“Weaknesses: Nicotine, Self-Hatred.”
So the response to the Final ’90s Countdown survey is going fairly well, people are mostly avoiding the excess conversation there and leaving their choices. I have noticed that quite a few titles are being suggested that I (gulp) don’t really have anything to say about, so I’m gonna have to muster all my blogging powers to discuss them. I’ll say more about this when I actually start going over everything.
Anyhoo, get in there and cast your vote (after reading the instructions of course)!
Last week we got ourselves a new facsimile edition of a Swamp Thing comic book, this time being Swamp Thing #37 from 1985, the (supposed) first appearance of everyone’s favorite magical Englishman, John Constantine.
And since we are living in the Modern Age of Comical Books, there are variants a’plenty. Did your pal Mike get one of each? Oh yes he did.
There’s the standard issue regular cover:
The “Mondo” variant, with the image redrawn:
…and an ad on the back where you can buy a poster of same:
Then of course there’s the “action figure” variant:
…the back cover of which is detailed with figures I wish they’d actually make in this supposed Super Powers line:
No cigarettes in sight, but he does have his Flame Hex:
Cover D is the foil covered version, which doesn’t scan very well, but I assure you it’s plenty shiny:
And rounding out this batch of funnybooks is the blank cover, where you can get your favorite artist to draw a picture of Swampy on a motorcycle, Easy Rider style:
Now I mentioned above that this was the “supposed” first appearance of Constantine. That would be because there are some who think…well, here, I wrote about this back in 2004, but rather than send you to that heavily link-rotted entry, I’ll just reprint the pertinent info, sans dead links:
“And then there’s pal Mark, he of Dorothy of Oz fame, who makes the (I believe) very correct claim that in issue 25 of Saga of The Swamp Thing, it’s a caricature of Sting, not John Constantine, who makes an appearance. However, due to the physical similarities, some people have claimed that issue 25 marks a ‘cameo’ appearance of Constantine, predating his actual first appearance by over a year. In fact, look at this exchange in the letters column of Swamp Thing #54 (Nov 1986):
“‘Close scrutiny has brought forth one fascinating observation I’d like to share with you concerning Mr. Constantine. Everyone knows he made his debut in ST #37. But has anyone taken a close look at issue #25? … In panel 2 [of page 21] a sobbing Abigail Cable is standing next to – yeah, that’s right – John Constantine! I always wondered how Constantine could have known so much about Abby and Swampy. The bloke must’ve been following them around for months, maybe years.’
“And the official editorial reply, from Karen Berger her own self:
“‘Aren’t you the observant one…. Great spotting on Constantine’s first appearance.’
“I’m sure this is just Karen keeping a fan happy, but I’m sure you see where the confusion comes in.
“Anyway, the very reason Constantine was created was because the Swamp Thing artists at the time (Steve Bissette and John Totleben) wanted to have Sting as a character in the series….”
Okay, back to 2025 Mike now, the one with the tricky back and the eye problems. Here’s the specific panel from #25 we’re all talkin’ about here:
Mmmmm…yeah, unless that was John during his time performing in the punk band Mucous Membrane, I don’t think the character we know and love would be caught dead dressed like that. Or maybe he would, that John fella is hard to pin down.
Anyway, this “is it or isn’t it?” has been a bone of contention for years, where even the Hot Comics Apps (as of three years ago) couldn’t keep their story straight. (Warning: I do link back to that 2004 post there…honestly, don’t click on the links if you go read it.)
Now what Swamp Thing comic should get a facsimile next? Frankly, I’m pushing for them to publish a proper, finished and colored comic book version of the 1970s unpublished Swamp Thing #25. Or, for an actual published comic, Brave and the Bold #176 from 1981, the Batman/Swampy team-up by the writer of the then-forthcoming Saga of the Swamp Thing series, and drawn by Jim Aparo. That’s a good’un.
Which one would you pick?
Next facsimile? Rick Veitch’s Swamp Thing story with Jesus, of course!
Moore (and Berger, Bissette & Totleben) missed a trick by not giving the smartly-attired John Constantine a line of dialogue in which he mentions “going undercover” to follow Abby around.
Swampy’s facial expression is pretty different on the Mondo variant. He’s gone from surprised and delighted on the original to horrified and frightened on the new one. Interesting choice.
Mike: Does your Swamp Thing completism extend to posters, as well? If so, how many ST posters are there/do you have?
I’m pretty sure that is the singer, Sting, in that one panel. How quickly people forget that John’s power is “riding the synchronicity superhighway”. It just happens that Abbie was standing near Sting when in one short year, Swampy and Abbie would meet a man who looked vaguely like Sting. Synchronicity.
If self-hatred is a weakness but self-interest has kept John alive, I suppose that means he’s empowered by Irony.
Still right after all these years. I’m amazing, me.
The *edgy* answer for a facsimile is #60 “BRAND NEW FORMAT! SPECIAL PRICE!” but I’d love a double-shot of the Wein/Wrightson #7 and Totleben/Moore #53 showcasing Swamp/Bat interactions over time. It’s called character growth.
(“Dorothy” #8 and a very special 0 issue are still just waiting for the right independently wealthy artist to ease on down the road…)
I think DC should print facsimile editions or the first ten issues of Swamp Thing since it is the classic Wein/Wrightson/T. Wood run–and definitely no. 7 for the Batman appearance.
