Bizarro


By Heath Corson, Gustavo Duarte, Pete Pantazis, Lee Loughridge & Tom Napolitano, with Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Francis Manapul, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Darwyn Cooke, Raphael Albuquerque, Tim Sale, Dave Stewart & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5971-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

One of the most consistent motifs in fiction is the “Dark Opposite” or “player on the other side”: a complete antithesis of the protagonist. Rock yourself to sleep at night if you wish, listing deadly doppelgangers from Professor Moriarty to Sabretooth to Gladstone Gander

The Caped Kryptonian’s “imperfect duplicate” Bizarro either debuted as a misunderstood freak and unwilling monster in Otto Binder & George Papp’s captivatingly tragic 3-part novel ‘The Battle with Bizarro’ (Superboy #68, cover-dated October 1958) or in the similarly titled Superman newspaper strip sequence written by Alvin Schwartz (episode 105/#6147-6242 spanning August 25th – December 13th 1958) with the latter scribe claiming that he thought up the idea months earlier. The newsprint version was certainly first to employ those eccentric reversed-logic thought-patterns and idiomatic speech impediment…

Although later played primarily for laughs, such as in his short tenure in Tales of The Bizarro World (June 1961 to Aug 1962 in Adventure Comics #285-299), most earlier comic book appearances – 40 by my count – of the dippy double were generally moving, child-appropriate tragedies, unlike here where we commemorate his 65th anniversary with possibly the funniest book of the last twenty years… at least if you’re a superhero fan.

Post Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was a darker, rarer beast, but this tale by screenwriter and comics scripter Heath Corson (Justice League: War, Nightwing/Magilla Gorilla, Super Pets: The Great Mxy-Up) & Gustavo Duarte (Monsters! & Other Stories, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dear Justice League) stems from DC’s brief New 52 continuity sidestep and refers almost exclusively to his earlier exploits and character.

Collecting 6-issue miniseries Bizarro and material from DC Sneak Peek: Bizarro #1, the saga starts as another misunderstood and deeply unappreciated visit to Metropolis – augmented by a new origin – sees the lonely, bored, eternally well-intentioned living facsimile teamed up with boy reporter Jimmy Olsen on a road-trip to “Bizarro-America” (we call it Canada)…

It’s ostensibly to prevent a disastrous super-battle but more importantly, someone suggested that the journey could provide enough candid material for a best-selling coffee table book that could liberate the eternally cash-strapped kid from his financial woes…

Jim’s certain he can handle the big super-doofus, but not so sure that applies to a pocket alien Bizarro picked up somewhere. After ‘The Secret Origin of Colin the Chupacabra’, the story truly starts with ‘Bizarro-America: Part 6’ and a weary ‘Welcome to Smallville’ where the need to fix the car leads to a clash with a dynasty of very familiar villains at King Tut’s Slightly Used Car Oasis. It all goes without incident until some other ETs give papa Tut a reality-altering staff and he seeks to achieve his great dream – selling everyone a used car…

Having navigated their way out of that bad deal, the Road Worriers further embarrass themselves in ‘Bizarro-America: Part 5’ with stopovers and pertinent guest stars in Gotham, Central, Starling and Gorilla City, before doing more of the same in Louisiana, Chicago and all points lost. Somewhere along the way they pick up a tail and in seeking to ditch their pursuers drive into Ol’ Gold Gulch: a ghost town with real spooks and a distant descendant of a legendary gunfighter. Chastity Hex is a bounty hunter too, which comes in handy when Bizarro is possessed by an evil spirit in ‘Unwanted: Unliving or Undeaded’ and a destructive rampage triggers the spectral return of great grandpa Hex as well as Cinnamon, Nighthawk, Scalphunter and El Diablo

Another issue (‘Bizarro-America: Part 3’ if you’re still counting) and another city sees the automotive idiots catching mystic marvel Zatanna’s act in ‘Do You Believe in Cigam?’ and fresh disaster as Bizarro’s backwards brain allows him to accidentally access the sorceress’ backwards spells, prompting diversions to many, many alternate DC realities and Jimmy and Bizarro trading bodies (sort of) before order – if not sanity – is restored…

As they near their final destination, the covert shadows finally move in. A.R.G.U.S. agents Stuart “chicken Stew” Paillard and Meadows Mahalo get their X-Files on: compelling the travellers to infiltrate Area 51, but aren’t happy with the outcome once the idiots unleash every alien interned or interred there…

Ultimately the voyage concludes with ‘Bizarro-America: Part 1’ and long-deferred meeting with Superman (drawn by Tim Sale & Dave Stewart) in ‘Who Am on Last?’ The last of the Tuts returns for another stab at vengeance and high-volume marketing and as chaos reigns Colin comes up trumps, before assorted former guests coagulate as the never to be reformed Bizarro League to save the world in a way it has never been saved before.

All that’s left is to get Bizarro into Canada but there’s one last surprise in store…

This outrageous romp is punctuated with a round-robin of guest illustrators (Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Francis Manapul, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Darwyn Cooke, Raphael Albuquerque and more) adding to the manic madness via their signature characters, and a variant cover gallery provides more boffo yoks courtesy of Kyle Baker and Kevin Wada. Topping off the fun is an unmissable sketch section by Duarte, packed with many scenes and moments somebody was too nervous to publish…

Fast, funny, fantastic and far too long forgotten, Bizarro is a superb romp that would make a magnificent movie. Do not miss it.
© 2015, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

A Very DC Valentine’s Day


By Cecil Castellucci, Amanda Conner, Andy Diggle, Paul Dini, Ray Fawkes, Phil Hester, Kyle Higgins, Collin Kelly, Alisa Quitney, Jackson Lanzing, Peter Milligan, Ann Nocenti, Steve Orlando, Jimmy Palmiotti, James Robinson, Mark Russell, Mairghread Scott, Tim Seeley, Simon Bisley, Ben Caldwell, Aaron Campbell, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Mirko Colak, Andrew Currie, Javier Fernandez, Julio Ferreira, Julius Gopez, Sanford Greene, Stephanie Hans, Bryan Hitch, Frazer Irving, Kelley Jones, Nic Klein, Emanuela Lupacchino, Guillem March, John McCrea, Jaime Mendoza, Inaki Miranda, Robson Rocha, Thony Silas, Cam Smith, John Timms & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1401287665 (TPB/Digital edition)

After generations of incorporating seasonal occasions, milestones and themes into their regular chronology, in recent years comics publishers have started releasing special issues and compilations to single out those sale-enhancing moments. For DC, that process really began during their New 52 reboot…

Regrettably eschewing their own vast back catalogue of magnificently-limned genre romance material (still… maybe one day, hey?) the home of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman released all-new anthologies exploring the many roads to and ways of loving.

