To my great regret, I never got into Swamp Thing as a kid. Really wish I'd picked some of these up back then. Beautiful books with great stories and art. Thanks for opening a window onto this for me.
Alan Moore took Swamp Thing to another level... but he's a wizard, so. However, there's nothing like Wrightson's Swamp Thing. I wish the two of them could've worked it together.
Bronze Age Swampy, what a great collection, I really like the Saga comic leading upto the arrival of Alan Moore too. Once through the looking glass, oh my.. it was good before, then it just kept unravelling and unspooling into Moore's wonderland, rewriting my world and .. yeah, one of my favourite runs. Totally agree, the capes dont work for me either but the Batman Gotham conflict is fantastic, one of my all time favourite stories. So many good things in this run, the Holland revelation, the madness of Woodrue, the monstrous Arcane, the supernatural team up Constantine, Etrigan, Phantom Stranger, Madame Xanadu, Spectre .. so good, so cool. The artwork is exceptional, detailed and weird, perfectly cunjours up supernatural and horror imagery. The space stuff towards the end.. wasnt for me, as for Adam Strange, best not to dwell on that. Not long after Marvel UK had begun publishing Captain Britain serial, Moore started on Saga. During that run, 2000 A.D.s The Ballad of Halo Jones was coming out, Quality Communications was publishing Warrior Magazine featuring V for Vendetta, Marvelman, and The Bojeffries Saga, 1985's Superman Annual #11 (one the best Superman stories of all time for me), and the Watchmen maxi was towards the tail end. A very productive burst and weirdly all those stories for each of those different comics and different publishers are heralded as landmarks and great works today, a one man revolution.. he was busy while writing Swamp Thing. To step back and look at his accomplishments during the time of Saga of the Swamp Thing, I find that fascinating.
I read the Alan Moore run this year for the first time. It got me actually scared a few times :). I did went with the box set instead of the absolutes to have the original colors (I don't like comic books looking too digital).
The multiple airings of the 1982 movie on the pay movie channels is where my appreciation started. Weird synergy since just last week I finally picked up vol 5 and 6 of the Saga of Swamp Thing collection. Was hoping to get hardcover copies to go with my volume 1 - 4 but decided the price was never going to be in my willing to pay range and got the softcovers. Sandman also had some crossovers with DC main universe characters, in early issues of the series, that were weird too. Golden Age Sandman made sense but not so much others that poked there head in. Though that was par for the course at DC have main heroes visit their title or take a new character and have them run around with Justice League for a little while.
What a coincidence. I discovered a video on The Golden Age of Horror Comics which for some reason I thought was short but is over an hour long and I haven't finished watching it. I never read many horror comics when I was young. When I was about 5 I found something set in the far east or featuring a character who was a magician with a turban. I don't recall if he was the good guy or the bad guy, but I couldn't sleep at night and my mother wisely took the comic away from me and eventually sleep returned. After that I had a horror of horror comics. Now that was a real surprise !
i loved the DC-Warner swamp thing series whivh came out in may 2019. was so heartbroken to learn that it got cancelled when they were filming s1 e1. so although 13 episodes were planned for s1, it was only 10 at last
My mom got me one of those Swamp Thing comic books when I was a kid. I remember there was a bald guy with his hand sewn behind his back. That creeped the f*** out!
8:37 - When Sunderland was being suffocated by Swamp Thing, you see these blue blurry images of his to show he was kicking his feet and struggling for air. In some reprints they are taken out so all you see are his dangling feet. Really odd.
It's heartbreaking for me whenever a writer works hard on a project and then feels pressured to "disown" it if some people got the wrong idea about it or just plain disliked it. The blank page is intimidating enough to worry about crowd approval-- unless that was the goal but if so, why worry about writing anything challenging in the first place? Ah, well, it was his work and he could do whatever he wanted to do to it. Retcons and reboots drove me away from contemporary mainstream comics and it's good to be free!😊
Len Wein's Swamp Thing was fun, but Alan Moore's was a work of art. The thing about Moore is he loves deconstruction a bit too much. Deconstruction sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. For example, it is probably good he wasn't allowed to use the original Charlton characters in Watchmen. It would have been to dark for the original characters. So it was good he used altered versions of them. However, when he is on, he is probably the best writer of comics.
