Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Six Review

Book six concludes Moore and Veitch’s story of Swamp Thing’s Space Odyssey that started in volume 5. It is a bit of a strange book because the tone of the comic has changed quite a bit compared to what it was in the first four volumes. Moore and his team of artists are no longer breaking ground, they’re mostly developed all of Swamp Things powers, though there is some new stuff still present in this book. The fact remains Moore and his collaborat

ors are no longer telling huge cataclysmic stories.

In something that serves as a parallel to Swamp Thing’s vegetable nature, the time of death and rebirth was replaced by a summer of horror and grand epic battles between Good and Evil but all that has moved on to make room for a story that is about to end. Everything seems a bit more restrained but everything retains the high standards of execution and story that has been previously established.  

As always Moore is a formalist and as a continuation of all his Swamp Thing stories narration boxes are filled with poetic language accompanying images filled with fantastical imagery as Swamp Thing continues his impossible quest to find a way to return to Earth and his true love, Abby.

The highlights of this volume are the two-part Adam Strange story, the Green Lantern story and the final two issues where Moore ties up the loose ends and give Swampy and Abby some R&R together before Moore says goodbye to them forever. If it seems strange to you that I qualified most of the stories in the volume as being highlights of the collection, you’ve clearly not been paying attention to the previous five posts on Moore’s Swamp Thing run. This is a damn good comic. Moore’s last issue doesn’t end in a climactic battle to end all battles like the culmination of the American Gothic storyline in issue #50. That suits me just fine and it fits well with how the series has progress since all the stories following the showdown between Good and Evil have been of a quieter more introspective tone than the horror stories found in the earlier volumes.  

This is a really neat cover but the
story inside is a bore.

Unlike that other issue, this one gives
you exactly what the cover promises.

I’m sorry to say that one of the more interesting covers (issue number?) was one of the most disappointing issues in Moore’s run. The whole thing was drawn and sculpted in a mix media art collage in 23 pages but due to the printing quality at the time it’s just a muddy, blurring mess of cogs, bits of wire and drawings of swamp thing’s face all over a newsprint quality page. I do not mean to criticize Totleben’s art on the issue because I’m certain that in person these collages were at the very least interesting to look upon but it doesn’t work well as a narrative and it also didn’t transfer well to the page. To add to this, Moore’s script is a bore to read and it simply doesn’t add much of anything to Swamp Thing’s journey back to Earthy. It’s an unnecessary and poorly executed interlude.

Alan Moore makes an appearance for
his final issue as the writer of Swamp Thing

This is remedied by the following issue which focuses on Swamp Thing’s arrival to a planet where plants have become sentient and is protected by a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Here Swamp Thing’s powers evolve one last time and he is now able to shift and change his electromagnetic frequencies thus ending his forced exile from earth. As a reader we all knew the story was heading in this direction but Veitch and Moore pull off a masterful execution of this evolution.

It was nice of Moore to tie up his loose ends, which allows Veitch to dive right into his own story on Swamp Thing following Moore’s last issue. It was also very nice to have an issue to simply enjoy Swamp Thing and Abby’s reunion. This final issue also provided most of the artists from Moore’s run a chance to return for a final few pages of artwork. I wish I had more to say about the last volume of this legendary run but after six posts I think I’m all tapped out. I’m glad I decided to give this run a second chance. It’s unfortunate that everything slows down to a crawl about halfway through but for those that decided to see it through to the end, Moore’s Swamp Thing run offers one of the best comic series of the 1980s and of all times. You can hardly call yourself a serious comic fan without having read this series. So what are you waiting for?

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Five Review

The fifth book collecting Alan Moore’s legendary run writing Swamp Thing is the second collection of Swamp Thing that I haven’t read previously. So far, the first three volumes have been rereads for me. During my first attempt at reading Moore’s Swamp Thing, I had mixed feelings. I recognized the sheer revolutionary power of his first 18 months on the title but after reading several issues consisting of Moore commenting on the mythology of America, I gave up. It was too preachy and, at the same time, hollow for my tastes. Last time, in my review of volume four, I mentioned the greatness that is to be found in the second half of the American Gothic storyline and I was once again spurred to continue reading Swamp Thing.