In 2018, three one-shots – Young Monsters in Love #1, Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 and Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special #1 – were tangled together as a celebratory tome which might entice less traditional fans…

We begin with Young Monsters in Love #1, which hit stores on February 7th 2018 carrying an April cover-date. It opens with a tale of Man-Bat wherein Kyle Higgins, Kelley Jones & colourist Michelle Madsen expose the bestial inner monologue of Kirk Langstrom’s “Nocturnal Animal”’ as the self-mutated science renegade seeks to rekindle his romantic relationship with ex-wife Francine

Tim Seeley, Giuseppe Camuncoli & Cam Smith also explore that theme of stability lost as Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. reviews his centuries-long relationship with “The Bride” in ‘Pieces of Me’ whilst Clark Kent and his son Jon learn a few hard truths about love and loss in ‘Buried on Sunday’. It’s a potentially shattering lesson for the Man of Steel and Superboy who seek to ensure that Solomon Grundy does not wallow in the eternal despair of bereavement as sensitively detailed by Mairghread Scott, Bryan Hitch & Andrew Currie…

Disgruntled Teen Titan/peripatetic ghost buster Raven discovers ‘The Dead Can Dance’ on a long-deferred Prom Night(mare) by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing & Javier Fernandez, after which Paul Dini & Guillem March expose the cruel traumas of elementary school bullying when Deadman saves a lonely boy crushed and nearly killed by the annual purgatory of card-giving in ‘Be My Valentine’

Swamp Thing loves and loses another frail and fragile human contact in the beautifully eerie ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ by Mark Russell & Frazer Irving, before Steve Orlando & Nic Klein push the parameters of amour and self-sacrifice when queer cop Maggie Sawyer seeks to stop a potential bloodbath as Monsieur Mallah & The Brain (of the Brotherhood of Evil) seek a way to further their impossibly complex relationship by looking backwards in ‘Visibility’

Andrew Bennet (I, Vampire, by Alisa Quitney & Stephanie Hans) then experiences painful revelation when forced to accept a new role for his ever-maturing disciple in ‘The Turning of Deborah Dancer’, whereas EtriganThe Demon – brutally challenges the entire infernal host to reach Jason Blood’s lost love in ‘To Hell and Gone’ by Phil Hester &Mirko Colak.

Amidst the madness of WWII, the warped wooing closes with a distressing brush-off letter to the Creature Commandos’ man-made vampire in ‘Dear Velcoro’, by James Robinson & John McCrea.

Heralding a shift from dark dilemmas to costumed courting – courtesy of the contents of Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 (originally cover-dated April 2013) – our soap-opera sagas start with Catwoman reminiscing over her first meeting and troubled history with Batman in Ann Nocenti, Emanuela Lupacchino & Jaime Mendoza’s ‘Think it Through’

Aquaman & Mera uncover unrequited love and reunite unquiet separated spirits in ‘The Lighthouse’ (by Cecil Castellucci & Inaki Miranda) before Batgirl Babs Gordon lets her guard down with a certified bad boy in Ray Fawkes & Julius Gopez’s ‘Dreamer’.

Superhero teammates Apollo & Midnighter revisit their first “ mad moment” mid-mission in ‘Seoul Brothers’ by Peter Milligan & Simon Bisley, whilst paragon legacy hero Nightwing makes all his old mistakes again with new foe/ally/love interest Ursa in ‘Another Saturday Night’ by Kyle Higgins & Sanford Greene…

One of the biggest and most touted draws of the New 52 was the sidelining of Lois Lane and shocking romantic entanglement of Superman and Wonder Woman. Here, Andy Diggle, Robson Rocha & Julio Ferreira depict the ultimate power couple in the early, exploratory stages of that relationship and learning via a shocking game of ‘Truth or Dare’ …until spiteful sirens and a possessed god of love violently object…

The final third of this torrid tome sees lunatic love bandit Harleen Quinzel hog the limelight and steal the show with an extended epic from the Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special #1: released on February 11th 2015 and once again cover-dated for the month of All Fools…

Written by Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti, and collaboratively illustrated by John Timms, Ben Caldwell, Aaron Campbell, Thony Silas and colourists Paul Mounts & Hi-Fi, ‘Just Batty Over You’ offers an hallucinogenic rollercoaster ride of passions and perplexing playfulness as The Joker’s former main squeeze espies and is enthralled by super-sexy Bruce Wayne who is a prize in a charity dating auction…

She determines to make him hers and the abduction part goes off pretty much as required. However, complicating the scheme is Harley’s own meandering grip on reality, Bruce’s many jobs and secrets, so very much over-applied and shared narcotic inducement, hench-folk who can only see the billionaire’s vast dollar-value and the perpetual interference of briny costumes activists The Carp and Sea Robin, who really want everybody to heed their message of marine environmental crisis…

Daft, delightful and delivered with perfect timing and elan, this lustful lark caps a supremely frothy and inconsequential diversion to charm casual and fully committed thrill seekers in equal amounts.
© 2013, 2015, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age volume 2


By David Michelinie, Gerry Conway, Carla Conway, David Anthony Kraft, Steve Englehart, Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, Nestor Redondo, Fred Carrillo, Keith Giffen, Michael Netzer, Murphy Anderson, Ernie Chan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9422-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utter Moodily, Moss-Bedecked Entertainment Perfection… 9/10

The first fan-sensation of the modern era – now officially enshrined as the Bronze Age – of American comic books – Swamp Thing has powerful popular fiction antecedents and in 1972 was seemingly a concept whose time had come again. Prime evidence was the fact that Marvel were also working on a man-into-mucky, muddy mess character at the very same time.

Both Swampy and the Macabre Man-Thing were thematic revisions of Theodore Sturgeon’s classic novella It, and bore strong resemblances to a hugely popular Hillman Comics star dubbed The Heap. He/it sloshed through the back of Airboy Comics (née Air Fighters Comics) from1943 onwards and my fan-boy radar suspects Roy Thomas’ marsh-monster the Glob (from Incredible Hulk #121, November 1969 and #129, June 1970) either inspired both DC and Marvel’s creative teams, or was part of that same zeitgeist.

It should also be remembered that in the autumn of 1971 Skywald – a very minor player with big aspirations – released a monochrome magazine in their Warren Comics knock-off line entitled The Heap.

For whatever reason, by the end of the 1960s superhero comics were in another steep sales decline, again succumbing to a genre boom led by a horror/mystery resurgence. A swift rewriting of the Comics Code Authority augmented the changeover and at National/DC, veteran EC comics star Joe Orlando became editor of House of Mystery and sister title House of Secrets.

These returned to short story anthology formats and gothic mystery scenarios, taking a lead from TV triumphs such as Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

Referencing the sardonic narrator/storyteller format of those EC horror titles, Orlando created Cain and Abel to shepherd readers through brief, sting-in-the-tail yarns produced by the best new and established creators the company could hire. Artists Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta, and especially Bernie Wrightson produced some of their best work for these titles, and the vast range of spin-offs the horror boom generated at DC.

The 12th anthology issue of the resurrected House of Secrets (#92, June/July 1971) cemented the genre into place as the industry leader. There writer Len Wein & Wrightson produced a throwaway gothic thriller set at the turn of the 19th century, wherein gentleman scientist Alex Olsen was murdered by his best friend with his corpse dumped in a swamp.

