Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing a re-re-reading

 

I am sure I told this story on my old podcast. And sure I've told it in a few videos over at the Asshat Podcast channel on Youtube,go check it out every Mon/Wed/Fri at 12pm central a new video appears.

As a kid I saw that Wes Craven directed Swamp Thing movie. And I loved it. It comboed superheroes and monsters. Two things at the time I was a huge fan of. Thankfully my favorite Uncle also loved Swamp Thing. So not long after seeing the film he got me a few issues of the current Saga of the Swamp Thing comic. And then every month for years I made sure to track down the newest issue.

Which meant when issue 20 dropped and Alan Moore took over the writing I was reading  it. And if my math is right I was 8 or 9. And by the time Moore was ending his run  I was just turning 13. 

Being so young at the start of the run so many things in the comic went way over my head. I will give some examples in a minute.

For those that don't know Swamp Thing is DC's swamp monster superhero. First appearing in an issue of House of Secrets. Then getting a solo series in the 70s. By the time of the early 80s and the Swamp Thing movie there was no Swamp Thing comic. DC created one and well it didn't do that well. Which is why by issue 20 they turned it over to a not that well known writer from the UK. Fairly sure Swamp Thing is the first thing I had read from Alan Moore.

After using issue 20 to wrap up the loose ends ,mostly,from the previous 19 issues in issue  21 "the anatomy lesson" Moore shows us that all we thought we knew about Alec Holland AKA Swamp Thing was wrong. We assumed that Swamp Thing was just a new body for Alec Holland when he died in the swamp. With The Floronic Man,a obscure villain,heading it up a evil corp takes Swamp Thing apart. 

When the corp betrays Floronic Man he sets Swamp Thing free and makes sure Swamp Thing knows what we have learned.

After returning to the swamps of Houma Louisiana,and that is another reason why as a kid I loved Swamp Thing. Where as Batman was in a city I knew didn't exist ,same with all the other DC heroes. And most of the Marvel heroes were either NYC based or LA based. Swamp Thing was based not only in a city I knew of but one that wasn;t that far from me. But after returning to the swamps our hero meets back up with Abigal Arcane and her Husband Matt Cable. 

On this re-re-reading I realized that what happens to Matt in the Sandman run is foreshadowed here. 

We see that Matt appears to have some kind of power. A power that he fears and causes him to drink. After a wreck  a giant black fly enters Matt's mouth. Which gives the picture I am posting next a shock that when re-re-reading it I almost dropped the TPB.

Yep the fly was Abigal's uncle Anton Arcane. Who has escaped from Hell and possessed Abby's husband. As a kid I just thought this idea and the above image were really creepy. Now re-reading it .... Yea it goes past that. While we never really see the possessed Matt Cable and his wife having sex it was implied.....

Of course Swamp Thing defeats Anton and ssends him back to Hell,and Anton of course returns. And thanks to Rick Veitch we get the full introduction of one of my favorite "heroes" in comics. Not that he is a hero. I am talking about John Constantine. The Anarchist Asshole,the mercenary magician.

Constantine takes Swamp Thing on a journey. Showing Swamp Thing how fear is rising all over the world. Plus at the same time Alan Moore is taking old worn horror tropes and putting a new twist on them.

Take vampires. We have seen thousands of vampires in comics by this time,guessing it is 1984/1985. Moore shows us a town that got flooded. And a tribe of vampires lives deep in the dark still water. Or ,and I think this issue might have been a favorite of whoever wrote the movie Ginger Snaps,the issue where Moore connects the lunar cycle of a werewolf with the menstral cycle of an abused housewife.

Over the course of 6 tradepaperbacks,covering Saga of the Swamp thing issues 20 thru 64 plus at least 1 annual,Moore takes us all over the world and universe. The series starts off as pure horror and goes through almost all the popular genres of comics. 

It was maybe 2 weeks ago. I couldn't sleep. So figured I would sit in my kitchen. Listen to some music and read a few issues out of the Swamp thing Vol 1 TPB I got cheap last year.

1 hour and 15 minutes later I had finished that TPB. And was ordering vols 2,3,4,5 off Amazon. 

As each volume came in that night once again sit in the kitchen and read until it was done.

See while I read this entire run as it was coming out decades ago I haven't read it all in order since then. Yeea I got pretty much the entire run in issue form,minus that first appearance of Constantine(which was sold years ago). This isn't one I had taken the time to re-read in order. I would just read an issue when I found it.

As of today I have done videos on vols 1 through 5 of these TPBs. Not sure yet when they will appear. But for a more through talk on this great series,with me flipping thru the tpbs,check the Asshat Podcast channel on Youtube.