1. Michael, I very much agree that Swamp Thing is a more interesting character than Man-Thing - Manny reacts while Swampy interacts, Manny has not evolved since his creation (which is fine in the hands of a great writer like Steve Gerber) while Swampy has developed in many ways and in many directions. 2. Yes, Alan Moore completely upended the Swamp Thing mythos but I still enjoyed what Martin Pasko did with the first 18-odd issues of Volume 2 (the issues nearly everyone seems to have forgotten about). 3. To my eternal gratitude, a number of my letters were published in the letters columns of the Moore issues, my fleeting contact with fame. 4. Rarely have two artists been so right for the writer and the title as were Totleben and Bissette for Moore and Swamp Thing. 5. Regarding superheroes, I think Moore deliberately made them not quite fit, his way of pointing out that in some parts of the DCU the so-called "capes" are unable to deal with a threat because they lack the necessary understanding and powers - some threats you can't punch away or use willpower-created constructs to force into submission. But you're right in that the darker DCU characters worked best as guest-stars. 6. Moore's "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" shows that he could reign it back enough to write an effective, emotionally resonant Superman tale. 7. I have to stop here too because I could write about Swamp Thing for page after page, still one of my favourite comics characters and I started reading funnybooks in 1971. Thanks for your fine overview Michael.
This was a very informative video. I was a fan of Swamp Thing when I was growing up, but I don't think I spent much money on the comic books. In my head I'm hearing the song WILD THING but with SWAMP THING instead.
Gerry Conway (Man-Thing) and Len Wein (Swamp Thing) were roommates at one time, and basically stole the character known as The Heap from the Airboy comic (published by Hillman) for Marvel and DC respectively. Of course, Harry Stein's the Heap wasn't the first swamp monster. That would likely go to Theodore Sturgeon's It!, which had been published in the pulp magazine Unknown in 1940. In other words, everyone stole from the pulps, Hollywood most egregiously.
I reread Moore's run as an adult and it still held up for me. However, one thing I caught that blew me away as a teen, but no longer really makes sense to me was the idea that Alec Holland no longer existed. Especially because Moore eventually has "Swamp Thing's" consciousness jumping into different bodies. What makes a person - including Alec Holland - IS their consciousness. It's irrelevant if the consciousness was somehow recreated by plants or even a machine. What makes us who we are is our consciousness - memories, thoughts, and feelings. Why doesn't "Swamp Thing" cease to exist when he jumps to a new body? What's the difference between that and Alec's body disintegrating and his consciousness being recreated by plants? While anyone would understandably be terrified to discover their body and brain no longer existed, Alec Holland still remained Alec Holland. In any case, I was happy to see this video.
Now that James Gunn is in charge at DC maybe we'll see Moore's Swamp Thing story brought to film. Gunn seems interested in the quirkier (and arguably lesser known) comic book characters so you never know.
Classic run. Gets a little off the rails toward the tail end but very engrossing. Love the original Swamp Thing too but it tends toward the camp. (Btw, Swamp Thing movie is actually good for what it is. And that Adrienne Barbeau...rarrrrrrrr.....)
Glad you brought up how adult he makes some characters. I love Alan Moore but sometimes his characters are a written a bit too honestly to the point they can be an uncomfortable read.
Moore’s Swamp Thing made me think and feel that stuff like death, putrefaction and gross stuff I’d never touch in an actual swamp are sort of natural and beautiful - it had me considering what life as a plant would be (he takes a lot from Neoplatonism, but that’s not here nor there). I’d argue Abby is probably the best lady character written in American comics to date. Horror is mostly about feeling fear which it’s directly linked to the fact that humans die (most of us, at least - I’m not so sure about Keith Richards or Moore himself) - you put Superman in there and, well, I agree it doesn’t work. No detriment to Bissette, Totleben and Veich- their hand also made the run what it is - but a Moore/Wrighston Shawmpy story would have been a match made in heaven.