Years later, Olsen’s beloved bride – now the unsuspecting wife of the murderer – was stalked by a shambling, disgusting beast that seemed to be composed of mud and muck…

The tale struck an immediate chord with the public. That issue was the best-selling DC comic of that month, and reader response was fervent and persistent. By all accounts, the only reason there wasn’t an immediate sequel or spin-off was that the creative team didn’t want to produce one. Eventually however, bowing to interminable pressure, and with the sensible idea of transplanting the concept to contemporary America, Swamp Thing #1 appeared on newsstands in the Spring of 1972. It was an unqualified hit and instant classic…

Wein & Wrightson produced 10 issues together: an extended, multi-chaptered saga of justice and vengeance encompassing a quest for answers that was at once philosophically typical of the time and a prototype for the story-arc and mini-series formats that dominate today’s comics. They also used each issue/chapter to pay tribute to a specific sub-genre of timeless horror story whilst advancing the major plot…

When Alec and Linda Holland retreated deep into the Louisiana Bayou to work on a bio-restorative formula to revolutionise global farming, they had no idea criminal organisation “The Conclave” was after their research. Despite the best efforts of Secret Service agent Matt Cable, the lab was bombed and Linda died instantly. Alec – showered with his own formula and blazing like a torch – hurtled to a watery grave in the swamp. He did not die…

Transformed by the formula (and remember, please, this was prior to Alan Moore’s landmark re-imagining of the character) Holland transformed into a huge man-shaped thing: immensely strong, barely able to speak, and seemingly composed of living plant matter. Holland’s brain still functioned, however, and he vacillated between finding his wife’s killers and curing his own monstrous condition. Cable, misinterpreting the evidence, became obsessed with killing the beat, believing it caused the deaths of his two friends and charges…

Swamp Thing travelled the world, encountering the darkest outbreaks of classic supernature and the insatiable greed of human beasts before eventually convincing Cable of his innocence and true identity. Joined by Abigail Arcane – niece of archenemy and necromantic sorcerer Anton Arcane – they roamed a nation and world increasingly beset by uncanny terrors and macabre plots, with new allies like mystery man Bolt at their side.

Wein’s last issue was #13, having ushered in a new direction for Nestor Redondo – who replaced Wrightson with #11 – to display his own gifts and quickly become the artistic driving force.

Born in 1928 at Candon, Ilocas Sur in the American Territory of the Philippines, Redondo was influenced by US strips like Tarzan, Superman, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon which were immensely popular in the entertainment-starved Pacific Archipelago.

Drawing from an early age, Nestor emulated his brother Virgilio – who worked as a comics artist in the young country. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935, and achieved full-independence from the USA in 1946, but maintained close cultural links to America.

Nestor’s parents pushed him into architecture but within a year he returned to comics. A superb artist, he far outshone Virgilio – and everybody else – in the cottage industry. His brother switched to writing and they teamed up: producing some of the best strips the Islands had ever seen, the most notable and best regarded being Mars Ravelo’s Darna.

Capable of astounding quality and incredible speed, by the early 1950s Nestor was drawing for many titles. Publications like Pilipino Komiks, Hiwaga Komiks and Espesial Komiks were fortnightly and he usually worked on multiple series simultaneously, pencils and inks. He also produced a wealth of covers.

In 1953, he adapted MGM film Quo Vadis for Ace Publications’ Tagalong Klasiks #91-92. Written by Clodualdo Del Mundo, it was serialized to promote the movie in country, and impressed MGM so much that they offered 24-year old Nestor a US job and full residency. He declined, thinking himself too young to leave home yet.

Ace was the country’s biggest comics publisher, but by the early 1960s they were in dire financial straits. In 1963 Nestor, Tony Caravana, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Fernandez, Amado Castrillo and brother Virgilio set up their own company CRAF Publications, Inc., but times were against them and publishers everywhere. Around this time, America called again, in the form of DC and Marvel Comics.

By 1972, US based Tony DeZuñiga had introduced Filipino artists to US editors. Nestor drew horror tales for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Unexpected, Phantom Stranger, Secrets of Sinister House, Witching Hour, Weird War Tales; Marvel’s Man-Thing; and an astonishingly lovely run on Rima the Jungle Girl (loosely adapting W. H. Hudson’s seminal 1904 novel Green Mansions), before joining Swamp Thing.

He also worked on Lois Lane and the Tarzan franchise, and in 1973 produced literary adaptations including Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Vincent Fago’s Pendulum Press Illustrated Classics (later reformatted as Marvel Classics Comics). In later years, he moved to Marvel to ink and eventually fully illustrate The Savage Sword of Conan.

During his DC period he was tapped to draw an adaptation of King Arthur which DC killed before it was completed (once again some pages survive and the internet is your friend if you want to see them) but did limn tabloid-sized Limited Collectors’ Edition: The Bible.

This epic bayou bonanza gathers the last of the original Swamp Thing run (#14-25), plus guest appearances from Challengers of the Unknown #81-87; The Brave and the Bold #122 & 176 and DC Comics Presents #8 (spanning cover-dates January/February 1975 to July 1981) .

Roving America during a period of political instability tainted by cultural hedonism and paranoia, Cable, Abby, Bolt and miserable misshapen Alec Holland (whom they had recently broken out of federal custody) continually stumbled into weird and deadly situations. With writer David Michelinie joining Redondo, proceedings open here with ‘The Tomorrow Children’ (ST #14, January/February 1975).

Separated again, Holland’s human helpers search for him as the depressed nomad discovers an isolated Bayou community of simple folk persecuting a family of freakish kids. Swamp Thing drives off one murderous mob, but stories of the outcast kids’ uncanny powers and the plain facts of strange accidents and mysterious disappearances won’t go away. By the time the townsfolk return to destroy the “demon children”, Holland has discovered radioactive waste is causing all the problems, but far too late to prevent tragedy or promote understanding…

Swamp Thing then falls under ‘The Soul-Spell of Father Bliss’: a seemingly serene and benign cleric with demonically disturbing notions on how to restore faith to his disinterested flock. When Cable and Abby finally find Swamp Thing, it’s not Alec Holland inside the vegetable colossus and only an ultimate sacrifice can save them and humanity from the priest’s folly…

In the awful aftermath, Bolt is captured by agents unknown and the restored Holland-Thing leads a rescue party against an old adversary. Typically, the venture is derailed by cruel fate and the monster ends up alone on tiny Kalo Pago island in the middle of a revolution. On one side is a viciously repressive military government while the rebels are led by High Priestess Laganna – who has a direct line to zombie gods.

Caught in the middle, Holland cannot stem the tide of terror on the climactic ‘Night of the Warring Dead’

ST #17 finds Bolt a prisoner of resurrected former Conclave chief Nathan Ellery, but when Abby, Cable and Swamp Thing finally stumble into his HQ, the maniac’s mercenaries, mechanical myrmidons and global mind-control contraption ‘The Destiny Machine’ at first appear to be an unbeatable opposition. But only at first…

Fleeing the destruction they have partially wrought, the victorious heroes crash land in an idyllic hamlet filled with violently murderous old folk. Its apologetic administrator claims Serenity is an experimental “ultimate retirement facility”, but before long is revealed as a demonic  ‘Village of the Doomed’ requiring all Holland’s power to escape and exorcise…

Cover-dated October 1975, The Brave and the Bold #122 then counts down ‘The Hour of the Beast!’ Bob Haney & Jim Aparo detail the awesome spectacle of Swamp Thing’s return to Gotham City and efforts to save it from a monstrous vegetable infestation. When Holland then becomes a target for a profit crazed showman, it needs all Batman’s ingenuity to save his ally and his city…

