Hi all,

Following a delay of about 37 years, the release of Rick Veitch and Michael Zulli’s Swamp Thing #88 is imminent (with the Zulli variant cover shown below). But there is now another exciting release on the horizon. The pre-Alan Moore issues are being reissued in a two-volume hardcover set titled Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis Omnibus, with colouring managed by José Villarrubia. I liked Villarrubia’s work on the Wein/Wrightson Absolute edition and I’m hoping the colours will stay fairly true to Tatjana Wood’s original work. This new omnibus will mostly replicate what could be found in the three volume Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age collection, which collated all of Swampy’s major appearances up to the Moore run, including his Challengers of the Unknown, The Brave and the Bold, and DC Comics Presents appearances and ending with The Saga of Swamp Thing #19. This new omnibus will stop a little earlier at The Saga of Swamp Thing #15 – just prior to the involvement of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. Presumably future omnibuses will pick up the story from there.

Unlike the previous Bronze Age collections, this new set has a few notable additions that I’m excited about:

• “The Spectre of the Stalking Swamp” story from Phantom Stranger #14, which has been on my wantlist for some time. This is an early swamp monster story from Len Wein, and loosely ties into Swamp Thing #11 (July/Aug. 1974).
• The first publication of Swamp Thing #25. The previous Bronze Age books included David Anthony Kraft’s script and some rough pages from this unpublished issue (originally solicited for 1976) but this volume will include a completed version by artist Joe Rubenstein and coloured by Villarrubia.
• The unpublished Patchwork Man story that was originally due to appear in House of Secrets #141 (circa 1976), but is currently only available in Scandinavian reprints. This will be the first English-language version. Though Swamp Thing doesn’t appear, the story concerns Abby’s father.

Other than hanging out for some of these reprints, I have been enjoying some other comics and graphic novels.  These include: The Nice House on the Lake (I was pretty late to this sci-fi title but I loved it and am now awaiting the collected edition of the second series); IDW’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (the second series just finished up and, though I have a high tolerance for horror, I find this serial killer story really tense and disturbing); Image Comics’ Assorted Crisis Events; Whiteout (an Oni Press detective series from the 1990s, set in the Antarctic); Sunday by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics); and IDW’s More Weight by Ben Wickey (similar to From Hell but for the Salem Witch Trials).

I’m also supporting a Kickstarter for Steve Bissette’s Tyrant. I’m not exactly sure what I’m in for, but I believe one book collects the 4 published issues with a load of bonus content (I’m hoping for lots of research notes about dinosaurs), while another oversized volume collects the original art. I have the single issues of Tyrant and it’s fantastic, so support Bissette’s work here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicslighthouse/bissette-tyrant-deluxe-editions

In sadder news, Tatjana Wood recently passed away, just a few days shy of her 100th birthday. She assisted her then-husband Wally Wood with illustrations for DC in the 1950s and 1960s before working as a colourist from the late 1960s. She then coloured nearly all of the first two Swamp Thing series, as well as the first Animal Man series and Camelot 3000, adding much to the look and feel of those works.

Until next time…

Zac.

Hi all,
It’s time again for a rare update. This year, Swamp Thing appeared in several issues of John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead In America, which has just finished up. He also appeared in a one-shot with Poison Ivy titled Feral Trees, and in a short story within an issue of the Batman: The Brave And The Bold anthology series. The version of Alec Holland from the Dark Knights of Steel universe (Earth 118) appears throughout the six-issue series Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter. For the full list of appearances I’ve found this year, see this page, which is now nearly up to date again after being neglected for much of the year. Swampy is now a part of the greatly expanded Justice League so he may make a few more appearances as part of that team in 2025.

There hasn’t been been much recent news about the upcoming James Mangold Swamp Thing film, but there is also nothing to indicate that it has been scrapped. A new Superman film being released in mid-2025 indicates that the new DC film universe (DCEU) is starting to be constructed.

I’ve only added a few entries to the Bibliography this year but I have a number of further readings queued up and hope to add more references before the end of my Christmas holidays. What I’ve primarily been concentrating on this year is a new website focusing on Animal Man, particularly Grant Morrison’s run between 1988-1990. Check it out at https://wild-planet.org/. I will be adding a lot to that new site in the next year, but will not stop building up Another Green World.

Thanks,
Zac.

Hello,
I’m just checking in to say that I am loving Spurrier and Campbell’s John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America limited series, which has involved the Alec Holland version of Swamp Thing in every issue so far. It is entertaining and disturbing and is very reminiscent of Alan Moore’s American Gothic arc, which ran roughly between 1985-1986. The page I had created for Volume 7 was getting quite lengthy so I’ve created a new page for Swampy’s appearances from this Hellblazer series onwards.  See https://anothergreenworld.org/collected/deadinamerica/In my spare time, I’ve also been working on another comic-related website which I hope to publish by the end of the year. My computer broke at around Christmas and I’ve been borrowing one since then, which has slowed up this work a little bit, but I hope to have access to all my files again within the next couple of weeks.