I’ve been meaning to read this for years… Can’t believe I haven’t yet. Did you see the Swamp Thing show that came out a couple of years ago? I liked the killing joke, but I agree, it went a little too far for a superhero comic.
I'd say that was a fair review. But its one of my favorite comics. That has some big flaws. Also please review The Spectre old or new. Totally underrated character
The reason why Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run is published under the Black Label imprint is that DC Comics ceased publishing the Vertigo Comics line a few years back. Unfortunately poor editorial decisions lead to declining interest and sales of new Vertigo titles published in the mid 2000's. I really need to read that entire Swamp Thing run. If you didn't like Alan Moore's take on Adam Strange i wonder what you make of Tom King's take on the character in Strange Adventures. Hint, is Adam Strange a romantic adventurer or war criminal?
The absolute editions are beautiful, but I still don't know how I feel about recolourings. It doesn't sit right with me, even though in many cases it looks better.
Agree 100% about superheroes not working in Swamp Thing at all. They take you right out of the story. Swamp Thing should've remained a self-contained book. No Green Lantern. No Superman. No Justice League. Superheroes destroy the verisimilitude that horror and weird fantasy need to cast their spell. Unfortunately, Rick Veitch and Doug Wheeler didn't do the series any favors (sadly, Wheeler was saddled with one of the worst illustrators DC ever had), but Nancy Collins revived the series and brought it back to its horror/gothic/dark fantasy roots.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 I thought it was pretty good but then again I'm not into comic books. So, I can't compare the one with the other. I do love comic books (used to read them alot when I was a kid) but nowadays there seem to be so many about them. Kinda like "normal" books. :)
I remember Alan telling me at a London comic mart, that he had a Batman Annual to knock out over the weekend. That turned out to be The Killing Joke. Because Alan was becoming a big name, DC held it back, and after Brian Bolland took forever over the art, and they finally put it out, in a flashier format than originally intended. By then he'd produced much better work, which raised expectations too high. Alan always said the the Clayface story he wrote that appeared in a later Batman Annual is far superior, and he was right.
I once met Theodore Sturgeon at a comic con and asked him what he thought of Swamp Thing. It wasn't a pleasant conversation. The comics ripped him off. His story "It" was out for years.
To my great regret, I never got into Swamp Thing as a kid. Really wish I'd picked some of these up back then. Beautiful books with great stories and art. Thanks for opening a window onto this for me.
Ok😊
Only Alan Moore could make a whole comic about a sweet potato and makes you reevaluate your life choices
Killing Joke is one of my favourite Alan Moore comics for DC (second only to For the Man who has Everything)
It's always wonderful to hear someone talk about Swamp Thing, especially the Alan Moore era.
Loved Alan Moore’s run of Swamp Thing. One of the few comic collections I’ve read all the way through.
Alan Moore was amazing. Between Watchmen and Swamp Thing it changed the way I looked at reality as a child
V for vendetta
Killing Joke
Alan Moore took Swamp Thing to another level... but he's a wizard, so. However, there's nothing like Wrightson's Swamp Thing. I wish the two of them could've worked it together.
the coloring looks so much better in your book than in the 6 books that I have
Those Absolute editions of Swamp Thing are beautiful.
This is his ultimate work in comics, he was still happy and hungry to be in American comics
Neil Gaiman constantly references Swamp Thing as an inspiration along with Michael Moorcock. I guess I need to collect those omnibuses next!
Bronze Age Swampy, what a great collection, I really like the Saga comic leading upto the arrival of Alan Moore too. Once through the looking glass, oh my.. it was good before, then it just kept unravelling and unspooling into Moore's wonderland, rewriting my world and .. yeah, one of my favourite runs. Totally agree, the capes dont work for me either but the Batman Gotham conflict is fantastic, one of my all time favourite stories. So many good things in this run, the Holland revelation, the madness of Woodrue, the monstrous Arcane, the supernatural team up Constantine, Etrigan, Phantom Stranger, Madame Xanadu, Spectre .. so good, so cool. The artwork is exceptional, detailed and weird, perfectly cunjours up supernatural and horror imagery. The space stuff towards the end.. wasnt for me, as for Adam Strange, best not to dwell on that.