That same month in Swamp Thing #19, Gerry Conway joined Redondo to reveal ‘A Second Time to Die’ as a very familiar muck monster prowls Florida’s Everglades and – barely sentient – is befriended elderly Seminole hermit Ho’tah Makanaw. Nearby, Abby Cable and Bolt drive into Gatorberg, seeking their lost companion and following rumours of a big green monster…

The town is far from friendly but one boy is happy to take them to the old Indian who might know something of what they’re seeking…

Events take a drastic turn when the plant giant attacks a government drilling installation even as Ho’tah reveals a magical secret and sets the stage for an incredible clash in the next issue when Swamp Thing Holland battles incredible duplicate ‘The Mirror Monster’ for all the wrong reasons and for people who don’t deserve his aid…

Although the quality of the storytelling was getting better, the times were turning against the horror medium and as Michelinie returned in #21, it was for a science fictional romp as Holland was abducted by alien collector/slaver Solus. The bitterly contested escape left the monster stranded in an American desert and captured by rogue scientists battling madness-inducing contagion in their top secret atomic weapons base. Of course, definitions of “victim” or “cure” for ‘The Solomon Plague’ depended on who was doing the diagnosing, and when the “patients” started resisting treatment Holland could only watch helplessly as nature took its course…

Another attempt at a new direction began in Swamp Thing #23 as Conway & Redondo unleashed ‘Rebirth and Nightmare’, with a mystery mastermind targeting the moss monster and despatching costumed nemeses Sabre and Thrudvang, the Earth Master, even as the lonely wander made contact with his long-lost – and never-mentioned – smarter brother Edward Holland

Their combined efforts to concoct a cure are initially successful despite Sabre’s surprise attack, but as we all know “no good deed goes unpunished”…

Cover-dated August/September 1976, an era ended with #24 as Conway, David Anthony Kraft, Ernie Chan & Fred Carrillo all collaborated on ‘The Earth Below’ as human but still traumatised Alec Holland faces Sabre, even more costumed crazies and ultimately tectonic terror Thrudvang, all craving the bio-regenerative formula still afflicting the former plant monster…

That catastrophic cliffhanger clash was never completed as the title was cancelled without warning or fanfare, just as it was about to formally join the superhero section of the DCU. It was probably for the best. As the Vertigo imprint would prove in a later age, some champions need sophisticated darkness to properly thrive…

As for the Bronze Age, Swamp Thing became a part of the army that hung around waiting to be picked for guest shots or even a revival. With the superhero genre recovering, one old concept granted a new shot ultimately led to fresh shoots for Holland.

The Challengers of the Unknown was a bridging concept. As superheroes were being revived in 1956 here was a super-team – the first of the Silver Age – but with no powers, basic utilitarian uniforms instead of costumes and the most dubious of motives – Suicide by Mystery. They debuted in Showcase #6 (cover-dated February 1957 and on sale in early November of 1956) and followed up in #7, 11 & 12 before gaining their own title (#1-77, May 1958-January 1971, plus a reprint revival in #78-80 in 1973).

They were a huge hit and major players in their time, striking a chord that lasted for more than a decade before they finally died… only to rise again and yet again. The idea of them was stirring enough, but their situation made their success all but inevitable. Conceived by inspirational human hit-factory Jack Kirby – before his move across town to co-create the Marvel Universe – the solid adventure concept and imperfect action heroes he left behind were idealised everyman characters for the tumultuous 1960s – an era before superheroes overtook anthological genre heroes to secure a virtual chokehold on comic book pages.

Kirby had developed a brilliantly feasible concept and heroically archetypical characters in cool pilot Ace Morgan, indomitable strongman Rocky Davis, intellectual aquanaut Prof.” Haley and daredevil acrobat Red Ryan. The Challengers of the Unknown were four (extra)ordinary mortals; heroic troubleshooter and explorers who walked away unscathed from a terrible plane crash. Already obviously what we now call “adrenaline junkies”, they communally decided that since they were all living on borrowed time, they should dedicate what remained of their lives to testing themselves and fate. The quartet would risk their lives for KNOWLEDGE and, naturally, JUSTICE.

They were joined by an occasional fifth member, beautiful (of course) scientist June Robbins in their second appearance (Ultivac is Loose!’ in Showcase #7, March/April 1957), and she became a hardy perennial, frequently popping up to solve puzzles, catch criminals and generally deal with aliens, monsters, mad boffins and assorted supernatural threats. Over the decade other Challengers audited this core group, but none as bizarre as those that popped in during their late 1970s resurgence…

The return began in 1976 as a try-out serial in Super-Team Family #8-10 (January-May 1977) and led to the launch of Challengers of the Unknown #81 (June/July 1977). Crafted by Conway, Michael Netzer (nee Nasser) & Bob Wiacek, it’s included here and sees the boys and June Robbins defeat an old super-foe in ‘Multi-Man’s Master Plan’. In the course of the battle, Prof is diagnosed with an appalling, life-threatening fungal infection that dictates the team heading to Perdition, Pennsylvania, with persistent wannabe hanger-on Gaylord Clayburne desperately seeking to insert himself into the rescue mission…

Older fans will know that’s where Holland first defeated a Lovecraftian horror (Swamp Thing #8): a tale fully reprised in CotU #82, as Conway, Netzer & Joe Rubinstein reveal ‘The Lurker Below’, examine the ‘Legacy of the Damned’, expose ‘The Soul Predator’ and ruthlessly respond as ‘The Lurker Rises’

As a deranged priest seeks to manifest cancer-god M’Nagala, Keith Giffen & John Celardo take over art duties with #83 as the embattled Challs seek to close ‘Seven Doorways to Destiny’. As Prof succumbs to fungal assimilation, aid comes as Clayburne recruits human Dr. Alec Holland as a potential ‘Savior from the Swamp?’ even as ‘The Gods Crawl Closer’. Unknown to the vainly striving Challengers, the subsequent battle reverts Holland to his vegetable form, but ‘Monsters, Good and Evil’ cannot stop the ghastly devil until Holland’s ultimate sacrifice. His triumph over M’Nagala goes completely unnoticed…

Issue #84 finds the human heroes attempting ‘To Save a Monster’ called Prof Haley, but falter until the spirit of Boston Brand occupies and cures him ‘When Deadmen Walk’. In the meantime the Challs learn Holland is the Swamp Thing and seek to make amends. With unperceived aid from Brand, they track the bog beast down only to find he/it has been taken over by Multi-Man…

The threat is covertly countered by Deadman, who sticks around when the Challs offer the plant monster a place on the team, just as Challengers of the Unknown #85 introduces ‘The Creature from the End of Time!’ as ‘The Box from Beyond’ materialises in Toronto, spawning murderous ‘Monsters and Men’ and necessitating a ‘Flight into the Future’

The team had hoped to consult legendary specialist Rip Hunter, Time Master, but learn he and his team have been missing for a decade…

Disappointed but undeterred, the Challs (minus angry quitter Red Ryan but with unsuspected stowaway Deadman) take off for 12 million AD, leaving recuperating Prof behind to face an unsuspected menace…

Penultimate issue #86 solves the mystery of Rip Hunter as the heroes encounter ‘The War at Time’s End’, whilst recap ‘The Way it Began’ restates the convoluted path and events that brought the situation about.

