ShareThis"Will there be blood? I like to imagine so."
That's one of the earliest lines in one of the best comic-book stories ever written, which is being reprinted in DC/Vertigo's "Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 1" collection by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. It's coming out just before Moore's classic "Watchmen" hits the screen March 6, for those who leave the theater wondering who this Moore guy is and what the heck is wrong with him.
So here's the hardback "Swamp Thing" to give a little background on Moore -- and a dynamite book in its own right.
Speaking of background, it's hard to believe now, but "Swamp Thing" wasn't always a well-known title or a big seller. In fact, it was a rather pedestrian "horror" book, in the days when the Comics Code allowed very little in the way of actual horror.
The "muck-encrusted mockery of a man" was created in 1971 by the very young Len Wein (writer) and Bernie Wrightson (artist), before both went on to storied careers, as a short, throwaway story in a B-list anthology title called "House of Secrets." It was DC's best-selling comic the month of its release -- probably because of Wrightson's magnificent cover -- and a "Swamp Thing" series was commissioned for the following year.
It was mildly entertaining while Wein and Wrightson remained on the book, although the story line of a man mutated into a swamp monster wandering in search of a cure seemed awfully derivative of a certain Hulk over at Marvel Comics. Plus the "swamp monster" concept was something of a retread, too, with comics predecessors like Hillman's The Heap, DC's Solomon Grundy and a concurrent (and coincidental) doppelganger over at Marvel called Man-Thing (with an almost identical origin). And eventually Wein and Wrightson left the book, the law of diminishing returns common to second-tier titles set in, sales went into a death spiral and "Swamp Thing" was quietly canceled.
That would normally have been the end, but director Wes Craven ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") took an interest in the property for a cheap-o movie. That resulted in a second "Swamp Thing" series (with "Saga of" tacked on), helmed by Marty Pasko (writer) and Tom Yeates (artist), who put the monster through its paces for 19 issues before throwing in the muck-encrusted towel.
Enter Alan Moore. Wein (who had become an editor) hired Moore to write his swamp baby based on the latter's comics work in England. And what he did was extraordinary.
The story "Anatomy Lesson" in "Saga of the Swamp Thing" No. 21 (1984), from which the opening quote was taken, was not only a terrifying story, not only a primer on how to revamp a character, but also a groundbreaking book that has held up for the ensuing 25 years. That is no mean feat.
And it is scary. Reading it in 1984, the young Captain realized he was experiencing something he never had before with a comic book: genuine terror.
And there was something else I realized, even through my cold sweat: Moore was doing something so simple, so amazingly obvious, that it clearly took a genius to think of it. "He's changed Swamp Thing from a man who thinks he's a plant," I realized as an epiphany, "into a plant who thinks he's a man." And when Swampy finds out this simple thing, it renders all his hopes and dreams utterly impossible ... and he is not happy.
It was so simple, so ingenious. That one course correction turned the series on its head, without undoing a single word of previous writers. Up to that point Swampy had simply been operating under a delusion, that he was basically Bruce Banner with moss. Now "Anatomy Lesson" had shown him the truth, and he (and Moore) started going places in the next 42 issues where no comic-book series, no novel series, no movie series, no nuttin' had ever gone before.
"Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 1" reprints Moore's first story, the appropriately named "Loose Ends," tying up the Pasko/Yeates plots. Then "Anatomy Lesson" re-launches the series, with six more stories to follow.
Hopefully, Moore's entire run will eventually see hardback (it's already been done in trade paperback). These stories deserve the classy treatment.
And some advice to those reading it the first time: Bring a towel. There will be blood. Oh yes, I imagine so.
(Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us.)
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