story. It fell upon him to complete the earlier arc in a story fitting the description, "Loose Ends".
The next issue was the one which garnered the maximum acclaim and was voted universally as the best story of the year. Alan would continue for some forty-odd issues and take Swampy to places that he's never been before. It was comic book history. When the themes were termed too "mature", the Comics Code was junked. This was the (unofficial) beginning of the VERTIGO label - an imprint which would go on to give us stellar titles like Fables, Y: The Last Man, The Sandman, Hellblazer, Preacher, The Losers and The Invisibles. A picture perfect run that many doubt will be repeated....ever (Sorry Scott!). And it all began with a simple lesson.
'The Anatomy Lesson' has The Floronic Man, aka Jason Woodrue, studying the corpse of the Swamp Thing under General Sunderland (the big bad of the previous storyline) in exchange for a reduced prison term. What he discovered would change Swamp Thing forever. Until now, Swamp Thing thought it was Alec Holland, burned by the lab explosion, merged with the Swamp.
But that wasn't it at all.
Alec Holland was dead. As a doornail.
But his consciousness survived the explosion. Permeated The Green (the one-mind all beings with chlorophyll are supposed to be a part of, just as the one-mind of animals is 'The Red') and built a new body for itself.
Swamp Thing was just a bunch of plants that thought they were human.
And this was just the first issue.
Subsequently, Swamp Thing journeys through the green. Matt and Abigail Cable find his body rooted to the swamp, under Jason Woodrue's watch. Jason Woodrue then makes use of Swamp Thing's connection to the green to wage war on Earth's population. And Swamp Thing solves the Justice League's problem for them.
Jason Blood and Etrigan guest star for the last 2 issues when a planchette gone wrong ends up summoning the symbolic deity of fear.
And if you think I've dedicated most of this review to the second issue, go and read it once. It's mindblowing, and what I've conveyed will never even be fit to kiss the feet of what Mr Moore accomplished oh-so long ago.
Series artist Stephen Bissette is an extraordinary talent who conveys the lush greens wonderfully and ably, aided by Rick Veitch and John Totleben.
This hardcover collects issues 20-27. There is a softcover edition available, but it doesn't collect issue 20, which wraps up the previous storyline. It has a beautiful cover by Michael Zulli, but the same cover is included in the hardcover's interior pages. Sadly, Alan Moore's introduction from the softcover isn't.
One word of notice, though. Once you begin, most of you are going to be hooked to this one for the rest of Mr Moore's run at least.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
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