Swamp Thing Gets Taken Advantage Of By, Well, The Borg: "Loving the Alien"

[jlroberson]

From Alan Moore and John Totleben in SWAMP THING 60(1987), and brought to mind by this post, which also shows another DC character(Brainiac) being taken over by something very, very similar, making me wonder--perhaps they were the same? Something DC has NOT brought back and explored, and yet they probably should, especially as there are little Swamp Thing/Machine hybrids out there. This is when Alec was exiled to space by Lex Luthor(yep). One day an alien machine intelligence decides it wants babies. It comes across Alec's disembodied consciousness careening through space. What follows? Well...basically it kinda rapes him; sorry, I'm really not sure what else you can call it.
And some amazing collage work from the god known as John Totleben. Remember when experimental art actually appeared in mainstream comics? And when artists could do all this without any computers at all? And when you could buy this for 75 cents?
An excerpt. It was very hard to choose which pages, btw.

Comments

[cmdr_zoom]

I need an adult.

[skjam]

I...think I missed this issue entirely. Wow.

[jlroberson]

And all by hand with scissors, paste, a Xerox machine(to contrast the collage pieces, because back then they couldn't print grays) and ink.

You look at his work back then and it's no wonder his eyesight ended up suffering. The amount of work Totleben would put into just one page frightens me.

[neuhallidae]

...I'm not drunk enough for this, I think. Holy hell.

[seriousfic]

You had to post this the day after they banned rape jokes, didn't you? Shit.

[jlroberson]

However, there are no jokes in this.

[seriousfic]

What about "Swamp Thing might've picked up a virus?" Since I could be referring both to an STD or to an actual computer virus. Ha ha, wordplay!

[jlroberson]

Well, whatever this was, it certainly was NOT "safe." ;)

[seriousfic]

He should keep an antivirus program... in his pants.

[midnightvoyager]

Or, in this case, spine.

A Possibly Sexist Joke, But Humor Has No Ethics

[jlroberson]

Sigh. Isn't that always the first thing they go for? ;)

Re: A Possibly Sexist Joke, But Humor Has No Ethics

[seriousfic]

When you think about it, "having spinal fluid" counts as being wet, right?

[seriousfic]

Spinal fluid, lube, what's the difference?

[icon_uk]

He'd password protected himself, alas he's used "PASSWORD" as a password.

I thought I'd never say this...

[lissa_quon]

I am 12 years old and what is this?

I think probably read this issue, I must have, I remember the whole Swamp Thing in space and the planet of blue. I loved the planet of blue issue. But I do not for the life of my remember this.

[foxhack]

Holy fuck too much text but wow pretty pictures

[jlroberson]

As I understand it, Moore wrote this around Totleben's collages, much the same way he worked with Gebbie on LOST GIRLS.

[foxhack]

Also, I hope you didn't take offense at my comment.

I have a soft spot for pre-computer era graphics. Some stuff, THIS STUFF, just can't be done anymore, and the world is a sad place because of it.

[jlroberson]

No idea what offense I should have taken, so no worries.

People could still do this kind of stuff--it's just that they don't. The means are all still there.

[cleome45]

Speak for yourselves. :p

I still do hand-collaging. Photoshop just doesn't give me the same satisfaction.

And these pages rock. 8)

[jlroberson]

It's like some crossbreed between Steranko, Kirby, Giger and Heartfield.

[cleome45]

Giger! Yes, that's the name I was searching for last night (tired geek was tired). Thanks. :)

[crabby_lioness]

This was the first issue that was DM only, hence y'all missing it. They made no general announcement that it would be DM only. I searched for months for this issue on newsstands before I made it to the only comic shop in the whole state to pick it up.

[jlroberson]

Interesting, isn't it, that all the truly controversial issues were the ones sold on the newsstands?

[arilou_skiff]

Robot-on-plant rape?

Alan Moore writes the *weirdest* sex-scenes.

[endis_ni]

Cybernetic Space Island-on-Disembodied Plant Elemental rape.

It just gets weirder, doesn't it?

[cythraul]

Man. I need to read more of the Moore Swamp Thing.

(The bastards started reprinting it in a new edition, with (IIRC) new volume-divisions, just after I started buying up the old ones.)

[jlroberson]

>>Man. I need to read more of the Moore Swamp Thing.

Yep. And MIRACLEMAN as well, especially OLYMPUS.

John Totleben(along with Steve Bissette) is one of the reasons I do comics.

[cythraul]

Dear, lost Miracleman. Alas.

[jlroberson]

Marvel will no doubt be reissuing it soon. they own it now, remember?

And in anticipation of same I made a killing on Ebay with the volumes I had since the 80s...after scanning them, of course...

[cythraul]

Well. They're being very coy about what they actually own. They made a deal with Mick Anglo, which probably gives them the right to the character.

This may still leave the ownership of the Moore/Gaiman run in doubt. Could be owned by Neil Gaiman (who has said in the past he'd be happy to work with Marvel), could be owned by Todd McFarlane.

Marvel has stated intentions to reprint a lot of the old Mick Anglo stories, and been resolutely silent on the subject of the later Moore/Gaiman run. What really scares me is how excited Joe Quesada is about the Anglo stuff. As though acquiring the rights to thse generic late-Golden-Age Captain Marvel knockoff stories is the exciting part. Whenever an interviewer asks JQ about the Moore/Gaiman stuff, he changes the subject.

[jlroberson]

Really. Thought Gaiman was on board. Huh.

Well, very glad I made CBRs of 'em. I was starting to be afraid reading the books might damage them over time. Those awful brittle bindings Eclipse had and all...

[cythraul]

I think Gaiman is on board, yeah. He's been very quiet about it since the acquisition, but apparently there'll be an interview with him in the upcoming Primer issue.

[jlroberson]

Well, then that settles it mostly, because Gaiman owns Moore's part. Or did anyway.

[cythraul]

[nods] But there's still McFarlane.

[jlroberson]

What was the outcome of their lawsuit?

[cythraul]

I don't know.

[strannik01]

During the trial, it was discovered that McFarlane didn't get Eclipse's share of the Miracleman/Marvelman copyright when he purchased the company's intellectual properties. He just assumed he did. However, it turned out that he had the trademarks to Miracleman title and the 80s era logo, but they may have lapsed by now.

[jlroberson]

>>However, it turned out that he had the trademarks to Miracleman title and the 80s era logo, but they may have lapsed by now.

You can hold onto a trademark forever, but only if you keep it in use. This is why, for instance, Xerox fights the genericization of their name, and also why DC and Marvel periodically revive characters*--if in disuse long enough, they would lapse like the Nedor characters did. Without the trademark basis, i.e. a comic appearance(because comics is the primary medium of the creation--also why you still see a Popeye strip in a few papers), the value of their intellectual property bank goes down, with ripple effects. And merchandising is put at risk.

*Making me wonder what the period in trademark law is that has to pass before a lapse, and if there's any correlation to the cycles of character revivals were you to try to correlate it. But I am no statistician.