Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book 1

Book 1 of Saga of the Swamp Thing definitely lived up to the hype, and then some! I was blown away by the creative storylines, breathtaking art, and sheer boldness of the whole thing. Book 1 is not an origin story of the titular character, but rather it completely reshapes and retools his origin story in a very daring, almost shocking way. Love or hate Alan Moore (this was the well known artist’s first big American comic to write for) it can never be said that he is a cowardly writer; he has never been afraid of taking huge risks with his stories, and you can see here that even in the beginnings of his career, he really went all in. These issues must have been completely mind-blowing to the loyal Swamp Thing readers back in the day - my mind was blown to smithereens and I’m not even that familiar with this IP. In addition, I’m a huge fan of the tone of horror throughout this book. A villain that appears in the 2nd half of the book is absolutely terrifying, and as this predates Stephen King’s It by about 4 years, one may wonder if King wasn’t more than a little bit influenced by these issues. In summation, if you’re a fan, of comics, horror, great writing, or good things in general, you should by and read this now! It is an absolute masterpiece and an essential part of comics history!

This volume is essential reading for comic book lovers. The stories are involving, poetic, thrilling, and often mind-bending. Moore's revised origin for Swampy is very imaginative and adds a very interesting layer to Swamp Thing's brooding internal monologue that drives the book. The art is striking, hypnotic, and usually quite beautiful. I'm not sure what work has been done to clean up the art for this edition, but it looks fantastic. The lines are sharp and dark and the colors, though often purposely muted, pop off the page. The main attraction in this volume is a brilliant story arc in which a minor DC villain, Floronic Man, discovers some startling secrets about our Swamp Thing and uses the knowledge to take total control of all of the plant life on Earth. It's really wild stuff, and it's tastefully and realistically handled by all of the artists involved. The only complaint I have about this book is that it's too short. I couldn't put it down once I started it and I was finished with it in no time at all. They've only printed the first 3 of these softcovers so far, but I recommend that you do as I did and buy all of them that are available at the time. You'll want to start the next book immediately after finishing one. It's that good.

I've been wanting to purchase these 6 books for some time now. The complete Alan Moore run of 'Swamp Thing', how could I turn it down? No one, except Neil Gaiman, has the depth of Moore and his attention to detail. This collection is no different. I had an idea of what this series encompased already thanks to Wikipedia. I knew that Alan took this existing character and molded it to his own interpretations. Still I was plesantly surprised when reading it. **Some Spoilers** For those not too familier with this comic series, as I was...the comics focus in on the Swamp Thing. The Swamp Thing, a creature of living moving vegetation was once a man named Alec Holland. Alec Holland was developing a serum that would make plants extremely tuff and able to grow fast. Well his lab is blown up and he is splashed with the formula and is thrown by the explosion into the surrounding swamp. For years the concensus was that he was mutated by the formula, combined with the swamp he fell into, that's how he became the current creature he is. Well...in comes Alan Moore as head writer. Moore has a knack for taking an under-performing property and revitalizing it. He actually prefers the more obscure characters over the heavy hitters, i.e. 'Batman' & 'Superman.' Moore has this bright idea. What if the Swamp Thing was NEVER Alec Holland? What if Alec died in the explosion like any normal human would. What if the formula affected a plant in the swamp, and this plant digested Alec Holland's decomposing body. By "eating" Alec Holland this plant absorbs his memorys and "mind" and gets deceived that IT is Alec Holland. WOW!!! So the Swamp Thing for all these years has been operating under a false assumption. IT's hopes of becoming human someday are dashed to pieces. After all, IT's a plant and was NEVER a man, ever. This is quite a revelation to start his run with. This is only issue # 2 of Moore's tenure... It only gets more crazy from here. The Flouronic Man terrorizing the world with extinction. An ape demon from hell, Moore cuts loose. There some elements I was not crazy about. The issue about the Ouija Board, was to me creepy. But this is a horror comic. I personally find Ouija Boards disturbing. Elements like these are to be expected though from Alan. Moore is now a self professed "...real Magician" and is a huge follower of magic. He attempts to practice it in real life and peppers his writings quite hard with it's literary elements. In fact, his current work is pretty much centered around Magic. His older work, exp. 'Swamp Thing' and others are peppered with it, but not saturated with it. This is just something anyone who goes to read his writings past and ESPECIALLY present should be aware of ahead of time. If mystical is not your thing, you'll probably not like his work. You may like his older work, 'V For Vendetta', 'Watchmen', and 'Swamp Thing', which is not too saturated but at times does go into paranormal territory, periodically. This aside, if your looking for a thinking man's comic, this is probably for you. --Bound Volume Quality-- One reason I had to dock a star is for the quality of the hardback. If you've read other reviews, you know the paper quality of these releases is not the best. The pages will be stuck together when you first open these books and the pages will crackle a little bit at first. These are not high-gloss pages, but the cheaper kind found in lower end trade paperbacks, I believe. Is it a reason to not read or buy these releases? NO, just an annoyance. Also the dust covers are not high quality either. FYI, take if off and behold the beautiful hardback cover underneath. Why would they want to cover this awesome imprinted covers? Quality issues aside this is still overall a good buy. AND, you get issue # 20 in book 1, something not in most other 'Swamp Thing' bound volume releases. --In Conclusion-- Very happy with this purpose, quality issues aside, and I am glad I bought all 6 books at once. I am now plowing into Book 2 and will be reviewing it soon... Great read so far, makes me remember why I loved 'The Watchmen' so many years ago when I first picked it up in Books-A-Million. I knew after the first 3 pages I was reading something really EPIC. You now have a choice between hardcover and paperback. Be aware the paperbacks of this variety are just now getting released, you will have to wait for all 6 to make it to the shelves, for a while. I personally recommend the hardcovers. At the current prices on Amazon.com, you really can NOT afford to miss out on this upgrade. Thanks Alan for giving us readers such well thought out material. I wish there were more out there like you and Neil Gaiman... Well...on to Book 2.