The dismantling of humanity’s final dystopia begins as ‘If This is Tomorrow, You Must Be Rip Hunter!’, leads to the Challenger team investigating ‘Time Times Terror’ and discovering ‘A Pit by Any Other Name’ before the saga concludes in complete chaos with #87 (June/July 1978) as the  ‘Twelve Million Years to Twilight’ pits the human heroes against mutated terrors of the dominant Sunset Lords.

In the end, the future of humanity depends on monsters ghost and primitives enacting an ‘Assault on Sunset’ to secure ‘Twilight’s Last Glimmer’, courtesy of Carla & Gerry Conway, Giffen & Celardo.

Once again, an abrupt cancellation was the reward for valorous service and all players returned home to be shelved again. This compendium closes with a brace of superhero team-ups and a lost treat for true devotees, beginning with DC Comics Presents #8 (April 1979), as ‘The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy!’ by Steve Englehart & Murphy Anderson pairs bog beast with the Man of Steel. Still believing he was a transformed human and not an enhanced plant, Swamp Thing here searches the sewers of Metropolis for a cure to his condition, only to stumble onto a battle between Superman and the mystic zombie who was “born on a Monday…

Crafted by Martin Pasko & Aparo, an encore in The Brave and the Bold #176 (July 1981) reunites Batman and Swamp Thing in a convoluted tale of Bayou-based murder and frame-ups in ‘The Delta Connection’ before the previously unpublished contents of Swamp Thing #25.

With the series cancelled, in-production story ‘The Sky Above’ by Kraft, Chan & Carillo is presented here as plot, script, uncoloured cover 16 pages of layouts, the pencils and inks in a clash with Hawkman that really should have officially taken place…

Also offering covers by Redondo, Aparo, Chan, Netzer, Neal Adams, Rubinstein, Rich Buckler, Jack Abel, Frank Giacoia, Alex Saviuk, Dick Giordano, José Luis García-López and Mike Kaluta; editorial material from Challengers of the Unknown #86 and an unused cover by Rick Veitch & Michelle Madsen, this collection comprises a genuine landmark of the art form, with stories that are superb examples of old-fashioned comics wonderment, from a less cynical and sophisticated age, but with a passion and intensity that cannot be matched. And, ooh, that artwork…

If you love comics you must have his buried treasure.
© 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Volume One


By Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson, Nestor Redondo; with Michael Wm. Kaluta & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8440-4 (TPB)

The first fan-sensation of the modern age – now officially enshrined as the Bronze Age – of American comicbooks – Swamp Thing has powerful popular fiction antecedents and in 1972 was seemingly a concept whose time had come again. Prime evidence was the fact that Marvel were also working on a man-into-mucky, muddy mess character at the very same time.

Both Swampy and the Man-Thing were thematic revisions of Theodore Sturgeon’s classic novella It and bore strong resemblances to an immensely popular Hillman Comics character dubbed The Heap. He/it slurped through the back of Airboy Comics (née Air Fighters Comics) from1943. My fan-boy radar suspects Roy Thomas’ marsh-monster the Glob (debuting in Incredible Hulk #121 from November 1969 and promptly returning in #129, June 1970) either inspired both DC and Marvel’s creative teams, or was part of that same zeitgeist. It should also be remembered that Skywald (a very minor player with big aspirations) released a black-&-white magazine in their Warren Comics knock-off line entitled The Heap in the Autumn of 1971.

For whatever reason, by the end of the 1960s superhero comics had started another steep sales decline, once again succumbing to a genre boom and horror/mystery resurgence: a sea-change augmented by a swift rewriting of the specific terms of the Comics Code Authority. At DC, With EC veteran Joe Orlando as editor, House of Mystery and sister title House of Secrets returned to short story anthology formats and gothic mystery scenarios, taking a lead from such TV successes as Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

Referencing the sardonic narrator/storyteller format of EC horror titles, Orlando created Cain and Abel to shepherd readers through brief, sting-in-the-tail yarns produced by the best creators, new and old, that the company could hire. Artists Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta, and especially Bernie Wrightson produced their best work for these titles, and the vast range of successors the horror boom generated at DC.

The twelfth anthology issue of the resurrected House of Secrets cemented the genre into place as the industry leader. There writer Len Wein & Wrightson produced a throwaway gothic thriller set at the turn of the 19th century, wherein gentleman scientist Alex Olsen is murdered by his best friend and his body dumped in a swamp. Years later, his beloved bride – now the unsuspecting wife of the murderer – is stalked by a shambling, disgusting beast that seems to be composed of mud and muck…

This epic trade paperback and digital compilation gathers material from House of Secrets #92, and the contents of Swamp Thing #1-13 (cumulatively covering June/July 1971 to November/December 1974) and perfectly encapsulates the changing face and taste of the times, opening here with that so-pivotal gothic vignette…

‘Swamp Thing’ cover-featured in HoS #92 (June-July 1971), and struck an immediate chord with the buying public. The issue was the best-selling DC comic of that month, and reader response was fervent and persistent.

By all accounts, the only reason there wasn’t an immediate sequel or spin-off was that the creative team didn’t want to produce one. Eventually however, bowing to interminable pressure, and with the sensible idea of transplanting the concept to contemporary America, the first issue of Swamp Thing appeared on newsstands in the Spring of 1972. It was an unqualified hit and an instant classic.

Wein and Wrightson produced ten issues together, crafting an extended, multi-chaptered tale of justice/vengeance and a quest for answers that was at once philosophically typical of the time and a prototype for the story-arc and mini-series formats that dominate today’s comics production. They also used each issue/chapter to pay tribute to a specific sub-genre of timeless horror story whilst advancing the major plot…

Here, the saga resumes with a fresh origin as ‘Dark Genesis’ finds Alec and Linda Holland deep in the Louisiana Bayou, working on a bio-restorative formula that will revolutionise global farming. Working in isolation, they are protected by Secret Service agent Matt Cable, when representatives of an organisation called the Conclave demand that they sell their research to them – or else.

Obviously, the patriotic pair refuse, and the die is cast. The lab is bombed and Linda dies instantly but Alec, showered with his own formula and blazing like a torch, hurtles to a watery grave in the swamp. He does not die…

Transformed by the formula (and remember, please, that this is prior to Alan Moore’s landmark re-imagining of the character) Holland is transformed into a gigantic man-shaped monster, immensely strong, unable to speak, and seemingly composed of living plant matter. Holland’s brain still functions however, and he vacillates between finding his wife’s killers and curing his own monstrous condition. Cable, misinterpreting the evidence, also wants revenge, but he thinks that the monster is the cause of death of his two charges…

Over the next nine issues, Swamp Thing travelled the world, encountering the darkest outbreaks of classic supernature and the insatiable greed of human monsters.

The first was black sorcerer Anton Arcane and his artificial homunculi The Un-Men (eventually the grotesque stars of their own Vertigo series), in ‘The Man Who Wanted Forever.’ The wizard transported Holland to his Balkan castle and sought to mystically trade places with the stupendous swamp beast. The temptation proved too great, but when the restored scientist realised the cost, he violently recanted…

The next issue introduced Abigail Arcane and her tragic Frankenstein-influenced father ‘The Patchwork Man’ in a classic case of monster misunderstanding, which results in her joining free agent Cable in stalking the mossy misanthrope. As Holland makes his torturous way back to the USA, hunters and hunted are waylaid and encounter a Scottish werewolf in ‘Monster on the Moors!’ before at last returning to America and finding ‘The Last of the Ravenwind Witches!’ as well as even more mob-handed human intolerance…

In the wilds of Vermont, he encounters Paradise on Earth, courtesy of an old clockmaker but when the idyll is turned into ‘A Clockwork Horror’ by the voracious Conclave, his torment is transformed into sheer rage, leading to one of the most evocative and revered team-ups of the 1970s.