Not long after Marvel UK had begun publishing Captain Britain serial, Moore started on Saga. During that run, 2000 A.D.s The Ballad of Halo Jones was coming out, Quality Communications was publishing Warrior Magazine featuring V for Vendetta, Marvelman, and The Bojeffries Saga, 1985's Superman Annual #11 (one the best Superman stories of all time for me), and the Watchmen maxi was towards the tail end. A very productive burst and weirdly all those stories for each of those different comics and different publishers are heralded as landmarks and great works today, a one man revolution.. he was busy while writing Swamp Thing. To step back and look at his accomplishments during the time of Saga of the Swamp Thing, I find that fascinating.
It really was the Moore Age of comics.
This video made me sad, Michael. Looking at those images, I pulled out my regular trade paperbacks and they just weren't the same anymore. 😞
Sorry Troy!
This is the best time ever to take up swamp thing in the DC universe
Huge fan of Swamp Thing, full run. I really wish it, like Constantine, existed outside of the DC Superhero Continuity.
I read the Alan Moore run this year for the first time. It got me actually scared a few times :).
I did went with the box set instead of the absolutes to have the original colors (I don't like comic books looking too digital).
I never got into "Swamp Thing." But hearing the comics described as horror, and your enthusiasm, makes me want to check him out!
I was talking to my friend and he said that you really love horror but you don't seem to like Dean Koontz. I said that's Odd Thomas
😫
Thanks for the story of Swamp Thing! I’ve never read any of those comics!
The multiple airings of the 1982 movie on the pay movie channels is where my appreciation started.
Weird synergy since just last week I finally picked up vol 5 and 6 of the Saga of Swamp Thing collection. Was hoping to get hardcover copies to go with my volume 1 - 4 but decided the price was never going to be in my willing to pay range and got the softcovers.
Sandman also had some crossovers with DC main universe characters, in early issues of the series, that were weird too. Golden Age Sandman made sense but not so much others that poked there head in. Though that was par for the course at DC have main heroes visit their title or take a new character and have them run around with Justice League for a little while.
The Batman story, and artwork, does look excellent. He probably thought there was no love for Adam Strange out there. 😉
What a coincidence. I discovered a video on The Golden Age of Horror Comics which for some reason I thought was short but is over an hour long and I haven't finished watching it.
I never read many horror comics when I was young. When I was about 5 I found something set in the far east or featuring a character who was a magician with a turban. I don't recall if he was the good guy or the bad guy, but I couldn't sleep at night and my mother wisely took the comic away from me and eventually sleep returned. After that I had a horror of horror comics. Now that was a real surprise !
i loved the DC-Warner swamp thing series whivh came out in may 2019. was so heartbroken to learn that it got cancelled when they were filming s1 e1. so although 13 episodes were planned for s1, it was only 10 at last
I read this in the original coloring but seeing it modernized in that absolute makes me really want to get it
Makes me wish I had read more of ST back in the 80s.
Oh dear.....Roger is not there on his usual seat. Check that your credit cards are still there!!
Oh no….
My mom got me one of those Swamp Thing comic books when I was a kid. I remember there was a bald guy with his hand sewn behind his back. That creeped the f*** out!
It has a lot of moments like that.
We as fans would love to see swamp thing in the DC movie world series
This comic is weird but i like. Very green and good roots.
I completely agree with the superheroes in Swamp Thing. It's so weird haha
Night of the living dead was originally supposed to be titled Night of Anubis. I believe the studio made them change the title.
would love a video on your thoughts of neil gaiman’s sandman
Fascinating video. Maybe I should add Swamp Thing to my tbr in the New Year. I've not yet read it.
Great video 😊😊😊😊😅
thanks
8:37 - When Sunderland was being suffocated by Swamp Thing, you see these blue blurry images of his to show he was kicking his feet and struggling for air. In some reprints they are taken out so all you see are his dangling feet. Really odd.