This is the beginning of what comic books could become. The entire Alan Moore swamp thing run was truly one giant story. And it begins here. There are some dated references that may make it a bit clunky and the pre-crisis on infinite earths heroes do not mesh with the revamped Heroes. But Without this book there is no vertigo, no sandman no preacher. So many things in this book laid the groundwork or what would come after That’s just the importance of this story. In the story itself is some excellent storytelling characters who behave like characters and not plot devices- interesting people and villains. Dialogue that sounds like people (yes a bit melodramatic) but still people talking. Horror, yup it’s in there, one of the creepiest stories in comics happens in this collection, guest staring Etrigan. In the first chapter it closes the door on the old muck monster horror trope swamp thing idea saying that old way of monsters hiding in shadows is over, there are no more room for monsters. This opens the door for a very different kind of horror and monster. Rereading these I don’t get as scared as I once did but I’m not exactly comfortable either.

I was looking for a fun book to read to clear my mind and this fit the bill pretty well. Moore is an interesting writer, and the stories are compelling, even if the character constrains some of what can be done. It’s organic and very green in the environmental sense. I’ve already ordered the next couple of collections of the series. The art, coloring, and page composition also work well with the story. I think of the early 80s as a period of reinvention in the genre with Moore and Miller and having read a few Miller texts recently and been underwhelmed, the Swamp Thing book feels like an amazingly coherent text in a way that The Dark Knight Returns wasn’t for me.

This comic is amazing. It deserves seven stars. That said, this Kindle version leaves...well, the same thing other Kindle versions leave to be desired. Reading comics on the Kindle can be frustrating. The two biggest problems are the poor zoom-in feature and the inability to change the orientation. As a result, two-page spreads are impossible to read. You can double-tap to go panel by panel, but then you lose the impact of the art. You can look at the pretty art, but then you lose the text. Sometimes, both lose impact. Here's the good news: I now have an excuse to buy this in paperback as well. But I wouldn't buy this edition. Why not? Well, for the same reason another reviewer was disappointed. The last four words of the first story arc are missing. The story loses its impact when the final sentence is cut in half. Should you buy the Kindle version? Absolutely. And if you already own it on Kindle, you should buy it in paperback too. And be sure to buy the earlier version, from 1998. Note: That edition does not include #20 "Loose Ends," which technically the start of this run. Should you wait for a future reprinting which will hopefully contain all the first issues, along with the complete text? No. Buy this right now. Then buy it again later. Great art should be rewarded.

Where to begin? I had first experienced the story of Alan (aka: Swamp Thing) in the 1982 film adaptation starring the well endowed woman of most notably 70's sitcom "Maude" and of films "Creepshow" and John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" Adrian Barbeau. Now because the film introduced me first on the character of DC's ST, it did not inject interest in checking out the books since I felt Marvel's "Man-Thing" was the original "muck of yuck." But it was always in the back of my mind of probably taking a stab at it someday. Well, after the success of the tv show version it still did not hit me to view the book history, BUT now I'm a full fledge fan and DAMN PROUD OF IT TOO. From the beautiful illustrations to the creepy, yet piercing narrative and/or the cast of multi-layered characters of goth-ridden and psychological paradoxes is a work of art, in more detail and abstract imagination to enter into this world as a participant then a reader only. The utilization and integration of guest stars were well chosen and executed as support but never to overshadow ST, such as: The Justice League, The Demon/Jason Blood and even Arcane. I was really taken by the explanation of what ST is and how its origin is reinterpreted with more empathy and compassion then just as another human casualty. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Alan Moore's take on this life of plants and vegetation for a long time!

Good read