Swamp Thing #7’s ‘Night of the Bat’ featured the final showdown with the remorseless robber-barons of The Conclave in their Gotham City HQ: a landmark collaboration with the resurgent Batman, himself finally recovering from the hyper-exploitation of the “Campy” TV show era.

Wrightson’s rendering of the superhero through the lens of a horror artist inspired a whole generation of aspiring comics professionals and firmly set the Caped Crusader to rest, replaced with a grim and moody Dark Knight.

Somewhat at a loss after the end of his quest (Swamp Thing came out bi-monthly, so the tale had taken well over a year to tell – unprecedented at a time when most comics still had two or more complete stories per issue), the Moss Monster shambled aimlessly through America’s hinterlands encountering a Lovecraftian horror in the New England town of Perdition. ‘The Lurker in Tunnel 13!’ After dealing with eldritch cancer god M’Naagalah, Holland (as well as Abigail and Cable) were drawn into a US military cover-up involving a marooned and benevolent alien in ‘The Stalker from Beyond!’ which benefitted from supplemental inking by Michael Kaluta before the classic run concluded with #10’s ‘The Man Who Would Not Die!’: a tale of ghostly retribution amidst the graves of unquiet plantation slaves with unliving atrocity Anton Arcane making his first of many demonic returns…

The issue was plotted by Wrightson and marked his swansong on the title: the next chapter in the Swamp Thing saga was still dictated by Wein but the miraculously gifted hands of Nestor Redondo: possible the only artist who could have matched the visual intensity of the feature’s visual originator.

Nestor Redondo was born in 1928 at Candon, Ilocas Sur in the American Territory of the Philippines. Like so many others he was influenced by US comic-strips such as Tarzan, Superman, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon which were immensely popular in the entertainment-starved Pacific Archipelago.

Drawing from an early age Nestor emulated his brother Virgilio – who already worked as a comics artist for the cheap magazines of the young country. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935, and achieved full-independence from the USA in 1946, but maintained close cultural links to America.

His parents pushed him into architecture but within a year Nestor had returned to comics. A superb artist, he far outshone Virgilio – and everybody else – in the cottage industry. His brother switched to writing and the brothers teamed up to produce some of the best strips the Islands had ever seen, the most notable and best regarded being Mars Ravelo’s ‘Darna’.

Capable of astounding quality at an incredible rate of speed, by the early 1950s Nestor was drawing for many comics simultaneously. Titles such as Pilipino Komiks, Tagalog Klasiks, Hiwaga Komiks and Espesial Komiks were fortnightly and he usually worked on two or three series simultaneously, pencils and inks. He also produced many of the covers.

In 1953 he crafted an adaptation of MGM film Quo Vadis for Ace Publications’ Tagalong Klasiks #91-92. Written by Clodualdo Del Mundo, it was serialized to promote the movie in country, but MGM were so impressed by the art-job they offered 24-year old Nestor a US job and residency. He declined, thinking himself too young to leave home yet.

If you’re interested, you can see the surviving artwork by Googling “Nestor Redondo’s Quo Vadis”, and you should because it’s frankly incredible.

Ace was the country’s biggest comics publisher, but by the early 1960s they were in dire financial straits. In 1963 Nestor, Tony Caravana, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Fernandez, Amado Castrillo and brother Virgilio set up their own company CRAF Publications, Inc., but the times were against them (and publishers everywhere). About this time, America came calling again, but in the form of DC and Marvel Comics. By 1972, US based Tony DeZuñiga had introduced a wave of Filipino artists to US editors, and Nestor produced short horror tales for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Phantom Stranger, Secrets of Sinister House, Witching Hour, The Unexpected, Weird War Tales, fill-ins for Marvel’s Man-Thing, an astonishingly beautiful run on Rima the Jungle Girl (a loose adaptation of W H Hudson’s seminal 1904 novel Green Mansions) before being tapped to take over as illustrator on Swamp Thing. He also worked on Lois Lane and Tarzan and in 1973 produced adaptations including Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Vincent Fago’s Pendulum Press Illustrated Classics: later reprinted as Marvel Classics Comics.

In later years he moved to Marvel where he inked and eventually fully illustrated Savage Sword of Conan.

During that DC period he was tapped to draw an adaptation of King Arthur which DC killed before it was completed (once again some pages survive and the internet is your friend if you want to see them) and illustrated issue C-36 of the tabloid sized Limited Collectors’ Edition: The Bible. (please link)

Sporting a Luis Dominguez cover, Swamp Thing #11 was cover-dated July/August 1974 and sees the monster back at last in his Bayou home, with Cable and Abigail close on his root-riddled heels. When mutant beasts and ‘The Conqueror Worms!’ attack his human pursuers, Holland rushes to the rescue and the relationship between hunters and prey alters forever…

The carnivorous Worms have suborned crazed survivalist Professor Zachary Nail and taken captives and when their secret plans are exposed war breaks out for possession of Earth…

In the aftermath, Swamp Thing is sucked into an arcane time-loop locked on constantly-killed and perpetually-resurrecting Milo Mobius …until Holland finds a way to break the circle of ‘The Eternity Man’

This initial collection then concludes with Cable, Abigail and new recruit Bolt instigating ‘The Leviathan Conspiracy’ to liberate the Federally imprisoned Swamp Thing and put him beyond the reach of government scientists forever…

A genuine landmark of the art form, these stories are also superb examples of old-fashioned comics wonderment, from a less cynical and sophisticated age, but with a passion and intensity that cannot be matched. And, ooh, that artwork…

If you love comics you must have his buried treasure.
© 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Swamp Thing


By Len Wein & Berni Wrightson (Tor/DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-523-49012-7

In my perpetual quest to highlight the rare and odd (or “show off” as my mum used to call it) I’ve unearthed a few more nostalgically tangential and “comicbook-adjacent” little gems that will gradually make their way into these reviews whenever I’m feeling a little bit halcyon or backwards-looking.

Take this little treat from 1982, released to coincide with the then still-Big-News of a movie based on a comic book character…

The first fan-sensation of the modern age of comics (or perhaps the last of the true Silver Age?), Swamp Thing had powerful popular fiction antecedents and in 1972 when the character first appeared, was seemingly a concept whose time had come again. Prime evidence was the fact that Marvel were also working on a man-into-mucky, muddy mess character at the very same time.

Both Swampy and Man-Thing were thematic revisions of Theodore Sturgeon’s classic novella It and bore strong resemblances to the immensely popular Hillman character The Heap, who slushed his way through the back of Airboy Comics (née Air Fighters) from1943; bridging the first death of superheroes and rise of horror and crime comics.

