swamp thing

So reader Bryan was playing around with that “Then…KOREA” panel from yesterday, and sent me this:

Very nice. …But then it got me to thinking that, sooner or later, someone’s gonna attempt a M*A*S*H “reboot” and what a bad idea that would be. I’m depending on you young folks to keep that from happening should someone attempt it after I’m gone.

Also, Rich Handley, fan of both apes and swamps, sent along a link to his own Swamp Thing-ified version of the “Then…KOREA” transition, which you can see by clicking on this little ol’ link here.

Speaking of Swamp Thing, over here in this John Byrne Forum message thread someone posted a commissioned sketch Byrne did of Swampy ‘n’ Abby. Also in that thread, Byrne relates a couple of stories about not being allowed to use Swamp Thing in comics he was working on.

As Dave pointed out to me on the Twitter regarding the one incident that occurred during Byrne’s initial Action run in the ’80s, Byrne blames the Vertigo editors despite that imprint’s existence being several years away, so the Vertigo/DC editorial split wouldn’t have been the excuse to keep Byrne from using Swamp Thing in a Superman team-up. Interesting that, as it’s told, the Big Name Creator DC essentially put in charge of the entire Superman franchise at the time couldn’t use whatever character he wanted from the DC Universe, but the New Guy Writing the Weird Horror Book could use a Superman character (Lex Luthor) over the Big Name Creator’s protests. …Perhaps the first stirrings of the coming DC/Vertigo split, or just favored treatment of one creator over another as Byrne says…who knows. But it’s certainly an interesting story about that period of Swamp Thing’s history I hadn’t heard before.

(If you want to read about that specific usage of Luthor in the Swamp Thing comics which Byrne objected to, I discussed it briefly a few years back.)

In other Swamp Thing news, there’s an interview with Swamp-writer Scott Snyder where he hypes Swamp Thing’s arrival (finally!) in the new Swamp Thing series. Also noted is the return of “a really classic villain” from Swamp Thing’s past, not named by Snyder, but really, aside from Arcane, how many other “classic villains” does Swamp Thing have? Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man? General Sunderland? M’nagalah? God help us, Sabre? …Seriously, if this ends up being the return of Nathan Ellery, well, you know what’s gonna happen then?

Anonymous asks:

“No comments on Swampy appearing in the Animal Man Annual?”

Sure: I hear Swamp Thing is going to be appearing in the Animal Man annual.

There you go.

Speaking of Swamp Thing, I hope my last post didn’t give the impression that I don’t want people to email me about Swamp Thing stuff…of course I do. But I was getting so many emails (and the occasional comment!) about some site posting the Swamp Thing PSA that I thought I’d better put the kibosh on it before my Gmail account hit its storage limit.

I did spend a few minutes at the shop Wednesday evening talking about Swamp Thing media and merchandise with one of our longtime customers…no, I didn’t bring it up, he did, honest. We discussed the greatness of the movies, I warned him about the animated series, noted that my ownership of Swamp Thing slippers could someday be considered “evidence,” and most importantly…

…whatever happened to the costumes worn by the late Dick Durock in the Swamp Thing films? …My guess is that they probably fell apart and were discarded long ago, but who knows? Perhaps they were saved and preserved by some loyal Swamp Thing fan? I’m sure there’s an answer, and my half-hearted Googling did nothing, but perhaps someone out there knows of their fate. Not that I want to wear the costumes around the house or to work or jury duty or anything.

Of course, if I never get my exclusive movie-worn costume, I can always resort to making my own, thanks to the helpful tips from this eHow article:

“Spray the green and yellow spray paint in a random pattern around the costume. This will add more color depth to the costume, and create a sense of the camouflage that an actual swamp monster would require in a swamp.”

Well said.

Also discovered during my Googling adventures, this site offering my Swamp Thing slippers photo from one of my self-links up there, with these usage hints:

“You can use this FREE Swamp Thing Slippers Picture for many uses such as Graphics Design, Posting on a Social Network like MySpace, Friendster, Facebook or Hi5!”

Yes, please do use my photo of Swamp Thing slippers on your Google Pluses and your GreatestJournals. Here, let me improve it for you:

I mean, that’s what all you kids do with images on your Orkuts and your Voxes, right? “Bling” ’em up? I’m just trying to stay “hep” with you young “cats.”

…I do know about that one site posting about the Swamp Thing Greenpeace PSA.

In fact, I posted about that very PSA six years ago.

One thing I was pleased to discover in those unpublished Swamp Thing #25 pages [EDIT: dead link removed] is that I was at least partially correct about the story leading up to Alec Holland being able to switch back-and-forth from human to swampy form:

My belief was that Alec would be able to do this at will, but judging from what we can see in these pages, this is not the case. In fact, it seems that, as Swamp Thing, he becomes a mindless, rampaging monster:

…and that the transition from man to muck is apparently not under Holland’s control. So in a way, I guess that ol’ Man-Thing lettercol crack about Swamp Thing being “Hulklike” is…um, I guess sorta accurate in this case. Now, whether this is just a one-time thing, a shocked response to Alec suddenly becoming Swamp Thing again after his cure in issue #23, or whether this was a situation that Alec would eventually gain some control over in subsequent issues…the world may never know.

(In comics that were actually published — the Challengers of the Unknown, in fact — Alec just plain becomes Swamp Thing again, with no ability to change back, so that’s how that’s resolved in actual DC continuity. Pre-Crisis, Pre-Zero Hour, Pre-Infinite Crisis, Pre-Flashpoint continuity, that is.)

Also, it turns out that Alec’s brother Edward’s jealousy (the seeds of which were planted in #24, noted in this previously-linked post of mine with the terrible scans) takes a turn for…well, not so much the villainous as it is the dickish as he just straight-up lies to Hawkman:

The worst thing about looking at these original pages is the penciled-in prices at the top of most of them:

…ranging from $15 to $20. AAAAAUGH…those are prices even I could afford! …I suspect they’ll probably go for a bit more than that in that auction. …Hey, you guys know my birthday is coming up in just about a month and a half, right?

…Er, right? Hello…?
 
 
(post updated 8/2016)

So a little bird tells me that original art from the unpublished issue #25 of the first Swamp Thing series has popped up on an auction site. Take a look at the Heritage Auctions site to finally, finally get a glimpse of that Swamp Thing versus Hawkman battle we were originally promised over thirty years ago.

(Thanks, Rich!)

Purchased for me at a nearby video store that’s going out of business:

…a promo card display thingie for that cinematic classic Swamp Thing. Dig the soft focus, the romantic lighting, the soulful look in Mr. Thing’s eyes. Makes it almost look like Ghost, only with a swamp creature instead of, you know, a ghost.

Related: about a year or so ago, I purchased one of those newfangled high-def 47-inch flatscreen TVs to replace my 1980s-vintage 27-inch TV, which was beginning to have some problems and was probably time for it to go. What I have been discovering since the replacement is that some of my DVDs are not anamorphic; i.e. they don’t automatically fill the whole widescreen area on my new television. Sure, on some TVs you can fiddle with the image ratio and force it to fill the screen, but it never looks as good as having an actual anamorphic image.

Anyway, the reason I introduced this whole thing with the word “RELATED” is…I found out that my original DVD release of the Swamp Thing film, the one with the, ahem, extra footage that caused it to be recalled…is not anamorphic.

…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO