I've been revisiting Alan Moore's Swamp Thing over the last few months. Between 1984 and 1986 Moore took over as the writer on the DC Comics series Swamp Thing. He was relatively unknown at the time, having done some writing on British comics (2000AD, Marvel UK) but the big time was US and the twin giants of DC and Marvel. Swamp Thing was a minor comic, way down the DC priorities and close to being cancelled. Moore took his developing and highly distinctive writing and outlook and plotted a run of thirty six comics that would take a man- monster into new areas and helped create comics that were marketed as being 'For Mature Readers'. Watchmen, Dark Knight et al started with Swamp Thing (and Frank Miller's run at Daredevil too).
Moore turned Swamp Thing into a true monster, a sentient plant creature, a swamp organism with a human consciousness. He then plotted a series that went into Southern Gothic, horror, science fiction and environmentalism, episodes of psychedelic and hallucinogenic exploration, an inter- speices love story between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable and a meditation on what it means to be human. At times the writing is so good, so strong, you could remove all the artwork and visuals and just print the words. The artwork, by a variety of comics artists including Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, becomes increasingly out there too, matching Moore's singular vision. In some issues the artwork spins around, the reader having to rotate the comic book to follow the story, with graphic renditions of the hallucinogenic trips, Swamp Thing's consciousness and cosmic, existential battles between heaven and hell.
The horror elements are truly horrific- there are traditional gothic horrors with werewolves and zombies and a terrifying creature with his head sewn on backwards and a scene at Mornington Crescent tube station. There is an ecological strand, pioneering for comics in the mid- 80s and nuclear industrial poisoning of local small town America. Swamp Thing's partner Abby is arrested and he turns a city into a green wilderness in response, he visits the Parliament Of Trees, is blasted into space and bounces around other worlds and eventually returns to earth with the knowledge he needs- be aware of your power, be wary of anger.
There are music references all over the place. The character John Constantine is based physically on 80s Sting. The are issues with song titles as their titles- Loving The Alien, Another Green World. Abby's friend Chester is a 60s hippy fond of quoting Bob Dylan and blasting out The Grateful Dead.
Alan Moore has disowned most of his 80s comic book work. He deconstructed the form with Swamp Thing and then the superhero completely with Watchmen. He felt that everyone misunderstood want he was doing and that film studios and comic book companies missed his points completely. There's an interview here for more on that and also Moore on writing , literature, fiction, magic and nostalgia.
I'd like to think he retains some residue of love and affection for Swamp Thing, a forty year old comic book character that retains a lot of power when read today. You can pick up the anthologies, all six of them republished as Saga Of The Swamp Thing, cheaply second hand- very much worth a trip.
In 1989 Pop Will Eat Itself knew the score...
As did The Chameleons three years earlier...
And it took The Grid to Top Of The Pops...