Re: the Constantine controversy, I side with those who say it is a Sting cameo, but I can understand it also being claimed to be a “proto-Constantine” appearance– just as Marvel had all the “prototype” characters and names popping up in its “monster of the month” Atlas Comics a year or so before the Marvel brand was officially created.
Brave and Bold is a series that I could see a lot of issues being reprinted as facsimile editions; especially all of the issues that Neal Adams drew. And even the first several years worth of Bronze Age issues that Jim Aparo drew in the early ’70s had some cool Bob Haney stories and/or off-beat guest stars. And some of those non-Batman team ups Silver Age issues with The Flash and The Doom Patrol, Wonder Woman and Supergirl, Atom and the Metal Men, etc., could be fun to reprint as facsimile editions.
As far as Swampy goes, B&B no.122 is an issue I have yet to track down or read– so that one might be do for a facsimile reprint. Also, I’m surprised the CCA didn’t crack down on that “implied-Swamp-Thing-crucifixion” cover!
1) That’s the most Andy Summers-looking “Sting” I’ve seen in comics
2) Disappointed that the Constantine variant doesn’t have John say “I’M CHALK” (for the Gen Alpha readers, that’s a reference to this blog post https://www.progressiveruin.com/2004/09/20/yes-i-really-own-all-these-things/)
“25”
Eh. Minor resemblance.
“Now what Swamp Thing comic should get a facsimile next?”
They should finish the damn Rick Veitch Swampy/Jesus story!
OR a reprint of the 2 or 3 issue Vampire story from pre-Moore Swampy. it was pretty good!
OK, reprint Atom #1! It looks COOL, I’ve never read it, and $155 is the LOW range for prices on that issue! (Or were).
That’s definitely Sting in the panel from issue 25. He’s wearing a black & yellow striped shirt. IIRC, Sting got his stage name because he wore a black & yellow striped shirt regularly. If people want to say that’s an early John Constantine cameo, fine, but it’s clearly meant to be Sting.
Put me in for the B&B issue of Doom Patrol and really out of shape fast. The first comic I bought with my own money was Mateal Men and Metamorpho.
It’s possible for a fan-devised retcon, or ‘fanon’, to legitimately add to the official continuity — for example the older man seen at a restaurant in just one panel of Watchmen, with some fans convincing themselves that this is Hooded Justice, having previously faked his death, now celebrating the demise of the Comedian. The story itself leaves Justice’s fate unconfirmed and Dave Gibbons has said he likes the fanon, so why not?
Saying that Sting in Swamp Thing is in fact an ‘undercover’ John Constantine doesn’t damage Constantine’s character in any way; in fact it strengthens him.
Hmm, I agree that he looks a lot like another Police band mate as well – Andy Sumner, as a mash-up maybe? In terms of next Swampy facsimile, the Jesus issue sadly doesn’t work as it was never published. But who amongst us wouldn’t chew through their own mossy plant-based arm to read that? I was going to say ST#7 but I believe it’s being reproduced in the Batman’s Strangest Cases treasury facsimile in big, old-people’s easy-reader format. Looking through the GCDb I’m struck by how few Thingy appearances there were between the first series and the second. If JLGL had drawn the interiors as well as the cover the it would have been DCP#8 for me, but I’m going to have to plump for either a cameo in Super Friends #28 drawn by the much missed Ramona Fradon, or the Pog issue by Moore & McManus. Both of these deserve to be more widely known and loved imho.
I’d only want to see that special cover if Swampy was riding side by side Alan Moore, with Constantine riding pillion.
Re: the Sting/Constantine controversy–has anybody just straight up asked Steve Bissette and John Totleben the backstory on this? Did drawing a Sting cameo lead to the creation of John Constantine? Or had Constantine already been created as a character and did Bissette say to Alan Moore that he wanted to visually depict him looking like Sting? It would have been funny if Moore had said: “No, draw him to resemble John Lydon instead.”
This also raises the question, how many other characters in Swamp Thing were visually based on real people–especially esoteric/occult people?
Also, Jim Aparo is at least one other example of a Bronze Age DC artist who would draw cameos of famous people in crowd scenes or at cocktail parties that Bruce Wayne was attending in various issues of Brave and the Bold. I recall that one issue has a Humphrey Bogart cameo–can’t recall who the other celebrities were that Aparo drew, though.
And regarding celebrities inspiring heroes and villains, there is speculation that Jack Kirby, during his return to Captain America in the mid-’70s, modeled a villain on John Lennon. I can’t recall the character’s name, but I think he was a dictator of an imaginary Latin American country; he had Lennon spectacles and a somewhat Lennonesque face. Beyond that, The Beatles must have cameos or characters based on them in many, many comics published in the Silver and Bronze Ages. There’s that famous Batman cover by Neal Adams, with a band based on The Beatles, as but one example. I think they appear in a Fantastic Four story –or maybe it is a Human Torch story in Strange Tales? Even Paul McCartney & Wings cameos or homage-characters popped up here and there during the ’70s. Then there’s the Alice Cooper issue of Marvel Premiere, KISS in Howard the Duck and done Marvel Super Specials, and Aerosmith guest-starting in a Valiant Comics issue of Shadowman.