swamp thing

So I guess I have to start being nice to him now.

filed under Categories swamp thing 6 Comments

And then there was the time former employee Timmy came back from the San Diego Comic Con to bring me the Mattel SDCC Exclusive Swamp Thing action figure:


Hooray! Timmy just moved above Employee Aaron in my will.

Also, I was not prepared for the arrival of this generous gift, so I didn’t have my regular digital camera and had to make do with my cell phone camera. Yes, I had to “make do” with a dumb ol’ piece of advanced technology. Oh, the problems of the 21st century human, am I right?

Here’s the box the whole magilla came in:


You can just barely see Swampy’s red eyes peering through the slashes in the side of the box. It also reads “ADULT COLLECTOR” along the bottom there, so I’m surprised the people at the con’s Mattel table let Timmy buy it.

Behold, the frightening visage inside:


And when you open that up, there is an even more horrible thing waiting within:


(Hand and watch not included.)

You take Swampy’s red innards out, and you discover:


…an even smaller Swamp Thing! It’s not quite a Swamp Thing babushka doll, but it’s close.

Also included: the little guys that make this an exclusive SDCC figure, since I guess they’re not included with the wide release:


…Arcane’s Un-Men Cranius and Ophidian! (Again, only had the cell phone…sorry about the crummy photo.)

There’s also a “replica” of Alec Holland’s journal, clearly discovered after the fire:


…which is just a folded cardstock thingie with some of Holland’s notes, like a reminder that he should talk to Matt Cable about those dudes Ferret and Bruno who stopped by. Also, there is mention of Ferret’s alias being “Len Bernard,” a reference of course to Swamp Thing’s creators Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. It’s a nice additional little doodad to throw in with the figure.

Sincerely, this was a very nice thing Timmy did, so thank you very much, my little British buddy.

• • •

Also wanted to thank reader Paul, and his son Alex, for dropping by the shop to say hello to me on Thursday. Always nice to meet the folks who somehow manage to tolerate my daily blatherings.

The Department of Redundancy Department.

filed under Categories swamp thing, this week's comics 3 Comments

So here’s the thing about that Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing series:

The end of Brightest Day was about the Swamp Thing “elemental spirit,” bereft of the personality template of Alec Holland and running amok, being brought back under control by “reinfecting” that elemental spirit with the personality of Holland.

The Search for Swamp Thing is about…the Swamp Thing elemental spirit, bereft of the personality template of Alec Holland and running amok, needing to be reunited with Holland’s mind to be brought under control. It’s repeating a conflict and, presumably, a resolution that we already saw at the end of the Brightest Day event (which, admittedly, was undone almost immediately as seen in one of the cliffhanger epilogues at the end of Brightest Day #24). Of course, we haven’t seen the last part of the story yet, but it seems like a done deal, judging by solicits for the upcoming Swamp Thing series, that Holland will once again become Swamp Thing. (SPOILER ALERT, I guess.)

The main purpose of the series is, I guess, to reemphasize the return from the Vertigo imprint of Swamp and John Constantine, having Constantine interact with Batman, Superman, etc. (And just to keep Swamp Thing in the public’s eye, of course.) But really, if it weren’t for that Brightest Day epilogue re-setting up the Berserk Swamp Thing hoohar to be resolved, we could have skipped right from BD #24 to that new Swamp Thing #1 in September.

I don’t know. I’m too much of a Swampy fanboy to argue that there should be fewer Swamp Thing comics, and all things considered, I still find this comic to be inept but amusing. But it certainly feels…redundant in its goals, both in reestablishing the status quo for the character and reintroducing the character to the DC Universe, tasks already accomplished a couple of months prior.

Also picked up this week: the seventh volume of the Smurfs albums, The Astro Smurf. This is the Smurf story I’ve most recently read prior to this new publishing effort, having borrowed an older English album edition from pal Dorian about a decade ago. Haven’t read this new edition yet, but I liked it the last time I read it, and suspect I’ll still like it now, even if it’s in this smaller digest format.

Another new item this week I haven’t had a chance to read yet: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century: 1969. Any new League comic from Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill is most welcome, even though Kevin’s response has me intrigued.

To be frank, I’m not even sure I’m quite following what’s going on in this comic.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, swamp thing 5 Comments

As you may have noticed, I’ve been in bit of a Low Content Mode for the last few days. Sorry about that, but on the days I wasn’t feeling under the weather, I was otherwise occupied with Real Life stuff and haven’t had the time or energy to put together my typical way-overwritten commentary on things barely anyone cares about.

