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449 reviews for:
Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing
Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, John Totleben
4.2 AVERAGE
449 reviews for:
Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing
Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, John Totleben
4.2 AVERAGE
Hoooooooolyyyyyyyyyyy craaaaaaaaap. This was a wild read that gave me tingles from head to toe. Alan Moore revamps Swamp Thing to make it more delightfully horrific - it’s less focused on supernatural stories in themselves and more interested in using the supernatural to tell a story (if that makes any sense). I love the darker, grittier tone of Moore’s writing and the way Swamp Thing continues to be the hero we met in Len Wein’s book. If you’re a fan of monster stories, I would highly recommend giving this book a go.
Things I Liked
1. Revision of Origins: The Len Wein Swamp Thing run was fine - nothing wrong with it nor its origin story. It was fairly typical in that the protagonist became Swamp Thing after a chemical explosion. Alan Moore retains that story, but adds a whole new dimension to it that left me incredulous after the first read-through. With this new addition, Swamp Thing becomes more psychological than before, and I was constantly wondering how our protagonist would sort out the questions of identity and humanity throughout the run.
2. Art: The look of Swamp Thing is really enhanced in this book. There are more straggling vines, plant tendrils, and an overall look of horrifying creepiness that’s only augmented by more and more details. Swamp Thing has a basic humanoid shape, but you can really tell he’s made of plants here, rather than some kind of plant-human hybrid. As a result, the comic felt more firmly situated in the horror genre.
3. Layout: The issues in this collection don’t follow a strict format. The layout of the page, in particular, never seems to adhere to your typical grid, but instead plays with panels in interesting ways. Panels are made up of different shapes that overlap one another, and every page seems to be different. Despite this ever-changing layout design, I never had trouble finding which panel to read next, so not only was the reading experience exciting and engaging by virtue of always changing, but it was also easy to follow.
4. Abby Cable: Even though she was a damsel in distress a couple times, I really liked that Abby got to play an expanded role in the stories, and she was portrayed less of a dumb blonde type and more active. Her writing wasn’t perfect, but I did like that she was involved (as opposed to her role in Dark Genesis).
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Narrative Fluidity: I will admit, I was kind of confused when I read the storyline about the Monkey King and the demon. I had to go back a few times and try to piece together parts of the story I missed.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Alan Moore's writing, horror (as a genre of literature, comic, and art), theories of plant communication, monsters vs humans, and questions of identity.
Things I Liked
1. Revision of Origins: The Len Wein Swamp Thing run was fine - nothing wrong with it nor its origin story. It was fairly typical in that the protagonist became Swamp Thing after a chemical explosion. Alan Moore retains that story, but adds a whole new dimension to it that left me incredulous after the first read-through. With this new addition, Swamp Thing becomes more psychological than before, and I was constantly wondering how our protagonist would sort out the questions of identity and humanity throughout the run.
2. Art: The look of Swamp Thing is really enhanced in this book. There are more straggling vines, plant tendrils, and an overall look of horrifying creepiness that’s only augmented by more and more details. Swamp Thing has a basic humanoid shape, but you can really tell he’s made of plants here, rather than some kind of plant-human hybrid. As a result, the comic felt more firmly situated in the horror genre.
3. Layout: The issues in this collection don’t follow a strict format. The layout of the page, in particular, never seems to adhere to your typical grid, but instead plays with panels in interesting ways. Panels are made up of different shapes that overlap one another, and every page seems to be different. Despite this ever-changing layout design, I never had trouble finding which panel to read next, so not only was the reading experience exciting and engaging by virtue of always changing, but it was also easy to follow.
4. Abby Cable: Even though she was a damsel in distress a couple times, I really liked that Abby got to play an expanded role in the stories, and she was portrayed less of a dumb blonde type and more active. Her writing wasn’t perfect, but I did like that she was involved (as opposed to her role in Dark Genesis).
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Narrative Fluidity: I will admit, I was kind of confused when I read the storyline about the Monkey King and the demon. I had to go back a few times and try to piece together parts of the story I missed.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Alan Moore's writing, horror (as a genre of literature, comic, and art), theories of plant communication, monsters vs humans, and questions of identity.