It was a great movie. So was the tv series
It's heartbreaking for me whenever a writer works hard on a project and then feels pressured to "disown" it if some people got the wrong idea about it or just plain disliked it. The blank page is intimidating enough to worry about crowd approval-- unless that was the goal but if so, why worry about writing anything challenging in the first place? Ah, well, it was his work and he could do whatever he wanted to do to it. Retcons and reboots drove me away from contemporary mainstream comics and it's good to be free!😊
Len Wein's Swamp Thing was fun, but Alan Moore's was a work of art.
The thing about Moore is he loves deconstruction a bit too much. Deconstruction sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. For example, it is probably good he wasn't allowed to use the original Charlton characters in Watchmen. It would have been to dark for the original characters. So it was good he used altered versions of them.
However, when he is on, he is probably the best writer of comics.
1. Michael, I very much agree that Swamp Thing is a more interesting character than Man-Thing - Manny reacts while Swampy interacts, Manny has not evolved since his creation (which is fine in the hands of a great writer like Steve Gerber) while Swampy has developed in many ways and in many directions. 2. Yes, Alan Moore completely upended the Swamp Thing mythos but I still enjoyed what Martin Pasko did with the first 18-odd issues of Volume 2 (the issues nearly everyone seems to have forgotten about). 3. To my eternal gratitude, a number of my letters were published in the letters columns of the Moore issues, my fleeting contact with fame. 4. Rarely have two artists been so right for the writer and the title as were Totleben and Bissette for Moore and Swamp Thing. 5. Regarding superheroes, I think Moore deliberately made them not quite fit, his way of pointing out that in some parts of the DCU the so-called "capes" are unable to deal with a threat because they lack the necessary understanding and powers - some threats you can't punch away or use willpower-created constructs to force into submission. But you're right in that the darker DCU characters worked best as guest-stars. 6. Moore's "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" shows that he could reign it back enough to write an effective, emotionally resonant Superman tale. 7. I have to stop here too because I could write about Swamp Thing for page after page, still one of my favourite comics characters and I started reading funnybooks in 1971. Thanks for your fine overview Michael.
This was a very informative video. I was a fan of Swamp Thing when I was growing up, but I don't think I spent much money on the comic books. In my head I'm hearing the song WILD THING but with SWAMP THING instead.
All Swamp Thing fans hear that song in their heads, I’m sure.
Gerry Conway (Man-Thing) and Len Wein (Swamp Thing) were roommates at one time, and basically stole the character known as The Heap from the Airboy comic (published by Hillman) for Marvel and DC respectively. Of course, Harry Stein's the Heap wasn't the first swamp monster. That would likely go to Theodore Sturgeon's It!, which had been published in the pulp magazine Unknown in 1940. In other words, everyone stole from the pulps, Hollywood most egregiously.
I reread Moore's run as an adult and it still held up for me. However, one thing I caught that blew me away as a teen, but no longer really makes sense to me was the idea that Alec Holland no longer existed. Especially because Moore eventually has "Swamp Thing's" consciousness jumping into different bodies. What makes a person - including Alec Holland - IS their consciousness. It's irrelevant if the consciousness was somehow recreated by plants or even a machine. What makes us who we are is our consciousness - memories, thoughts, and feelings. Why doesn't "Swamp Thing" cease to exist when he jumps to a new body? What's the difference between that and Alec's body disintegrating and his consciousness being recreated by plants? While anyone would understandably be terrified to discover their body and brain no longer existed, Alec Holland still remained Alec Holland. In any case, I was happy to see this video.
You make a good point.
I yam what I yam and that’s all I yam
Now that James Gunn is in charge at DC maybe we'll see Moore's Swamp Thing story brought to film. Gunn seems interested in the quirkier (and arguably lesser known) comic book characters so you never know.
He last tv show was decent, better that you would expect.
Classic run. Gets a little off the rails toward the tail end but very engrossing. Love the original Swamp Thing too but it tends toward the camp. (Btw, Swamp Thing movie is actually good for what it is. And that Adrienne Barbeau...rarrrrrrrr.....)
Does DC have any other Absolute editions for other characters?