Once again I encountered my main problem with Alan Moore written comics with the first two issues of Book Five: momentum. I realize that it’s unfair to Moore that I seem to dislike all the issues of Swamp Thing that are less than spectacular. It’s either an excellent issue or an ok issue when it comes to his writing on this book. The thing is that’s how these issues read. My read problem though, isn’t exactly momentum. Moore’s formalistic approach to writing comics sucks the life out of whatever it is his writing. There is little or no energy at all to his writing and when a comic he wrote does display some kinetic and energetic storytelling it’s more often than not due to his collaborators than to Moore’s writing. His comics are too rigid; they’re not allowed to breathe under Moore’s guidance. On some occasions this style works really well but other times the story just falls flat.

Swamp Thing vs. Batman? Yup, and this
is Moore's run changing into a lower gear.

After the last book’s issue #50, I was expecting issue #51 to be a quieter story and it is. The problem is that it a set up for Swamp Thing’s Space Odyssey that truly begins in issue #56, the last issue in this collection. But, as you can imagine, Alan Moore sets up the story very well and he adds some nice element to the Swamp Thing mythos and there are even several good character moments which should not be surprising after 20+ issues. Swamp Thing is one of Moore’s most contemplatively moody series I’ve read and that tone leads to quieter stories. I didn’t know it at the time but issue #50 marked the last bombastic Swamp Thing story that Moore would write (yes, I’m aware of how ridiculous that sounds). The rest of the series is composed of quieter stories that still tell horrifying and moving stories about Swamp Thing and Abby Cable.

This collection turns the focus to Abby. The story deals with her relationship with the law after photos of her intimate relationship with Swamp Thing are revealed to the public in a newspaper. Swamp Thing returns from his war against Evil to find that Abby has seemingly disappeared. With these issues Moore juggles interesting character drama with Abby while also setting up an introspective journey through space for Swamp Thing.

An interesting thing about this collection is the similarities with Moore’s other comic work at the time, notably Watchmen with Dave Gibbons.  The similarities between issue 56 and the Watchmen issue where Dr. Manhattan goes to Mars are fascinating. I would really like to reread both those issue and discuss them further. For now, I’ll settle by saying issues 56 is one of the most interesting issues of Moore’s entire time as writer on Swamp Thing because of the way it encapsulates so much of what has already happened in the series and turning it against his main character in strange and frightening ways.

Swamp Thing is blue and he's alone on
a deserted planet reminiscing on the past.
Sound familiar? It should.

There are also similarities between Swamp Thing’s funeral issue in Gotham and the Comedian’s funeral issue in Watchmen (rain, a statue, people having flashbacks and what if scenarios intercutting the funeral scenes, one vigilante talking about another not quite vigilante). These elements may seem like elements that don’t share much with one another but it certainly doesn’t read that way. Was Alan Moore trying out storytelling techniques in Swamp Thing before leaving the title? Was it a way for him to practice before writing a work that was newer to him and maybe more important to him (I would argue Swamp Thing was ultimately more important to the world of comics than Watchmen). He seems to have done what he wanted to do on the title already. As far as I can tell, based on what Steve Bissette wrote in the introduction to volume 5 and volume 6 Moore’s story was being led in directions that Rick Veitch was more interested in and Moore agreed to go in that direction having done all there was to be done with horror in comics (no kidding).

In short, volume five goes off in a new direction for both the creators and the readers. Swamp Thing continues to be a very good comic even though it’s going through some changes in tone, characters and a change in art teams.  

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Four review

This volume collects issues 43 to 50 which conclude the American Gothic storyline that began in book three. I have to admit the last third of American Gothic is a triumphant finish to the longer Swamp Thing story arc by Moore. I was caught by surprise. The beginning of American Gothic is so difficult to read, not because it’s a challenging comic but simply because it’s not good, so when the momentum builds seemingly out of nowhere I was caught off-guard, not only by the story being told, but how well told it was. Everything culminates in issue #50 and I mean everything. The journey to that anniversary issue wasn’t such a treat though.

