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Saga of the Swamp Thing

post #1 of 24
7/28/10 at 2:26pm
Thread Starter 
I just finished A MURDER OF CROWS. This stuff is phenomenal. Swamp Thing goes from defending the swamps of New Orleans to fighting a war in Hell. The scope of this series is incredible- From eerie little ghost stories to Armageddon.

I'm just getting into comics but I can't find anything that I enjoy like I do Alan Moore's stuff.
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post #2 of 24
7/28/10 at 2:40pm
Moore made Swamp Thing work within the DCU like nobody's business. The double sized issue where he fights Batman and takes over Gotham was amazing.
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post #3 of 24
7/28/10 at 3:00pm
Thread Starter 
That's the next collection- Really looking forward to it.

Being a newb- I get lost in the mythology. Is SWAMP THING the origin of John Constantine? He's gold.

Etrigan or Jason Blood is also a favorite in the series.
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post #4 of 24
7/28/10 at 3:19pm
Yeah, John Constantine's first appearance was in Swamp Thing. Alan Moore's run includes some of my favorite comic books. Simply amazing.
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post #5 of 24
7/28/10 at 3:24pm
My favorite of Moore's work, the American Gothic storyline being the absolute pinnacle.
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post #6 of 24
7/28/10 at 3:42pm
Amazing comics. I do reccomend checking out Len Wein's stuff, too, though - great pulpy horror stories that, in the end, make you appreciate how radical Moore's reinvention of the character was all the more.
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post #7 of 24
7/28/10 at 3:55pm
I love Len Wein's stuff too but you know, apples and oranges really.
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post #8 of 24
7/28/10 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 
I think I'll pick up Dark Genesis too- apparently it starts with a Poe-esque short story.

I love how the American Gothic storyline deals with "the explanation of evil" instead of the defeat of evil. The comic satisfies with action, horror and philosophy.

Not to mention- Moore is a chameleon with his prose. He switches style at will.
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post #9 of 24
7/28/10 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastian OB View Post
I love Len Wein's stuff too but you know, apples and oranges really.
I suppose, but there is this attitude of "Alan Moore took a third rate character and turned it into TIMELESS ART!", and while that works well as a narrative, it's unfairly dismissive towards some pretty nifty comics.
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post #10 of 24
7/28/10 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Moore made Swamp Thing work within the DCU like nobody's business. The double sized issue where he fights Batman and takes over Gotham was amazing.
I might be wrong, but that's the only moment in the character of Batman's history were he flat-out concedes defeat.
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post #11 of 24
7/28/10 at 6:24pm
Eventually i'll start collecting this series. I've got two of the old black and white TITAN paperbacks, vol. 4 and 9 which includes the Batman storyline.

It's going back a few years now when I picked them up for £5 each in a real grungy comic book store called House on the Borderland. It was run by a couple of Alan Moore look-alikes that sold dope on the side and right in-between the Swamp Thing books was MiracleMan: The Red King Syndrome trade for £6. What a surreal moment that was.
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post #12 of 24
7/28/10 at 11:23pm
Beat me to the Punch! I've been meaning to start a thread on Moore's run on Swamp Thing.

It's my favorite work by Moore; less polished than Watchmen, but you really see him come into his own as a comic book writer: playing with the language, taking concepts and pushing them to their limits, and bending but never breaking the rules of the DC Universe.

The climatic "battle" in Hell is really awesome (in the literal sense) to me even today.

Oh and Batmen may admit defeat to Gorden (it's been a while ) but he also tells the Swamp Thing that he'll kill him if he ever threatens Gotham again. Swampie just smiles and says "Yes, I believe you will" Gold!
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post #13 of 24
7/28/10 at 11:24pm
I haven't read any of these and need to badly. I'm also poor as shit.

So, I'm going to need them mailed to me. Now. Get on that people.
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post #14 of 24
7/28/10 at 11:59pm
This was my introduction to Alan Moore, some 20ish years ago. Aside from the odd Batman comic I hadn't been into them for years, but my college roomie was (and still is) a huge fan and he exposed me to some truly great stuff. I was astonished that a mere comic book could be so goddamn good. Swamp Thing's first visit to Hell (and Arcane's punishment, "How many years have I been here?"), American Gothic, the Brujeria and the Invunche, Judith's 'reward'... I'm going to have to dig these out of my garage, dammit.

I especially loved Moore's vampire story during American Gothic, such a great and unexpected follow-up to that pre-Moore issue. They just wanted what everyone else wants, a safe place to raise their children. Goddamn.
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post #15 of 24
7/29/10 at 1:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Dexter View Post

I'm just getting into comics but I can't find anything that I enjoy like I do Alan Moore's stuff.
Gaiman's Sandman is similar, as far as scope and "inside-baseball" sort of stuff goes. Not quite so similar in theme and execution, but hey, brilliant writing is brilliant writing.
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post #16 of 24
7/29/10 at 3:32am
You guys might want to look up DC Comics Presents #85, it isn't in any of the trades, to my knowledge. Alan Moore writes about the meeting of Superman and Swamp Thing. Great stuff.
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post #17 of 24
7/29/10 at 3:32am
Sorry for the double post.
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post #18 of 24
7/29/10 at 11:14am
It's in DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore.
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post #19 of 24
7/29/10 at 11:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Which is worth it on general principle, not just for the Swamp Thing story.
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post #20 of 24
7/29/10 at 12:01pm
Yeah, the new edition has The Killing Joke and "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" included.
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post #21 of 24
7/29/10 at 1:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
Gaiman's Sandman is similar, as far as scope and "inside-baseball" sort of stuff goes. Not quite so similar in theme and execution, but hey, brilliant writing is brilliant writing.
Sandman is definitely the logical next step after Swamp Thing--Gaiman was clearly heavily influenced by Swamp Thing in the early going, and in fact Sandman's just about the only comic I've ever seen which I think tops Moore in the "nodular storytelling" department, where each issue is an amazing and at least somewhat self-contained story but fits in to make part of a huge whole.

I recently saw someone on the net criticize Swamp Thing and Sandman because "they couldn't stick to the main story and kept going off on tangents". You'll be happy to know I reached through the net and murderered him.
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post #22 of 24
7/29/10 at 2:09pm
I know it's heresy to say such a thing, but, truth be told, I prefer the Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing over Moore's version, Oh, and the Steve Gerber run on Man-Thing is the absolute best swamp monster stories ever to run in comics.
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post #23 of 24
7/29/10 at 5:29pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
I haven't read any of these and need to badly. I'm also poor as shit.
I got them from used book stores linked to Amazon... very cheap. All my issues have various library codes from different states.

Just another thought- Swamp Thing has some similarities to Doc Manhattan in that he is always involved in the fight between good and evil but also objectively pondering it. They're both kind of elementals.
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post #24 of 24
7/29/10 at 7:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruikshank View Post
I know it's heresy to say such a thing, but, truth be told, I prefer the Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing over Moore's version, Oh, and the Steve Gerber run on Man-Thing is the absolute best swamp monster stories ever to run in comics.
Well, I don't know that it's heresy - Moore is generally acknowledged as "The Genius" of comics writing, but consensus is that Wein and Wrightson certainly don't suck.

For such a weird, 3rd-string, niche character, Swamp Thing has certainly attracted tons of talent.
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