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 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.