Todd & Joe Have Issues 01/05/17 Swamp Thing 21
When the main stream things ‘Swamp Thing’ I’m sure most people thing of the Wes Craven film from the early 80’s
I was a bit too you to catch it in in it’s original run, but due to heavy rotation on HBO, this was the Swamp Thing I knew. Flash forward two years later, still not reading a ton of actual, physical comics, Alan Moore, Steven Bissette and John Totleben told a tale that would change Alec Holland forever!
This was a modern day story of ‘everything you know is wrong’ and it stuck. They took the past ten plus years of Swamp Thing continuity and threw it out the window. And it’s fantastic. I did not read this for the first time until almost 15 years later and knowing what the issue was about, it still packed a punch.
Now, the other media version of Swamp Thing would not be changed by this, spinning of a film sequel, a TV show on the USA Network, a Saturday morning cartoon and a toy line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u-WYde7nIo
Man, the 90’s were a weird time.
Now, this issue is not a freebie on many digital platforms, but has been collection dozens of times by DC, they even published a $1.00 version of the book, but if you use your Bing machine to dig through the muck, I’m sure you can read this issue before next week.
Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our list.
Perfect way to spend a day snowed in! The older Swamp Things arrr another hole in my reading history that I’ve wanted to fill in.
This is a good example of how a “one and done” story can have a major impact without all the baggage of writing for the trades. It had a great spooky mood! Made me wish DC would finally pull the trigger on a service like Marvel Unlimited.
I just started re-reading this run and it still holds up to my memory of how good it was for a 30 year old comic. I started picking up Swamp Thing with issue 35 and then started hunting down the back issues in the run (which was helped out when I moved to University in Sept 85). It took a while to locate this issue at a decent price, but was still amazed when I did.
Yes it is wordy in the way that Moore is, but it is a lot easier to get through and has aged better tha Claremont X-men from the same time.
Looking back it could be one of the most important comics of all time as this was the start of the style that would lead to Vertigo. The mid80s were exciting time to be a comic reader with a lot of great writing and to me Swamp Thing was the most exciting book to read month in and month out.
As important as Watchman was, the Swamp Thing run is my favourite work by Moore as you see him come of age as a writer. There was a sense that anything could happen and it was not predictable. Can’t wait to hear your take this week.
I hope you mentioned Moore actually wrote the preceding issue as well, setting pieces in place for the anatomy lesson.