Hello all,

It hasn’t been too long since my last post so there aren’t a lot of changes to the site. I finished crediting inkers and variant cover artists, and am still working on getting the appearance summaries more up-to-date. Most of the appearances mentioned in my last post have now come to pass. Swamp Thing has yet to appear in Poison Ivy’s current takeover of Gotham, though the Parliament of Trees are involved. There has been a recent reprint of Swamp Thing #1 (Oct./Nov. 1972), and a reprint of The Saga of Swamp Thing #34 (“Rite of Spring” – Mar. 1985) is coming out before the end of the year. The Riccardo Federici project was revealed at New York Comic Con as being a one-shot titled Swamp Thing: Hallowed Ground with writer Steve Foxe. That looks great and is due out early next year, as is a Valentines Day anthology titled DC’s Crazy Little Swamp Thing Called Love.

In addition to the Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis Omnibus (due at the end of the year), DC have also announced the next omni in that series. That is titled Swamp Thing by Alan Moore Omnibus and is due mid-2027. The collection begins with The Saga of Swamp Thing #16 (the first issue with the artistic team of Bissette/Totleben) and continues through to the end of Alan Moore’s run with issue #64. The collection also includes a few more major Swamp Thing appearances from this period, the first few issues of Hellblazer, and some extra ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’-related material that I assume is there to explain that event and give some context to a few Swamp Thing issues. Much of that content was included in the three Alan Moore Absolute Editions but those contained new colouring, while these are “remastered to original colors” so I’m hoping that Jose Villarubia is again involved in preserving Tatjana Wood’s original work. Other interesting inclusions are “Moore’s original proposal for the lost event Twilight of the Superheroes and the surviving pages from Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing: Deja Vu (set in the aftermath of Moore’s run).” Some of that content has appeared online but I don’t believe that has ever been officially published by DC before.

Even more exciting for me is the very fresh announcement of the Bissette and Totleben’s Swamp Thing Artist’s Edition, expected to be released in mid-2027 too. I own and love several Artist (or Artifact) Editions already. The books are typically huge and contain beautiful reproductions of original art. This book will include 170 pieces of art from interiors and covers that Stephen Bissette and John Totleben were involved in between issues #16 and #64. This is sort of a sequel to the Bernie Wrightson: Artifact Edition from 2017. 2027 is going to be a great year for reprints of arguably Swamp Thing’s greatest era.

Other comics I’m currently enjoying include If Destruction Be Our Lot (dystopian but humourous sci-fi by Image Comics featuring a robotic Abraham Lincoln) and A Garden of Spheres by Linnea Sterte (fairly abstract sci-fi/fantasy with beautiful art).