I’m not going anywhere, but I’m just going about it a bit more slowly at the moment. I’ll be back to normal operating standards, such as they are, soon.

In the meantime, here’s the variant cover by Ivan Reis for Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #2, due out this week at your local funnybook store:


Yes, the Constantine/Superman interaction is about as awkward as you’d think. More details here at the DC Comics blog, where it was apparently posted a month ago and I somehow missed it. …It’s a hard thing, gettin’ older and slower.

I was going to write about San Diego Con news, but here are some Swamp Thing sketches instead.

filed under Categories employee aaron, pal plugging, swamp thing 2 Comments

So I was not having a good time of it at the shop at one point last week, and Employee Aaron left me a Post-It Note sketch to cheer me up:


Yes indeedy.

And I’ve posted pics of these before, but the originals just showed up in the mail and they’re absolutely fantastic and I wanted to scan ’em again and show them off:


These are from internet chum Dan, and you can see more samples of his art over at his Tumblr (like Omac vs. Omac or totally awesome Metamorpho), and I’m guessing you can probably contact him through there for commissions of your own.

And before you ask…yes, I’ve been bugging both Employee Aaron and his lovely wife, who is also a talented artist, to start taking commissions. I’ll let you know as soon as they do…and it’d better be soon.

Also, this is the greatest thing out of this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Usually one cruel would be enough.

filed under Categories adam west, paperbacks, swamp thing 13 Comments

Here’s another paperback acquired in the same collection as the Batman TV show tie-in book I recently featured here: a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents reprint paperback from 1966:


I hadn’t known this even existed. It reprints the story in black and white, about two panels per page. I couldn’t scan this bit (and the book is already sold, so I can’t double-check it) but one of the text pages inside described this as “camp adventure,” or words to that effect. To be frank, I’m no T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents connoisseur, but I always got the impression it was played more or less straight. Was it knowing high-camp comedy/satire all this time? …Or maybe it was camp because it was unintentionally goofy while still being played straight (case in point: the covers above). Or are superheroes just intrinsically camp, because, you know, c’mon. Or am I reading too much into a blatant coattail-riding of the Batman TV show’s success with its camp formula? At any rate, I know a few T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents fans who wouldn’t care for that characterization.

Let the hair-splitting begin!

• • •

Speaking of that Batman book, reader Pietro sent me a photo he took at a flea market in his home country of Italy, featuring an Italian version of what he believes to be the same book:


Pietro notes that the title translates as “The Three Cruel,” which is grammatically odd if still pretty awesome. Thanks for the picture, Pietro!

• • •

So I was in a Twitter conversation about Superman: The Movie and Superman II with Daniel and Max, and as these things usually go with me, the topic of Swamp Thing found its way into the mix. As a result, Daniel generated this fine piece of Swamp art:


The world is just a little bit more beautiful today.

Don’t reveal the shocking ending of “Death of Spider-Man” to your friends.

filed under Categories swamp thing, this week's comics 9 Comments

So anyway, that Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1 that came out this week…

…Well, I can certainly say that, as I was reading it, I was getting the vaguest shadow of an impression that the writer was perhaps trying to convince me that John Constantine may have something resembling a British accent. …It just felt laid on a bit thick, is what I’m saying.

And by the way, the Zatanna on the cover that was replaced by Hawkman on the cover is now back to Zatanna again.

None of that tells you if the comic is any good, and…well, remember when I mentioned that Tim O’Neil had asked me if I’d rather have no Swamp Thing comic than a bad Swamp Thing comic? I think I have my answer, since I’m apparently glad to have this comic.

Well, okay, it’s not as terrible as all that. It’s not all that good, really…I mean, God bless ’em, they try hard, and given the editorially mandated goal of squeezing John Constantine and his big swampy buddy back into the superheroic DC Universe…well, that’s certainly John Constantine interacting with superheroes, here. It’s kinda sloppy and rough-hewn, but I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy seeing Constantine reuniting with Zatanna and getting into Batman’s face a bit. (And there’s even a reference to the last time John ‘n’ Bats met.)