The momentum picks up almost from the first issue in this collection. Moore tells an interesting story staring one of the many tubers that grow and fall off of Swamp Thing. A man, Chester Williams, finds one of the tubers while in the swamp and brings it home. The tuber is cut up and sold off as a drug to different people. They all have hallucinogenic experiences but they all differ from one another. The type of person you are and the reason you’re eating the tubers will affect the time of hallucination you will get. It’s a clever, emotional one issue story and although if fits in the context of American Gothic, is works just as well on its own.

After that issue, Moore falls back into a few issues of exploring American horror and that other garbage. We also find out what Constantine has been training Swamp Thing for. We’re introduced to the Parliament of Threes, Swamp Thing continues to develop his powers and there is also the cataclysmic battle between Good and Evil in the concluding issue. Moore deftly interweaves a big philosophical question, magic and horror elements to his recently developed Swamp Thing mythology to tell what is easily one of his top three Swamp Thing issues. He also takes the time to joke around.

Moore ends issue 50 with two jokes. One of the jokes is admittedly dark humour. While Cain thinks over what he has learned from the confrontation of Good and Evil he comes to a realization that neither can nor will ever been defeated, they will continue to exist. However, Good and Evil can be refined and come to signify slightly different aspects of what they used to be. Once done his reminiscing, Cain turns to Abel and murders his brother for the nth time. Everything has changed but just slightly.

Moore also takes the time to take a jab at Steve Bissette. Bissette and John Totleben are considered to have been the primary artists on Moore’s run writing Swamp Thing. It’s not necessarily because they drew the most issues (I’m not even sure if that’s true or not). I think it’s more because they defined the look of Moore’s run more than any of the other artists who collaborated with him. Bissette had an ongoing struggle with deadlines and on the last page of issue #50 there is a tombstone with him name on it. The following is engraved beneath his name: “Here lies S. R. Bissette. He arrived late to his own funeral.” It’s great, I loved it.

This fourth volume of Saga of the Swamp Thing is a return to form for Moore and his team of artists. Not only do many plot elements all come together for a grand finish, but Moore also takes the time to set up the stories to come. It’s a bit unfortunate that not all of the issues are excellent but enough of them are to make this a worthwhile read. Things settle down a little bit in the next volume but only for about an issue or so. Review for book five coming up soon. 

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Three review

The third volume of Alan Moore’s time as the writer of Swamp Thing collects the first half the American Gothic storyline. Those issues present the first lull in the momentum that Moore and the artists had been building since issue #20. American Gothic is famous for introducing the character of John Constantine who became the poster boy of sorts for Vertigo Comics. Constantine cons Swamp Thing to go on a journey to different parts of America on what appears to be wild goose chases. To the perceptive reader, it is clear that Constantine is forcing Swamp Thing to change and develop as a plant Elemental.

This volume comes off as a slight disappointment compared to the first two volumes. The individual stories presented here aren’t as interesting as the previous issues. More importantly, they are difficult to read because Alan Moore gets preachy with him commentary of various elements of old and present America. I guess he tried to say something about America but I don’t think he was very successful.

The issues are very well executed but they’re simply uninteresting for the most part. It seems strange that the team that gave us a new Swamp Thing, a revamped and terrifying Floronic Man, a monster brawl between Swamp Thing, the Demon and the Monkey King, a frightening Arcane, a trip to hell and back and more than one out of body experiences give us, in this third volume, stories of a radioactive man, underwater vampires, a werewolf and a movie about slavery haunted by the very past it is trying to replicate. It’s pretty boring add to that Moore’s preachy narrative it’s almost enough to make you lose faith in the creative team.

Listed like that it doesn’t seem like this stories have much in common but they do and it’s that very thing that keeps this volume interesting and stops it from being a failure. Two things, actually. Swamp Thing is developing both as a character and as an elemental. His growth is what anchors this journey across America. The second thing keeping my interest in this volume is the introduction of John Constantine. He’s a manipulative jerk who has little remorse for the things he does to others. Swamp Thing is just a tool to him and he’s doing what he can to shape and prepare him for what is yet to come. It’s interesting to see just how much of a jerk John Constantine is in his first year. and the other is John Constantine being a horrible person and manipulating Swamp Thing. John Constantine is a jerk in these pages.

