swamp thing

So this week DC is releasing a new facsimile edition (including all the original ads an’ such) of House of Secrets #92 from 1971, featuring the first appearance of Swamp Thing by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Here are the different flavors you can pick up:

You can get the plain ol’ version with a standard comic cover:

You can get the “blank sketch cover” in a lovely shade of green, upon which you can get your favorite artist to draw, I don’t know, the Heap or Man-Thing or whatever:

You can get the shiny foil-covered edition, and the scan I made ain’t the greatest, but if you’ve been in a comic shop lately, you know what this particular enhancement should look like:

And most surprisingly, in a bit of collaboration between Warner’s comic book division and those other divisions that make theoretically money, we get a version of this comic with a cardstock cover plugging the forthcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel (art by Kelley Jones):

Yes, that means four more versions of this comic to add to my collection of House of Secrets #92 reprints and, of course, my original copy of the actual thing.

A long, long time ago (about 18 years now!) I did post here listing all the versions of this comic that I own. I keep meaning to update it, and have occasionally listed new reprints of the story here and there in subsequent posts. Thus, the plan is this: creating a new page on this site devoted solely to House of Secrets #92, with notes on the various reprints in either single comic book form or in trade paperback/hardcover.

This is kind of a last second decision, so I have nothing ready to go just yet, since I kind of have to track down where all my copies of these reprints have gotten off to. My collection at home remains in some disarray, though I’ve been making progress in getting it under control of late. But I do want to gather together all my reprints, do fresh new scans, and put ’em all in one standalone place that I can point to and say “look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

So there we go…nearly 21 years of doing this site, and I can still find ways to make my life more difficult. But at least it’s additional incentive to get my comic act together at home.

So I was looking at one of those “here are the hot comics!” apps that some collectors are using in place of t heir own want lists, because I’m trying to keep on top of when some comic is dubbed by the investment gods as The New Thing and I can gird myself for the onslaught of phone calls and emails from folks all asking for the same item.

At any rate, on a whim, I looked at the various Swamp Thing entries, as I seemed to recall some discrepancy or ‘nother the last time I looked. And yup, here it is, in the listing for Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (1984):

The “new origin” bit is correct, but the first appearance notation is way off. (And gotta be honest, totally forgot about the New 52 “Seeder” incarnation of the character, which is fine because I bet he won’t be called that the next we see him, if ever.)

Anyhoo, Jason Woodrue, the Plant Master, first popped up as an Atom villain in the first issue of the diminutive hero’s own series in 1962. There he is on the cover in the selfsame hot comics app that listed Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 as his debut:

And then I thought “oh, well, maybe they mean the first time he was referred to as the Floronic Man, or the first time he looked all planty.” And nope, I knew neither of those were the case. I mean, it says right there in the Atom #1 listing…he transformed from the normal human appearance into his plant form in Flash #245 (1976). Here’s the app’s entry for that comic:

…which is the form in which I first encountered the character, in Justice League of America #195 (1981):

And then there was the Steve Bissette/John Totleben redesign of the character, first appearing in that Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, and as pictured here from #24:

Unless that’s what they meant by “first appearance,” the first time this particular design of the character appeared, I’m gonna say that app’s entry for Saga of That There Swamp Thang #21 is “human error” and needs to be corrected. Though I wonder if someone out there heavily dependent on the app has their copy of #21 marked with a big “FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE FLORONIC MAN!” tag.

Actually, don’t need to wonder…hello “Top Rated Plus” eBay seller with this listing:

The desperate quest to establish “first appearances” for maximum collectability can be a weird and wild one, leading to contradictory and erroneous information getting out there. Thus, the moral of the story is…TRUST NO ONE. Except me, your pal Mike.

Oh, and I saw this, too, in the entry for Saga of the Swamp Thing #25:

Augh, don’t get me started (because I already did start back in 2004 in this link-rotted post). And even the app in the entry for #37 says

Hoo boy.