scans_daily

Back in '63, there was a kind of boundless optimism; no matter how many anxieties or fears there might be hanging over the work, that venues into this incredible optimism—that everything was possible. That was true of the artists who were working with the form. They were experimenting. They were trying things. They were caught up in the energy and experimentation of the times. I think that perhaps in '93, there were some very good artists but it seemed like there was a kind of lack of energy. A lack of fierceness to the work, a lack of desire to push boundaries or to experiment which was there in the Sixties. -- Alan Moore

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laughing_tree

I guess that if things had worked out differently and I had gone to Marvel rather then to DC during that period in the '80s—if I hadn't had such an early falling out with Marvel—then I guess any of them might have been fun. Fantastic Four, obviously. Thor was terrific. I managed to get a lot of that out of my system during the 1963 stuff. All of Jack Kirby's characters were great. I'd prefer to work with my own characters now anyway but back when I was working with other people's characters, it's difficult to think of a character Jack Kirby created that wouldn't have been interesting to write. -- Alan Moore

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laughing_tree

1963 was Alan's reaction to how insane and awful superhero comics became in the early '90s. He told me he felt somehow responsible by letting the cat out of the bag with Watchmen and wanted to completely reverse course and get back to that 'state of grace' that superheroes existed in during the Silver Age. -- Rick Veitch

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alicemacher

"Probably the best thing that Alan did for the SWAMP THING series and for the comic book field in general was to increase people's awareness of the writer's contribution. With a few exceptions, no other writer in the history of comics has generated the attention and respect that Alan has. In a visually-oriented industry that has always been dominated by its graphics, that's a considerable achievement."
--Karen Berger, Letter column in this very issue

( 'It is our retirement, Abby [...] born of the Earth as payment...' )

alicemacher

Stephen Bissette (with plotting assistance from Moore, Totleben and Veitch) guest-writes this issue which looks in on what Abby's been up to back on Earth.

( 'I can't find my father's head, Chester...' )

alicemacher

"The trouble with America is it has a very Manichean attitude [...] and I suppose that's what I want to address at the end of 'American Gothic.' It's this attitude that there's good and evil, black and white. And there isn't. That's what 'American Gothic' is about."
-- Alan Moore, in conversation with Neil Gaiman, c. 1985

( 'Little thing, you are in me... and I have a very great need.' )

alicemacher

Warning for child abuse.

( 'It's Heaven, you see? They plan to destroy Heaven.' )

lordultimus

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lordultimus

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alicemacher

Warning for racism and gore.

( 'They all awake. All of 'em... Please... y'all gotta go back to sleep.' )

alicemacher

Warning for racism, both verbal and violent.

( 'Gonna be dark soon enough. Gonna be REAL dark.' )

alicemacher

"I wanted to suggest that the real curse isn't menstruation but rather men's attitude toward it, and by extension their attitude to women as a whole. I wanted to get across, without being heavy handed, that it is the way in which men see and treat women that can often crush and trample women's minds and personalities into such tortured and self-destructive shapes."
--Alan Moore, Letters page, Swamp Thing #46

"The Curse" was Moore's most controversial Swamp Thing story, in terms of both industry and reader reaction.

Warning for misogyny/sexism, body shaming, and suicide.

( 'Their anger, in darkness turning, unreleased, unspoken...' )

alicemacher

( 'Over the teeth an' rounna gums, look out stummick... here it comes!' )

alicemacher

"Swamp Thing 34 features no heroes and villains. No grand conflicts or costumed characters. For a superhero/monster comic from DC, available on the newsstand (as far as I know), it’s a radical issue. It’s basically the consummation of the love between Abby and Swamp Thing. It’s a sex scene, involving biological hallucinogenics. Abby takes a bite out of one of the tubers growing on the 'man' she loves, and Steve Bissette and John Totleben and colorist Tatjana Wood give us page after page of trippy collage-style imagery, as Abby and her man-monster commune on a higher plane. That was a comic published in [March] 1985, and it would still seem experimental today."
--Tim Callahan, "The Great Alan Moore Reread: Swamp Thing Part 2, Tor.com, 30 Jan. 2012

( 'Spring came, and everything in the world woke up...' )

alicemacher

Moore, Bissette and Totleben pay homage to The Divine Comedy in this tale that received the 1985 Jack Kirby Award for Best Single Issue.

( 'A flower grows yet in Hell that's named for her' )

alicemacher

"I can still remember the feeling of shock with which I read 'Love and Death' [...] This was the first comic-book horror I had seen that actually horrified me; I became hooked, discovering with amazement that comics had the same capacity to disturb and unsettle that the best prose and film had. [...] 'Love and Death' also made comics history as, beginning with this issue, The Saga of the Swamp Thing became the first DC comic with newsstand distribution to go out on a monthly basis without the Comics Code Authority's seal of approval. [...] It is to DC's credit that, from this point on, rather than trying to tone down the title they chose to put it out without the Code's seal instead."
--Neil Gaiman, Introduction to Titan (UK) reprint ed., 1987

Warning for rape.

( 'From deep inside her, the Bad Thing starts to crawl toward the light... and she knows.' )

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Bringing the crack since December 2003

Entries tagged with creator: steve bissette

1963 #4 - "Showdown in the Shimmering Zone!" & "Flipsville!"

1963 #3 - "Double-Deal in Dallas!" & "It Came From... Higher Space!"

1963 #2 - "When Wakes the War-Beast!"

Swamp Thing: Return of the Good Gumbo (final Moore issue)

Swamp Thing: Reunion

Swamp Thing: The End

Swamp Thing: Revelations

Swamp Thing: Bogeymen

S.R. Bissette's Tyrant #2

S.R. Bissette's Tyrant #1

Swamp Thing: Strange Fruit

Swamp Thing: Southern Change

Swamp Thing: The Curse

Swamp Thing: Fish Story

Swamp Thing: The Nukeface Papers, Part Two

Swamp Thing: The Nukeface Papers, Part One

Swamp Thing: Rite of Spring

Swamp Thing: Down Amongst the Dead Men

Swamp Thing: A Halo of Flies

Swamp Thing: Love and Death

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