To follow up what I’ve written about Swamp Thing’s more texturized look in Moore’s run, in his introduction, Steve Bissette clarifies that it was John Totleben who wanted to draw Swamp Thing as something actually composed of vegetation and not simply a green man suit with roots. Thanks John Totleben, you and Bissette’s Swamp Thing looks great. There’s just so much texture.

I’d rather not write any more about this third volume, my least favourite of Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, so I’ll stop here. The story gets much, much better next volume. Well, not right away, but the end of American Gothic is a high point not only in Moore’s run but in Swamp Thing’s entire comics history. Review of volume four coming soon.  

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Two review

I like this volume even more than the first. It is one of the few truly revolutionary comics (Julian Darius demonstrated as such in a very interesting three part article in which he attempts, and succeeds, in understanding the bad blood between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. It is an excellent article and you should check in out on Sequart).  It is with the issues collected in Book Two that Moore goes from telling an excellent story to dishing out a masterpiece in monthly installments.

In Book One he tied up all the loose ends from the previous creative team’s time on Swamp Thing. Some people will tell you that all the loose ends where tied up in the first Moore issues titled “Loose Ends” but I think it took longer. The first eight issues felt like a superhero comic which isn’t the case with the second volume. In the first volume there are two pretty clearly defined storylines and in each one there is a pretty clear villain and a pretty clear hero. The first story concentrated on the Floronic Man and the second was about the Monkey King and Etrigan the Demon. They were two very good well done monster brawl comics but even so, the conflict is essentially two or more monster duking it out. There aren’t any monster brawls in volume two. There is still a villain though. Swamp Thing has a big confrontation with Anton Arcane, the Swamp Thing villain but it’s not a fist fight or even a dark magic death and decay vs. plant elemental fight which would be a reasonable thing for a comic to be about. Instead, Moore chooses to evolve Swamp Thing into a different kind of comic and these are the issues it happens in.

Swamp Thing is different than many other comics written by Moore because even though this is primarily a horror comic Swamp Thing has heart, it has real emotion. Some of Moore’s comics can feel like soulless machines designed to entertain. They feel constructed.

Moore and his collaborators are also developing Swamp Thing’s new identity as well as his supporting cast, specifically Abigail Cable. The first eight issues were all about taking care of the left overs plot threads and laying the groundwork for the stories to come. By volume two it’s already paying off. That’s one of the great things about open ended serialized storytelling. Good writers are able to simultaneously tell and epilogue of sorts from a previous story, tell a story and set up another story yet to come. When done well it builds an incredible momentum that’s even more apparent when read in quick succession or in collected form. It allows you to be able to tell stories that require a lot of preparation without it feeling like set up because you can have other shorter stories being told in the same issue. It’s great. Bill Willingham has been pretty good at doing this with Fables. It got to the point with that series that it didn’t feel like there were storylines anymore it was all one giant comic where multiple storylines took place all at the same time. It’s something you find all too rarely in comics I find but it’s one of the medium’s strength. I would like to see more ongoing comic series where it’s a rolling ball effect of plot and subplots and character development.

When I did the post for the first volume I mentioned how Bissette and Totleben made Swamp Thing look like a walking humanoid plant that didn’t necessarily have a clean cut layer of skin with roots sitting on the top such as was the case for Dan Day’s, and many others’, Swamp Thing. I was wondering if this was a plot point or simply Bissette and Totleben’s way of drawing Swamp Thing. It seems, if this volume can stand as proof, that it was more of an artistic choice. Shawn McManus draws Swamp Thing like a rubbery looking plant man with thick skin and roots sitting on the top while Bissette and inkers Totleben and Alfredo Alcala draw him like they did in volume one. In their hands Swamp Thing looks fuzzy with moss, he doesn’t seem to have skin as much as composed of plants and sticks and roots and other various vegetable bits. He looks like a Swamp Thing and not man wearing a green skin tight suit with roots sewn on his chest and shoulders. It’s strange when artist draws defined abdominal muscles on Swamp Thing. It doesn’t look right.