How did it take me this many years of my life to finally get around to reading Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing?
Maybe because it's an era of DC comics that I have just never liked. But this? This was brilliant.
Maybe because it's an era of DC comics that I have just never liked. But this? This was brilliant.
It's just wonderful. Scary, intricate, cleverly designed, poetically written (though perhaps a bit overdone, no one else was doing anything like this in comics at the time), the artwork is so evocative of the place and the words that it all comes together perfectly.
The introduction of Jason Blood to the story about midway through the volume is a little gem.
I have read this before, along with the rest of Moore's run, and pulled it off the shelf right around the time I heard of Berni Wrightson's death. This isn't his work, but his visual style infuses the whole of it. I expect i'll be rereading the series but won't list them all here - just trust that if it's Moore's run on Swamp Thing it's worth the read.
The introduction of Jason Blood to the story about midway through the volume is a little gem.
I have read this before, along with the rest of Moore's run, and pulled it off the shelf right around the time I heard of Berni Wrightson's death. This isn't his work, but his visual style infuses the whole of it. I expect i'll be rereading the series but won't list them all here - just trust that if it's Moore's run on Swamp Thing it's worth the read.
Alan Moore takes a relatively unknown DC character and elevates him into the pantheon of comic book greats. This is not your average superhero, though, as Moore spins a tale of a man transformed by a tragic accident and literally becomes "of the earth." Thought provoking tales abound in the six volumes of Moore's collected run on the series. Do not miss!
-Louis M.
-Louis M.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Stunning artwork and dark, melancholic insights into life. The Swamp Thing is an 80s masterpiece where Moore philosophizes and meditates on the concept of life as a plant man battles monkey demons. I'll definitely be searching out the rest of this series.
Thought it was great. Interesting MC, loved the art style, unusual stories
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Maybe I've read too much Moore lately. Maybe it was a mistake to read this right after his run on Miracleman. Maybe I'm just discovering that I'm not as much a Moore fan as I thought I should be.
This wasn't terrible. Not at all. But I didn't find it as earthshakingly good as everyone (including Len Wein, the guy that created the Swamp Thing in the first place) says.
Let me explain...
Way way back in the late 70s, somewhere around late 77 or early 78, we'd just moved to a very small town in the middle of nowhere. I knew no one, and I was bored. I had to wait for my mother who was doing...something...so I walked down to the local variety store, looking for something to grab my attention. I tried the paperback selection on the spinner rack, but there was nothing there that I wanted. I moved to the comic book spinner rack and again, it was slim pickings. However, there was this thicker comic..."The Original Swamp Thing Saga" that caught my eye (mostly due to the gorgeous Bernie Wrightson art). I paid the ungodly amount of fifty cents and went back to where I was waiting for my mother, and I started reading this collection.
...and it blew my fifteen year old mind.
The art. The story. The actual writing. The art!
I couldn't tell you how long the wait was for my mother, but I can tell you I probably read that book cover to cover at least three times, and enjoyed it more every time. I continued to collect those reprints, that eventually covered the first ten issues and I loved them all.
So, yeah, Moore? He had big shoes to fill. And so did any artist who was brave (or foolish) enough to follow Wrightson.
Moore's big claim to fame was the separation of Alec from the Swamp Thing. Okay. Fine. I can take that, but it felt like it also drained much of the pathos from the story as well. Instead of this tortured man in monstrous form, now we get...a monster who sleeps in a swamp and lets the rain fill in his eye sockets? We get a very confident monster who calmly reattaches his arm and punches someone with it? We get...a basic hero?
Sorry. Yawn.
I will say that I did enjoy Moore's take on at least one of the predictably silly villains DC is famous for. The Floronic Man was slightly less silly. But when Moore took on Jack Kirby's The Demon—that I can see Moore totally loving because he gets to write his dialogue in rhyme—it just felt...chaotic. It didn't do much for me. Add to that a kid who's constantly spelling things out, and I just kept thinking...yep, here goes Moore, becoming all Moorey as usual.
