Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got two new comic plus two hard covers:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

Having just read the original Wein/Wrightson run on “Swamp Thing” I got interested in reading the early part of Alan Moore’s run writing the book. These were the first comics I ever read that were written by Moore and I liked them a lot but haven’t checked them out since my college days back in the late 80’s.

They have held up well. As a matter of fact it’s easy to see that DC’s whole Vertigo line is based on the ideas in Alan Moore’s run on “Swamp Thing”. Moore not only redefines the character Swamp Thing but he redefines how DC’s mystical characters and their world is run. It’s a dangerous inhuman world that is outside the perception of normal people but it can bleed over and affect their lives in an awful way.

The artwork by Bissette and Totleben is also very interesting. It’s dark and moody like Wrighton’s work but has a totally different approach. What’s unusual about the art is that quite often things are not defined by their edges. Especially in close ups things are defined by contoured hatching. It makes things eerie. Tatjana Wood’s coloring is also very good.

“The Anatomy Lesson” is the first story in this run and in it Moore establishes the new paradigm for Swamp Thing. And it’s a scary one. Swamp Thing is not who he thought he was and there are monsters hidden in the nooks and crannies of the world where hardly anyone bothers to look. Old mystical foes are tapping into this new found pool of horror and becoming unstable. Things are not as they once were.

As good as the fist story was it is issues 29-31 where the series really takes off for me. That’s when Swamp Things’ old nemesis, Arcane, comes back to haunt him and Arcane is more twisted and nasty than ever. Except, much to Arcane’s regret this isn’t the Swamp Thing as he used to know him.

I remembered issue 31 being an all time classic issue and great ending to a story. Upon reading it again for the first time in twenty years I’d have to say that assessment still stands. It’s well written, well drawn, and just plain exciting. It would be in my top ten singles issues of all time if I had such a list. But I’m adverse to list making.

So if you’ve never read them or haven’t read them in ages go check out Alan Moore’s run on “Swamp Thing”. They’re as good as their reputation.