My fan-boy radar suspects that Roy Thomas’ marsh-monster the Glob (from Incredible Hulk #121 and #129 (November 1969 and June 1970) either inspired both DC and Marvel’s creative teams, or was part of that same zeitgeist. Skywald, a minor player patterned on Warren Comics monochrome magazine hits Eerie and Creepy, released a new black-&-white title The Heap in the Autumn of 1971.

For whatever reason, by the end of the 1960s superhero comics had started another steep sales decline, once again making way for a horror/mystery boom: a sea-change facilitated by a swift rewriting of the Comics Code Authority. At DC, House of Mystery and its sister title House of Secrets returned to short story anthology formats and gothic mystery scenarios, taking a lead from such TV successes as Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery with EC veteran Joe Orlando as editor.

The twelfth anthology issue of House of Secrets cemented the genre into place as the industry leader. In it writer Len Wein and Berni Wrightson produced a throwaway gothic thriller set at the turn of the 19th century, wherein gentleman scientist Alex Olsen was murdered by his best friend and his body dumped in a swamp. Years later his beloved bride, now the unsuspecting wife of the murderer, was stalked by a shambling, disgusting beast that seemed to be composed of mud and muck…

‘Swamp Thing’ (cover-featured in HoS #92, June/July 1971) struck an immediate chord with the buying public. The issue was the top-selling DC title of that month and reader response was fervent and persistent. By all accounts the only reason there wasn’t an immediate sequel or spin-off was that the creative team didn’t want to produce one.

Eventually however, bowing to interminable pressure and with the sensible suggestion of transplanting the concept to contemporary America, the first issue of Swamp Thing appeared on newsstands in the Spring of 1972.

It was a magnificent hit and an instant classic.

Wein and Wrightson together produced ten issues, crafting an extended, multi-chaptered tale of justice/vengeance that was at once philosophically typical of the time and a prototype for the story-arc and mini-series formats which dominate modern comicbook production. They also used each issue/chapter to pay tribute to a specific sub-genre of timeless horror story whilst advancing the major plot.

This nifty little monochrome digest reprints their first three collaborations from the solo title and begins with the revamped origin of a contemporary mire-monster in ‘Dark Genesis’ as husband and wife biologists Alec and Linda Holland move deep into the Bayou Country, working on a “bio-restorative formula” that would revolutionise World Farming. Working in isolation, they were guarded by Secret Service agent Matt Cable.

When representatives of an organisation called The Conclave demanded that they sell their research to them – or else – the patriotic pair refused and the die was cast. When the lab was bombed. Alec, showered with his own formula and blazing like a torch, hurtled to a watery grave in the swamp.

He did not die.

Hideously altered by the formula (and remember, please, that this is prior to Alan Moore’s landmark re-imagining of the character) he was transformed into a gigantic man-shaped horror; immensely strong, unable to speak and seemingly made from living plant matter. Cable and Linda, misinterpreting the evidence, believed that the big mossy ogre killed Alec…

Whilst the G-Man hunted the mossy beast through the swamp Conclave agents returned and attempted to force the secret from Linda. When the monster doubled back he found her body and exacted a terrible vengeance on her killers…

Cable, having failed twice over, determines to hunt the Swamp Thing to the ends of the Earth…

The second tale ‘The Man Who Wanted Forever’ introduced diabolical sorcerer Anton Arcane and his artificial homunculi, The Un-Men (subject of their own Vertigo series in recent years); an aged, seemingly benevolent savant who shanghaied Swamp Thing to the doom-laden Balkans and offered to cure Holland’s vegetable state. However the mage had his own ghastly plans for the vacated green body and Alec had to make a tragic choice to save the world…

As Cable tracked down the plant pariah and began an obsessive vendetta, this stunning collection concludes with the powerfully moving ‘Patchwork Man’ which introduced romantic interest Abigail Arcane and her tragic Frankensteinian father Gregori: the thwarted sorcerer’s dead brother and his earliest experiment in extending life beyond medical and moral limits…

The mini-revolution in the “Camp-superhero” crazed 1960s saw four-colour comicbook material migrate briefly from flimsy pamphlet to the stiffened covers and relative respectability of the paperback bookshelves and the nostalgic wonderment these mostly forgotten fancies still afford long ago showed that there was a proven market for such items beyond the brief attention spans of bored kids.

This terrific little black and white tome, part of National Periodical Publications’ decades-long efforts to reach wider reading audiences, is particularly appealing as Swamp Thing is one of the most sensitively reformatted books of its type and Wrightson’s art – like the work of Steve Ditko – is actually enhanced by the removal of the standard comicbook colouring.

Hard to find but definitely worth it…
© 1982 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved. Swamp Thing is a Trademark of DC Comics Inc

Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis

Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis
Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis

By Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson (Vertigo/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-044-4

The first fan-sensation of the modern age of comics (or perhaps the last of the true Silver Age?), Swamp Thing has powerful popular fiction antecedents and in 1972 was seemingly a concept whose time had come again. Prime evidence was the fact that Marvel were also working on a man-into-mucky, muddy mess character at the very same time.

Both Swampy and Man-Thing were thematic revisions of Theodore Sturgeon’s classic novella It and bore strong resemblances to the immensely popular Hillman character The Heap, who slurped his way through the back of Airboy Comics (née Air Fighters) from1943. My fan-boy radar suspects that Roy Thomas’ marsh-monster the Glob (from Incredible Hulk #121- Nov 1969 and again in #129 – Jun 1970) either inspired both DC and Marvel’s creative teams, or was part of that same zeitgeist, and it should also be remembered that Skywald (a very minor player with big aspirations) released a black-&-white magazine in their Warren Comics knock-off line entitled The Heap in the Autumn of 1971.

For whatever reason, by the end of the 1960s superhero comics had started another steep sales decline, once again making way for a horror/mystery boom: a sea-change augmented by a swift rewriting of the specific terms of the Comics Code Authority. At DC, House of Mystery and its sister title House of Secrets returned to short story anthology formats and gothic mystery scenarios, taking a lead from such TV successes as Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery with EC veteran Joe Orlando as editor.

Referencing the sardonic narrator/storyteller format of the EC horror titles, Orlando created Cain and Abel to shepherd readers through brief, sting-in-the-tail yarns produced by the best creators, new and old, that the company could hire. Artists Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta, and especially Berni Wrightson undoubtedly produced their best work for these two titles and the vast range of successors the horror boom generated at DC.

The twelfth anthology issue of House of Secrets cemented the genre into place as the industry leader. In it writer Len Wein and Wrightson produced a throwaway gothic thriller set at the turn of the 19th century, wherein gentleman scientist Alex Olsen is murdered by his best friend and his body dumped in a swamp. Years later his beloved bride, now the unsuspecting wife of the murderer, is stalked by a shambling, disgusting beast that seems to be composed of mud and muck…

‘Swamp Thing’ cover featured in HoS #92 (June-July 1971), and it struck an immediate chord with the buying public. The issue was the best selling DC comic of that month, and reader response was fervent and persistent. By all accounts the only reason there wasn’t an immediate sequel or spin-off was that the creative team didn’t want to produce one.

Eventually however, bowing to interminable pressure, and with the sensible idea of transplanting the concept contemporary America, the first issue of Swamp Thing appeared on newsstands in the Spring of 1972. It was an instant hit and an instant classic.