Glad you brought up how adult he makes some characters. I love Alan Moore but sometimes his characters are a written a bit too honestly to the point they can be an uncomfortable read.
Very true.
Moore’s Swamp Thing made me think and feel that stuff like death, putrefaction and gross stuff I’d never touch in an actual swamp are sort of natural and beautiful - it had me considering what life as a plant would be (he takes a lot from Neoplatonism, but that’s not here nor there). I’d argue Abby is probably the best lady character written in American comics to date. Horror is mostly about feeling fear which it’s directly linked to the fact that humans die (most of us, at least - I’m not so sure about Keith Richards or Moore himself) - you put Superman in there and, well, I agree it doesn’t work. No detriment to Bissette, Totleben and Veich- their hand also made the run what it is - but a Moore/Wrighston Shawmpy story would have been a match made in heaven.
It would have been!
What if.....Swamp Thing vs Conan
Conan would find a way to win.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 I agree. Both of them are smarter and dangerous but......Conan has a will to win at all costs.
I hope James gunn take this up or someone else this is the best time
I’ve been meaning to read this for years… Can’t believe I haven’t yet. Did you see the Swamp Thing show that came out a couple of years ago? I liked the killing joke, but I agree, it went a little too far for a superhero comic.
I missed that Swamp Thing show. I miss most shows.
I'd say that was a fair review. But its one of my favorite comics. That has some big flaws.
Also please review The Spectre old or new. Totally underrated character
I should do that.
Hate me.. but Scott’s was best with the Animal Man cross over. Much darker. But loved Alan’s too.
The reason why Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run is published under the Black Label imprint is that DC Comics ceased publishing the Vertigo Comics line a few years back. Unfortunately poor editorial decisions lead to declining interest and sales of new Vertigo titles published in the mid 2000's. I really need to read that entire Swamp Thing run.
If you didn't like Alan Moore's take on Adam Strange i wonder what you make of Tom King's take on the character in Strange Adventures. Hint, is Adam Strange a romantic adventurer or war criminal?
I think I might stay away from King’s version. There’s only so much I can take.
The absolute editions are beautiful, but I still don't know how I feel about recolourings. It doesn't sit right with me, even though in many cases it looks better.
A lot of people feel that way.
Agree 100% about superheroes not working in Swamp Thing at all. They take you right out of the story. Swamp Thing should've remained a self-contained book. No Green Lantern. No Superman. No Justice League. Superheroes destroy the verisimilitude that horror and weird fantasy need to cast their spell. Unfortunately, Rick Veitch and Doug Wheeler didn't do the series any favors (sadly, Wheeler was saddled with one of the worst illustrators DC ever had), but Nancy Collins revived the series and brought it back to its horror/gothic/dark fantasy roots.
I’m currently reading swamp thing and the artwork looks different in your version, did they change it for the absolute editions?
I believe they changed the coloring.
Talking about Batman, did you see the latest Batman movie? If you did, you like it? Hate it? Meh? Or something else?
I’ve avoided it! I’ve decided it must be terrible.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 I thought it was pretty good but then again I'm not into comic books. So, I can't compare the one with the other. I do love comic books (used to read them alot when I was a kid) but nowadays there seem to be so many about them. Kinda like "normal" books. :)
I remember Alan telling me at a London comic mart, that he had a Batman Annual to knock out over the weekend. That turned out to be The Killing Joke. Because Alan was becoming a big name, DC held it back, and after Brian Bolland took forever over the art, and they finally put it out, in a flashier format than originally intended. By then he'd produced much better work, which raised expectations too high. Alan always said the the Clayface story he wrote that appeared in a later Batman Annual is far superior, and he was right.
I remember that Clayface story. It was good!
I once met Theodore Sturgeon at a comic con and asked him what he thought of Swamp Thing. It wasn't a pleasant conversation. The comics ripped him off. His story "It" was out for years.
Everyone ripped him off!
I don't think I like the coloring in those big books
You are not alone. Many people don’t like the new coloring.
Never was a fan of Alan Moore, with the exception of his brilliant Captain Britain run.