As I said when I originally addressed Tim’s question: when it comes to Swamp Thing, the filters tend to go down. There’s “appreciating the efforts of a writer and artist in telling their story,” and then there’s “oh boy, I wonder what’s going to happen to my favorite character next?” Swamp Thing is probably one of the very few characters that still trigger that latter fanboy response in me, where what is happening with the character is more important to me than how what is happening to the character is presented. I can recognize that perhaps this isn’t the best comic book in the world, but I didn’t loathe it like some reviewers I saw out there, and I still enjoyed it more for furthering the continuing adventures of Swamp Thing than for its artistic or literary merit. So, you know, I guess it was a success, at least for me.

“Too long/didn’t read” version: Your pal Mike loses his critical faculties when it comes to Swamp Thing, so don’t count on him for an unbiased review of this Search for Swamp Thing mini-series.

However, when I tell you that the Return of Swamp Thing movie is a piece of cinematic genius, that’s not just crazy old man Mike talkin’…that’s indisputable fact.

A couple of other funnybooks from this week:

  • The regular edition of Ultimate Spider-Man #160 (the final, I guess, chapter of the Death of Spider-Man storyline) comes in the Death of Superman-esque black bag:


    The variant cover, available in 1 in 25 or 40 or whatever, comes in a red bag:


    The “blank sketch” cover, which you can presumably take to a comic artist at a convention or something and have ’em draw their own Dead Spideys, comes with no bag:


    …And seriously, they should have put this in a clear cellophane wrapper. Not to protect the contents of the story from lookie-loos or anything, but, you know…blank cover, “blank” bag? As opposed to the black or red bags? No? Well, I was amused by the idea.

    We may be pretty much at the end of the run for media-driven non-comic readers coming into stores to get the latest Big Death Issue. When the Human Torch allegedly “died,” I noted at the time that even the media coverage gave a slightly cynical spin on the matter, and that I didn’t see that much of a bump in sales to many people beyond regular customers.

    This time around…well, we ordered equal numbers of The Search for Swamp Thing #1 and Ultimate Spider-Man #160. By the end of Wednesday, the first day of sale for both, we were nearly out of the Swamp Thing comic, and we’d barely moved any copies of Ultimate Spider-Man. …I know what you’re thinking, and I promise, I had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t until late Thursday afternoon, when I started having a string of people I’d never seen before show up asking about “that Spider-Man comic,” so I’m guessing it turned up in the local paper or on the news or something.

    Of course, most of the coverage I have seen (primarily online) has emphasized that it’s not the real (ahem) Spider-Man, but from the alternate Ultimate line, which may have dampened the media-driven investor interest somewhat.

    I will say that sales have come up slightly on Ultimate Spider-Man as this storyline has progressed, given the moribund state the Ultimate line has been in for quite a while. That’s what was so surprising about this new issue just kind of sitting there on the shelf, untouched and unloved, for New Comics Day.

  • And then there’s Superman #712, which was supposed to be a story guest-starring a Muslim superhero, but was pulled at the last second and replaced by a long-shelved Krypto issue that ties into Infinite Crisis, of all things. As you might suspect, there’s a big Internet hoohar over this, but I’ll just let pal Dave summarize the silliness with his comprehensive Metafilter post.

    As for the Krypto story itself…when it was first announced, years ago, that a Krypto solo issue was prepared but pulled from publication, with no explanation forthcoming, for some reason I kept picturing, like, really over-the-top dramatic reasons for DC shelving the story. “THE DEATH OF KRYPTO!” or “KRYPTO COMES OUT!” or “KRYPTO MEETS JESUS!” or some other kind of earth-shatttering story where things will never again be the same.

    Of course, it’s nothing like that…just a quiet follow-up to Infinite Crisis that kind of loses its impact this far along from the event (and not helped by art that, unfortunately, really did nothing for me). But I’m all for Krypto stories, and I suspect we’d better enjoy this one while we can, since there may be no room for flyin’ superdogs in the new post-September DC publishing regime. Except maybe in Tiny Titans, of course.

    Then again, Grant Morrison will be writing Superman….

It’s Only Love Doing Its Swamp Thing.

filed under Categories swamp thing 5 Comments

So reader LT was good enough to send along a couple of DC Universe Online screen shots featuring Swamp Thing…he tells me this first screen is a shot of Swampy in the Justice League Watchtower’s arboretum (which, I guess if you’re going to have Swamp Thing hanging out with our favorite superheroes, they better make him feel at home in their satellite headquarters):


Here’s a better look at the detail on Swamp Thing’s skin. Looks like the League also offers Turtle Waxing services:


Pull back a bit, and we see a few more characters in the scene with Swampy:


Facing off against Mr. S. Thing (who seems to have a nice grimace, there) is LT’s character:


And off to the side is another character standing next to one of the JLA’s gardening staffers, who clearly is in a rush to finish his work and has no patience for any superhero shenanigans:


LT also tells me that in the game, Swamp Thing’s voice “sounds like somebody trying to do a Barry White parody.” I’m sure that came in handy when Swamp Thing started putting the moves on Abby.