Bissette and Totleben are also very good at making the swamps look and feel like swamps. There are other animals and insects, several different types of vegetation; it’s very pleasing to the eyes. It gives everything a nice sense of realism but mostly it makes the swamp feel as though it’s habited. There are other things in the swamp other than Swamp Thing much like there is more to Swamp Thing than green skin.

I’m really looking forward to the next volume but I know I’ll be a bit disaponited. It’s the beginning of the year long American Gothic story arc which have some of Moore’s worst Swamp Thing issues.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One review

For many readers, Alan Moore is one of the greatest if not the greatest comics writer. Generally I would agree with this but I have some issues with him writing. I started to read his Swamp Thing run before and I stopped about halfway. It was about halfway through the longest story arc of his tenure called American Gothic. Essentially, it was a story building up to an excellent climax in issue #50 but I didn’t know that at the time because the stories leading up to the epic conclusion are some of the worst in his run. Alan Moore gets preachy and it’s difficult to read. I acquired the remaining three hardcovers a few months ago, deciding to give him a second chance in part due to Timothy Callahan’s Great Alan Moore Reread on Tor.com. So, for about a month, I read all of Moore’s Swamp Thing and except for a few dips in quality it’s an excellent read. I’d easily place it in his top five comics.

Let’s get on with it. This hardcover volume collects the first eight issues of Moore’s run on Saga of the Swamp Thing (#20-27). In case you live in a cave and didn’t already know, this is the comic that make Alan Moore famous in the American comics industry and revolutionized what the medium could do. It also played an very big role in the creation of the Vertigo Comics imprint. Even if you’re only read these eight issues you won’t find this surprising in the least. Moore kicks of his Swamp Thing story with a bang.

What’s so great about it? Well, issue #21 for starters. In one spectacular comic, Moore revamps who and what Swamp Thing is and does it all while telling a pretty frightening horror story. It turns out Swamp Thing is not formally a man, as he once thought. He is a vegetable monster in the shape ofa man who during the course of this volume learns to let go of who he thought he was and develop his humanity and identity. When it comes to character development, it’s a rather beautiful not to mention ground-breaking story for a horror comic. Moore’s Swamp Thing is about many things but in these earlier issues its about death and rebirth all made obvious to the reader with the use of Christine imagery.

There are two story arcs collected here.  The first story is about the death and resurrection of Swamp Thing while also tying up all the loose ends from the previous creative team’s run. All this is done while also setting up future story arcs. Moore and his collaborators Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and Stan Woch also find a way to revamp the Floronic Man into a frightening villain.

The second story arc isn’t as strong as the first, which is fine because the first few issues are of an unbelievably high quality. Interestingly enough, Moore’s Swamp Thing up to this point consists of monsters fighting other monsters but Moore and his collaborators are creating a new style of comics which is much more poetic, subtle in its technique and with plenty of literary allusions.

So much vegetation, so much texture!

The art is just as interesting as Moore’s writing. The first issue is drawn by Dan Day and his Swamp Thing looks like very large, muscles man with green skin and roots here and there on his body. He looks like something from a swamp alright but the Swamp Thing we get from Stephen Bissette and John Totleben is another thing entirely. Their monster looks much more like swamp vegetation taking a humanoid form. He does not have a smooth body with a few roots here and there, he has much more texture. He’s fuzzy from the moss, he’s growing tubers, the roots grow in and out of him as opposed to sitting on top of his skin. One of the characters mentions at one point that he has a bug crawling inside of his arm. There is very little that is physically human about this new Swamp Thing.

I’m unclear whether these art choices were done to compliment Swamp Thing’s death and rebirth or if it’s simply the artists’ take on the character. I suppose it doesn’t matter because it works and its look fantastic.

All in all, Swamp Thing Book One is an excellent read. You have monster, storytelling mixing the poetic and the horrific, art that is both graphic and beautiful. It’s a brand new (well, at the time) approach on the Swamp Thing and despite the density of the storytelling (at lot happens in 8 issues) you get a feeling this is just the beginning. Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Two review coming soon.