Hello all,

2023 has been a fairly quiet year for Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing: Green Hell was concluded but Swampy didn’t otherwise appear in any comics bearing his name. His biggest guest appearances were in a short story in the DC’s Legion of Bloom one-shot, and in the final issues of City Boy. Another version of Swamp Thing also made a couple of appearances in the Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic series and on another stunning Christian Ward variant cover (below).  Earlier in the year, there was some buzz about a new Swamp Thing film directed by James Mangold (Logan) but there hasn’t been much news since June.

The biggest release was Rich Handley’s epic chronology of Swampy and John Constantine up to 2011, Born on the Bayou.  I found a lot of helpful information on Rich’s old website and am currently combing through the pages of this tome looking for further tidbits (I’m only up to the 1940s).  It’s difficult to know how to approach a work like this, as it’s (so far) not particularly interesting to read it cover-to-cover after having read most of the comics.  But it would be endlessly insightful to someone who has dipped in and out of Swamp Thing and Hellblazer and wants to understand how everything fits together, which is the position I was in a little over a decade ago, and is how I have used Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design.  Born on the Bayou stands alongside Swampmen: The Muck-Monsters and their Makers (2014) as essential secondary resources for Swamp Thing fans.

I’m quite excited about the new 8-issue series John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America by Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell, which follows on from their 12-issue run in 2020-21 that I am yet to read. The new series starts in January and will feature the Alec Holland version of Swamp Thing, plus Dream of the Sandman comics.

In non-Swampy related comic reading, this year I’ve enjoyed Daniel Clowes’ Monica; The Riddler: Year One (written by the character’s actor, Paul Dano); the continuation of Gaiman and Buckingham’s run on Miracleman (which began in 1990!); and a translation of the undercover investigation of Parisian police, Flic. I’ve also been trying to get through a bunch of Judge Dredd Complete Case Files books I’ve collected and hoping for some fancy Brian Bolland and Arthur Ranson reprint books from 2000AD next year.

Have a safe transition into 2024.

Zac.

Hi all,

I just finished watching a very interesting presentation by Stephen Bissette on Swamp Thing and the Comics Code, presented a couple of years ago at the Jackson Concatenation Convention and available online here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PnKsyyn-LOHGE3-5qxdtYLUijny5IAIb/view.
Interviews with Bissette (in print or on video) always provide illuminating insights into the creation and publication of comics. This one included a few tidbits that I hadn’t heard before (or had at least forgotten) including:

• The influence of Nicholas Roeg’s 1970s films on Bissette/Moore’s Swamp Thing;
• The hidden Gumbys in some of the early Bissette/Totleben art;
• The fact that Bissette and Totleben had also supplied samples to DC showing Totleben pencilling and Bissette inking, and that it was Len Wein who ultimately decided that Bissette should be responsible for pencils and layouts.

There’s a bit more of a description of what is discussed in the Bibliography.  I really recommend it as a basic overview of Swamp Thing and its emergence and later re-invigoration in the 1980s in the wider context of popular culture and comics publishing.

Hello Swamp fans,

It seems that the time has come again for my annual post, and I’m sneaking it in a few hours before the new year begins. 2022 saw the conclusion of Ram V and Mike Perkins’ The Swamp Thing series after 16 issues. It was a very satisfying introduction of a new version of Swampy, Levi Kamei, and the series brought interesting guest appearances and fantastic art throughout. We were also supposed to get Lemire and Mahnke’s mini-series Swamp Thing: Green Hell, but only one issue was published on schedule so we should expect to see the commencement and conclusion of this title in 2023.

I’ve been keeping the list of appearances up-to-date.  We saw several appearances of alternate versions of Swampy this year.  Swamp-Man is from Earth-13, where the major superheroes are affiliated with magic and he is a member of the League of Shadows – that world’s equivalent of the Justice League.   Spore of Earth-41 is a cross between Swamp Thing and Spawn, on a world where all heroes resemble Image Comics characters. Both Swamp-Man and Spore appeared in the Justice League Incarnate series.  Swamp Thing also appears in several issues of DC Vs. Vampires, set on a world (Earth-63) that has been taken over by vampires. Meanwhile in the Flashpoint Universe, where familiar heroes are villains and vice versa, Jason Woodrue makes an appearance as the plant avatar of that world.

Swamp Thing also had a part to play in the big multiversal crossover event of this year, Dark Crisis, and was the focus of a tie-in issue. He also featured in a short story in the Halloween anthology DC’s Terrors Through Time.  In early 2023, Swampy is rumoured to be appearing in the ‘Lazarus Planet’ crossover.

I’ve had a busy year changing houses and jobs.  Apart from keeping up with the activities of Swampy, I’ve been enjoying a few Tom King miniseries, and am very excited about new issues of Miracleman being released throughout next year.

I wish you all a great start to 2023.

Zac.

Hello readers,

It has been a long time since my last update so I figured I should post something before 2021 comes to a close. Since the last time I wrote, Swampy has been starring in a monthly series appropriately titled The Swamp Thing, written by Ram V and illustrated by Mike Perkins. The series was going to conclude with issue #10 but has just been extended into 2022. Early images of next year’s issues suggest that Tefé Holland will make an appearance. Tefé is a favourite character who hasn’t shown up since mid-2006, when Joshua Dysart and Enrique Breccia were creating the fourth series of Swamp Thing. Wikipedia sums up Tefé’s complicated lineage in this way:

“Tefé was originally a floating spirit called the Sprout, who tried to find a body from a recently deceased person; she was eventually given a body through Abby Holland having a baby, which was conceived through the Swamp Thing possessing John Constantine and having sex with her. Due to Constantine having the demon Nergal’s blood in his veins at the time, Tefe is also part demon.”

Ram V and Perkins have done some great work this year, introducing a new Swamp Thing and bringing in a number of interesting guests characters while still maintaining a connection to the Alec Holland version of Swampy we know and love.

There will be a brief hiatus after issue #10, when Swamp Thing will appear in a three-part, prestige mini-series on DC’s Black Label imprint. The title is Swamp Thing: Green Hell and begins just after Christmas. This will be written by Jeff Lemire with artwork by Doug Mahnke, and I’m very excited for it.

That’s all I wanted to say for now. It has been another strange year but I will keep updating the site regularly as the world of Swamp Thing continues to grow.

Zac.

Hello readers,

The lockdown has continued here in Melbourne as we attempt to get the virus case numbers under control in our state. The restrictions on movement are quite strict but they seem to be having the desired effect and I’m hopeful that I’ll again be able to see friends and make music over our Australian summer, and that 2020 won’t be a complete write-off.

I was supposed be on an overseas holiday right now but I’ve settled instead for a week off work(ing online) to watch movies and read. I’ve used the first few days of my break to investigate Timeline JS, which had been on my to-do list for a few years. I’ve created something that presents the history of Swamp Thing (the publication and the character) and I’ve added a link to the timeline in the menu. It was pretty easy and fun to make.

In Swamp Thing news, the DC Universe TV series is about to be re-broadcast on The CW channel. The ‘Giant’ series ended abruptly but the Justice League Dark series continues and Swamp Thing’s role has been interesting. Swampy has also been playing a big part in the Dark Nights: Death Metal and DCeased: Dead Planet series that are currently running. The young adult graphic novel Swamp Thing: Twin Branches is due out in about 6 weeks and I like the look of the art so far. I’m continually updating the relevant webpage with new appearances.

I hope you are all staying healthy and sane,
Zac.

Hello all,

I haven’t been doing a lot of Swamp Thing-related reading or writing while the world has been on virus lockdown. There hasn’t been any new DC comics in stores for weeks now and I’m missing my regular fix of superhero adventures. However, things seem to be slowly returning to normality, at least here in Australia. New Swamp Thing stories have been appearing digitally in a series called Swamp Thing: New Roots. These stories seem to be included in the 2nd ‘Giant’ series. The Giant comics were being released in Walmart stores slightly before the Direct Market editions, but COVID-19 threw this schedule into chaos. At the time of writing, New Roots #6 is about to come out, while Swamp Thing Giant #5 is out in Walmart stores in the US, and Giant #4 is about to hit comic stores everywhere.

Other than the Giant issues, Swampy is continuing to appear as a member of Justice League Dark, and seems to be included in another team that will appear in the DCeased: Dead Planet series. I’m also excited for the Tom King/Mitch Gerads Strange Adventures series to resume. (I’m not sure if Swampy will show up there, but it is possible given his past relationship with Adam Strange).

In TV/movie news, the latest Swamp Thing TV series will be broadcast on The CW television network, where many of DC’s TV series already reside. The animated film Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is out now. This is a follow-up to the 2017 Justice League Dark film, which Swamp Thing briefly appears in. I haven’t watched Apokolips War yet but I suspect that Swampy only has a bit part. He is voiced again by Roger Cross.

Finally, a few weeks ago Martin Pasko passed away at age 65. He wrote 17 of the first 19 issues of The Saga of Swamp Thing when it was relaunched in 1982, teaming up with such notable artists as Tom Yeates, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. Pasko introduced the characters General Sunderland, Liz Tremayne, and Dennis Barclay – all of whom would appear in the latest Swamp Thing television series. He also brought Abby and Matt Cable back to the series. I’m not a big fan of these issues and they tend to be pretty dialogue-heavy but there are some cool ideas in here, including the teen punk vampires of Rosewood who would be revived during the Alan Moore run and who possibly had some influence on the film The Lost Boys. While working with Bissette and Totleben, Pasko brought back Anton Arcane (in his creepy arachnid form) and these final issues are a nice lead-in to the iconic Moore run. Outside of his Swamp Thing work, Pasko wrote many stories for DC in such flagship titles as Superman, Wonder Woman, and Justice League of America, and also wrote for TV.

Stay safe

Zac.