Thanks, LT, for sending those screenshots along!

The shirt off my back.

filed under Categories question time, swamp thing 8 Comments

A few more questions from you, the loyal Progressiveruin.com readers:

  • Thelonious_Nick wonders

    Why do all these big events that the comics companies are always pushing on us sound so awesome ahead of time but end up being so god-awful when they actually occur?

    Well, we’re only human, and we’re comic fans (two states of being that are not mutually exclusive, despite popular belief)…it’s pretty easy to buy into the hype and excitement, or at least absorb a small bit of it, ahead of time, which perhaps inflates expectations beyond any point the event in question can possibly satisfy.

    Or maybe they just end up being terrible. (The true answer is probably somewhere between these two options.)

  • Moonrock rockets off

    “Having just picked up some back issues of Secret Wars II, which I hadn’t read since it first came out years ago, I was curious if I was the only one who thinks the Beyonder looked like Jim Shooter with a jheri(sp?) curl? Mike, do you think Shooter was egotistic enough to write himself in SWII as an omnipotent being?”

    If I remember correctly, there was some thought at the time that the Secret Wars II Beyonder was indeed a “Mary Sue” of sorts for Shooter, and the Secret Wars page on TV Tropes even refers to the Beyonder as “Self Insert Fic” in regards to the character’s relation to Shooter.

    I don’t know if it was an intentional thing, but, to be frank, had I been in his position, I would have done the exact same thing. I totally would have made myself the main character of Sterling W–er, Secret Wars II. Except I wouldn’t have had to change my hair, since my hairstyle has already achieved beautiful perfection.

  • Roger Green inquires

    “Did you see this Swamp Thing item?”

    Actually, I did not see this amusing alteration to Steve Bissette’s drawing of Swamp Thing and Man-Thing palling around until you pointed it out. Thanks! Also learned at the link: there’s a Facebook application which allows you to make your own Life magazine cover, which could result in some mischievous fun.

  • Professor Booty is about to be partially disappointed in at least one answer to his two questions:

    Are you watching Game of Thrones, Mike? On a scale of 1 to 10, how awesome is it?

    I haven’t seen one single frame of Game of Thrones, nor have I even read any of the books. However, I understand Peter Dinklage is involved in the TV show, and Mr. Dinklage always…always…gets a 10 on the awesome scale. (Yes, even in Underdog.)

    Do you wear any clothes with Swamp Thing on them? Did Mike Sterling ever dress as Swamp Thing for Halloween (or just to work or something!) and are there pictures of it? If so, how come I never seen them here?

    The only piece of Swamp Thing clothing I’ve worn is this 1994 t-shirt, which I couldn’t find a pic of online so, in a Progressive Ruin first, I scanned the actual shirt from my own closet:


    It…shows a little wear, and I haven’t worn it in a while, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. And yeah, it’s a bit of a peculiar design, what with Swampy ‘n’ Abby’s daughter Tefe sittin’ up there.

    You know what Swamp Thing shirt I’d love to have? One with this cover. I would so pay money for that.

    I never dressed as Swamp Thing for Halloween, unfortunately. Nor do I dress as Swamp Thing for the shop, nor do I dress as him while just hanging around the house, vacuuming or something. Because I know you were wondering. However, I have had two employees dress as me for Halloween…only one of whom was male.

  • The Mutt shouts

    “Henderson!”

    “HENDERSON!”
     
     
     
    (Listen to a few of these for further explanation.)

Podcasts and swamp creatures.

filed under Categories question time, swamp thing 10 Comments

Okay, one last Twitter question from last night, which came when I was plotting to destroy my enemies sound asleep, from TheMeanGeek:

“do you listen to podcasts? which ones and why? totally self-serving by the way”

“Self-serving,” he says, because he has his own podcast which I haven’t listened to yet, but I promise I’ll give it a try!

Anyway, I do listen to a handful of podcasts, which include the following:

  • War Rocket Ajax – the only comics podcast I listen to, mostly because I usually don’t like listening to people who aren’t me talk about comics. But I like the hosts (Chris Sims and Matt Wilson, and former host Eugene Ahn), I enjoy their senses of humor, they have good interviews, and generally cut through the usual fan-nonsense that pollutes most comics discussion. Or they completely wallow in it to the point of hilarity.

  • Look at His Butt – a title that may take some explaining if you’re not familiar with the podcast, I realize. It’s a William Shatner-centric Star Trek podcast, with the “his butt” in question being Mr. Shatner’s own. The two gals in charge of the site, LT and Jungle Kitty, have a lot of fun talking about Bill, about Trek, about Trek conventions, about Trek merchandise, and some more about Bill. Always an enjoyable listen.

    Also, a couple of years back they were kind enough to interview me about my own Trek fandom, so feel free to give that a listen if you missed it the first time.

  • As some folks may have gathered (more from my Twitter feed than from this site, I’m guessing), I have an interest in science and skeptical matters. A couple of podcasts along those lines that I enjoy are the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe (a longer show with interviews, discussions of current skeptical topics, and general shenaniganery), and Skeptoid (runs about ten minutes, usually devoted to discussing a single topic per episode). (Also, I won’t list them here, but I occasionally listen to a couple of pro-paranormal ‘n’ woo podcasts just to exercise the ol’ “pick out the logical fallacy” muscle.)

  • A couple of comedy podcasts I enjoy: Sklarbro Country, featuring identical twin comedians Randy and Jason Sklar, and the Pod F. Tompkast with Paul F. Tompkins.

That’s not all of them, but those are the main ones I check out regularly. Keep meaning to start one myself, but that would require, you know, time. And effort. And probably equipment.

A question or two from “White Lantern Alec Holland” from yesterday’s post:

“I need a complete accurate list of of all of DC Comics letters pages of the last forty years responding to previous Swamp Thing related guest-appearances and intros in these titles that I have yet to follow, including [LIST OMITTED]”

Oh, Lordy, I don’t know. To be honest, it never occurred to me to collection Swamp Thing’s mentions in letter columns, though I suppose in some cases, if it was a series I was buying regularly, I got them by default. So…um, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

He also asks

“What did you think of Garbage Man vs. Mossy Man in Weird Worlds #6?”

I’d actually given up on the Weird World series, but Tim O’Neil mentioned to me on the Twitter that there was a Man-Thing-ish type critter who popped up in that last issue, so I gave the comic a quick poke-through at the shop. My general feeling is that this one story felt more like a classic ’70s-style Marvel/DC horror comic than the other “Garbage Man” installments. More even than the (relatively) recent Swamp Thing/Man-Thing comics themselves, which were too much of the Vertigo Comics generation to really be evocative of the simpler stories of times past. The basic story of a misunderstood monster befriended by a child is straight out of an old House of Mystery. Or the Gamera films, for that matter, I realize, but this particular execution of the plot did give me that slight twinge of nostalgia.

…

So long as I’m in a question-answerin’ mood, if you have any lingering queries, go ahead and pop ’em in the comments and I’ll give ’em a go. In the meantime, I’ll just be sittin’ here approximatin’ a casual speakin’ voice by replacin’ letters with apostrophes.

“Aye, ’tis an ill omen, Hellblazer.”

filed under Categories publishing, swamp thing 14 Comments

So, when I first read DC Comics’ announcement of Justice League Dark, a series teaming up John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, and others to fight supernatural-type thingies:


…the first thing that crossed my mind was, of course, my most fervent hope that Constantine will be wearing the costume he had in Doom Patrol #53 (March 1992), the Jack Kirby parody/tribute issue:


If you claim not to want this as well, I shall call you a dirty, dirty liar.

…Also, apparently the new Swamp Thing series is official, written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Yannick Paquette. Well, that sounds like it might be good. I’ve not read anything by Snyder, but I know his American Vampire series is well-regarded, as is his recent run on Detective, and I’ve enjoyed Paquette’s work in the past. So…um, yeah, I’ll pick this up in three months’ time. But was there ever any real danger of me not picking up a Swamp Thing comic?

I wonder what it would take for me not to buy a Swamp Thing series. …Don’t say “if it were written and drawn by Rob Liefeld” because I’d buy the hell out of that.

images from (presumably) Justice League Dark #1, cover by (also presumably) Mikel Janin, and Doom Patrol #53 (March 1992) by Grant Morrison and Ken Steacy