Wein and Wrightson produced ten issues together, crafting an extended, multi-chaptered tale of justice/vengeance and a quest for answers that was at once philosophically typical of the time and a prototype for the story-arc and mini-series formats that dominate modern comicbook production. They also used each issue/chapter to pay tribute to a specific sub-genre of timeless horror story whilst advancing the major plot.

The origin ‘Dark Genesis’ finds Alec and Linda Holland deep in the Bayou Country, working on a “bio-restorative formula” that will revolutionise World Farming. They are working in isolation, protected by Matt Cable, a Secret Service agent, when representatives of an organisation called The Conclave, demand that they sell their research to them – or else. Obviously the patriotic pair refuse, and the die is cast when their lab is bombed. Linda dies instantly but Alec, showered with his own formula and blazing like a torch hurtles to a watery grave in the swamp.

But he does not die.

Transformed by the formula (and remember, please, that this is prior to Alan Moore’s landmark re-imagining of the character) he is transformed into a gigantic man-shaped monster, immensely strong, unable to speak, and seemingly made from living plant matter. Holland’s brain still functions however, and he vacillates between finding his wife’s killers and curing his own monstrous condition. Cable, misinterpreting the evidence, also wants revenge, but he thinks that the monster is the cause of death of his two charges…

Over the next nine issues, Swamp Thing travelled the world, encountering the black sorcerer Anton Arcane and his artificial homunculi, The Un-Men (recently the subject of their own Vertigo series), Abigail Arcane and her tragic Frankensteinian father The Patchwork Man, and a werewolf on the moors of Scotland, before returning to America and finding ‘The Last of the Ravenwind Witches’. In the wilds of Vermont he encounters Paradise on Earth, care of an old clockmaker but is attacked by the voracious Conclave, leading to one of the most evocative and revered team-ups of the 1970s.

Swamp Thing #7’s ‘Night of the Bat!’ featured the final showdown with remorseless robber-barons of The Conclave in Gotham City, and a landmark collaboration with the resurgent Batman, himself finally recovering from the hyper-exploitation of the “Campy” TV show era. Wrightson’s rendering of the superhero through the lens of a horror artist inspired a whole generation of aspiring comics professionals and firmly set the caped crusader to rest, replacing him with a Dark Knight.

Somewhat at a loss after the end of his quest (Swamp Thing came out bi-monthly, so the tale had taken well over a year to tell – unprecedented at a time when most comics still had two or more complete stories per issue) the Moss Monster shambled through America’s hinterlands encountering a Lovecraftian horror in the New England town of Perdition, a ghastly but misunderstood alien and finally the unquiet ghosts of slaves and plantation-owners. This grim and powerful closing tale also featured the return of Arcane and the grotesque Un-Men.

The initial series staggered on under some very capable and talented hands (up until #24), but the fever of inspiration was never re-kindled, meaning that the very best of that iconic saga can be easily contained in one volume. This is a superb slice of old-fashioned comics wonderment, from a less cynical and sophisticated age, but with a passion and intensity that cannot be matched. And, ooh, that artwork…

© 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Swamp Thing: Spontaneous Generation

Swamp Thing: Spontaneous Generation 

By Rick Veitch & Alfredo Alcala (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-260-6

The post-Alan Moore Swamp Thing comics have long been overlooked, and DC’s inevitable collecting of these tales is a genuine treat for fans of the muck monster and horror-fans in general. Writer-artist Rick Veitch, aided by veteran inker Alfredo Alcala, produced a run of mini-classics with these stories from Swamp Thing issues # 71-76 that built on Moore’s cerebral, visceral writing as the world’s planet elemental became increasingly involved with ecological matters.

Having decided to “retire”, Swamp Thing (an anthropomorphic plant with the personality and mind of murdered biologist Alec Holland) is charged with facilitating the creation of his/its successor, but the process has become contaminated by consecutive failures and false starts, leading to a horrendous series of abortive creatures and a potentially catastrophic Synchronicity Maelstrom.

Alec, his “wife” Abigail and the chillingly charismatic magician John Constantine have to combine forces – and indeed some body-fluids – to create a solution before the resultant chaos-storm destroys the Earth. ((see Hellblazer: Original Sins ISBN 1-84576-465-X and Swamp Thing: Regenesis ISBN 1-84023-994-8)

More than a decade and a half after the initial run, and with some necessary distance from grossly unfair comparisons to his predecessor, Veitch’s Swamp Thing stories can be seen as innovative, sly and witty, by a creator capable and satiric, but still wedded to the basic tenets of his craft, “keep them surprised, keep them wondering, keep them spooked”. You can do all this to yourself just by buying this book.

© 1988, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved

Swamp Thing: Regenesis

Swamp Thing: Regenesis 

By Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala & Brett Ewins (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84023-994-8

With renewed interest in the big green guy due to his return to the DC Universe it seemed inevitable that all those issues not written by Alan Moore should eventually find their way between the glossy, stiffened covers of compilation albums.

This batch (Issue’s 65 – 70 of the second series) follows the plant elemental’s return to Earth and his lover Abby, and their complicated plan to have a child together. This they can only accomplish, with the grudging assistance of modern mage John Constantine (see Hellblazer: Original Sins ISBN 1-84576-465-X).

Also encountered along the way are DC stalwarts Batman, Jason Woodrue, Solomon Grundy and even 1950s hero Roy Raymond, TV Detective, as well as Moore’s eccentric cast of supporting characters. At time of publishing these tales were handily and unfairly dismissed, but they hold up very well and it’s good to see them aired when they can be assessed on their own merits. Trippy, but eminently enjoyable.

© 2005 DC Comics

Swamp Thing: Love in Vain

Swamp Thing: Love in Vain 

By Joshua Dysart, Enrique Breccia & Timothy Green II (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-195-2

Swamp Thing is gradually trudging back to its horrific roots as Joshua Dysart touches all the old bases of exotic Louisiana Bayous, lonely women in rotting plasterboard shacks, do-it-yourself homunculi, and the latest return of arch-enemy Anton Arcane, whose periodic escapes from Hell are a guarantee of world-threatening gore and deplorability.

Also on show is a tent-Revival Evangelist whose congregations have a habit of disappearing in a volume of tales that although strikingly illustrated by the venerable Enrique Breccia (“Love in Vain”) and Timothy Green III (“A Measure of Faith”) seem to temporarily – we hope – treading water.

All punned out. Stopping now.

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Swamp Thing: Bad Seed

Swamp Thing: Bad Seed 

By Andy Diggle & Enrique Breccia (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84023-954-9

This revival of the Swamp Thing sees a return to the basics of the pre-Alan Moore version (against which all others must inevitably be measured), whilst keeping much of the extended continuity and what has become the Vertigo sensibility.

The plot ties up all the loose ends that floated about after the demise of the previous series wherein the daughter of the Bog God took over his mantle whilst he (it?) became the avatar of all the elemental configurations of Earth. Author Diggle brings back the original, re-establishes relationships with Alec Holland, Abigail, their daughter Tefé and flavour of the month John Constantine. More importantly, he and comics veteran Breccia return the sometimes overly cosmic lead character to – you should excuse the pun – his horror roots.

This one starts slow but I suspect, if following creators keep their feet firmly planted on or below the ground, we could all be in for some good reading in the seasons to come.

© 2005 DC Comics. All rights reserved.