And, side note: did the original Wein/Wrightson series not have its share of silly villains? Sure it did. But somehow, Len and Bernie made it work. It was entertaining, instead of being dark for dark's sake.
Like I said, it's probably me burning out on the curmudgeon that everyone seems to adore, but overall, I found his incarnation of the Swamp Thing to be far less relevatory than the original Wein/Wrightson version.
And it didn't help that I really disliked the Bissette/Totleben artwork, with the preponderance of heavy parallel line shading that seemed to obscure more than delineate, and characters' faces that seemed to change from panel to panel with no consistency. As well, the colouring—which should have helped clairify the muddy artwork—seemed to muddy it up even more.
Overall, I can see how, in the mid-80s this might have felt groundbreaking, but to me, it just changed the entire shape of Swamp Thing, and ruined it for me.
This wasn't terrible. Not at all. But I didn't find it as earthshakingly good as everyone (including Len Wein, the guy that created the Swamp Thing in the first place) says.
Let me explain...
Way way back in the late 70s, somewhere around late 77 or early 78, we'd just moved to a very small town in the middle of nowhere. I knew no one, and I was bored. I had to wait for my mother who was doing...something...so I walked down to the local variety store, looking for something to grab my attention. I tried the paperback selection on the spinner rack, but there was nothing there that I wanted. I moved to the comic book spinner rack and again, it was slim pickings. However, there was this thicker comic..."The Original Swamp Thing Saga" that caught my eye (mostly due to the gorgeous Bernie Wrightson art). I paid the ungodly amount of fifty cents and went back to where I was waiting for my mother, and I started reading this collection.
...and it blew my fifteen year old mind.
The art. The story. The actual writing. The art!
I couldn't tell you how long the wait was for my mother, but I can tell you I probably read that book cover to cover at least three times, and enjoyed it more every time. I continued to collect those reprints, that eventually covered the first ten issues and I loved them all.
So, yeah, Moore? He had big shoes to fill. And so did any artist who was brave (or foolish) enough to follow Wrightson.
Moore's big claim to fame was the separation of Alec from the Swamp Thing. Okay. Fine. I can take that, but it felt like it also drained much of the pathos from the story as well. Instead of this tortured man in monstrous form, now we get...a monster who sleeps in a swamp and lets the rain fill in his eye sockets? We get a very confident monster who calmly reattaches his arm and punches someone with it? We get...a basic hero?
Sorry. Yawn.
I will say that I did enjoy Moore's take on at least one of the predictably silly villains DC is famous for. The Floronic Man was slightly less silly. But when Moore took on Jack Kirby's The Demon—that I can see Moore totally loving because he gets to write his dialogue in rhyme—it just felt...chaotic. It didn't do much for me. Add to that a kid who's constantly spelling things out, and I just kept thinking...yep, here goes Moore, becoming all Moorey as usual.
And, side note: did the original Wein/Wrightson series not have its share of silly villains? Sure it did. But somehow, Len and Bernie made it work. It was entertaining, instead of being dark for dark's sake.
Like I said, it's probably me burning out on the curmudgeon that everyone seems to adore, but overall, I found his incarnation of the Swamp Thing to be far less relevatory than the original Wein/Wrightson version.
And it didn't help that I really disliked the Bissette/Totleben artwork, with the preponderance of heavy parallel line shading that seemed to obscure more than delineate, and characters' faces that seemed to change from panel to panel with no consistency. As well, the colouring—which should have helped clairify the muddy artwork—seemed to muddy it up even more.
Overall, I can see how, in the mid-80s this might have felt groundbreaking, but to me, it just changed the entire shape of Swamp Thing, and ruined it for me.
Add this series to the list of comics I should have read long ago but didn't. While these initial issues have to do some work to set up a reimagined of Swamp Thing, Moore's stylishness and inventiveness don't take long to come to the forefront, and it's a pleasure in itself to watch how the first issue, in which Moore ties up loose ends from the prior writer, contrasts with what follows. Really looking forward to how this series develops, though I do hope it follows a similar path to Sandman and strays a little further away from the principal characters of the DC comics continuity. I did enjoy seeing Jason Blood and Etrigan the Demon, though, so maybe a bit of crossover is okay.