This week
The Friday Edition
takes a look at the
comics of today. .
and yesterday.
orogon daily omtirald
arts & entertainment
may 17, 1985
Like Shelly’s monster, he was created to
discover himself; like Dante in the Inferno, he
has challenged the regions of Hell; like Aristo
tle’s Gorgias, he strives to understand love and
his place in the natural order.
He is like all great figures in literature; he is
the noble soul with which we all identify. He is
no ordinary comic book character: He is the
T
|H he staggeringly bad 1982 movie adaptation made
H amends for itself by prompting DC Comics to profitably
■ revive the Saga of the Swamp Thing, which had thus far
failed to stir the imaginations of comic book readers despite the
brilliant artistic treatment by Steven Bissette and John
Totleben. Editor Len Wein looked toward Great Britain and hired
artist / writer Alan Moore to breathe new life into the slowly
decomposing figure.
After a transition issue that cleared out the deadwood from
previous issues, Moore s first real contribution of the Saga of
the Swamp Thing, ' The Anatomy Lesson" took the readers, and
industry critics, by surprise. In one fell swoop. Moore redefined
the hero’s nature — his very raison d’etre.
Story by Michael Duncan
Plant Elemental
Courtesy of DC Comics
The saga’s ascension among the critics, fellow profes
sionals. editors and comic book literati occured almost over
night. And it's no wonder. In the May issue of Amazing Heroes, a
comic book fan magazine, Moore revealed his method of
"sophisticated suspense” behind what is now one of the
highest critically acclaimed comic book on the market.
‘The critical thing about writing, if you're doing it properly,
is to actually come to a level of psychoanalysis upon yourself.
You have to examine your own character and try to work out the
areas that genuinely disturb you — the areas that you would
rather not think about, talk about, and most certainly write
about.” said Moore, winner of several Eagle Awards for com
position, the most prestigious award in the profession.
Swamp Thing is not a superhero series. It is horror —
sophisticated suspense. That alone is enough to set it apart
from the mainstream comic book market. Taking the difference
one step further is Moore's experimental compositional style.
The experimental angle is one of the things that I consider
to be one of the most important parts of my writing.
Characterization and the rest of it are all things I pay attention
to. but it’s messing around with the structure, messing around
with the dialogue, seeing what effect can be achieved. That's
probably an attitude that I've at least borrowed from Brian Eno.
like the Oblique Strategies," Moore noted.
Brian Eno. an avant-garde musician, pioneered the method
of finding relationships and patterns in seemingly irrational ran
dom placement of components in a given composition.
•/ tend to think of Brian Eno as sort of a Zen Master. He said
you should treat your accidents as your own intentions. Occa
sionally you'll get a mistake, something like an ink blot on a can
vas. and that will open up so many possibilities that you could
not have arrived at anything so perfect if you 'd just gone at it by
logic. It's not that it would solve every problem. Sometimes you
need these random elements dropped m. that will open up new
possibilities." said Moore who works out of his home in
England.
"New possibilities” is a way to sum the attitude that the ar
tists Moore. Bisette and Totleben share, says Karen Berger,
Swamp Thing editor.
"The stories always start with Alan, but Steve <Bissette)
does the interpretation of the story that Alan has plotted. It is
Steve's input that has evolved the slanting panels and bizarre
page layouts that have come to set Swamp Thing apart from the
common." she notes.
In the next 10 issues. Swamp Thing will combat the
culmination of all evil in a contest for the world. Old theme,
right? Expect nothing ordinary.
What puts Alan leagues ahead. ” comments Berger, “is his
untraditional treatment of traditional horror themes. "
Issue 50, the double sized annual to be released next year,
will resolve "American Gothic” the ongoing battle that this
month pitted Swamp Thing against subterranean vampires in
"Still Waters.”
John Constantine, a Sting look alike whose role in the saga
is yet to be defined, has friends who think the evil that’s coming
is Cthulhu. as identified in the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Another
friend thinks it is a massive extra-galactic energy field that was
drawn inside a black hole eight billion years ago — nothing
supernatural.
Will Swampy win? Will the world be saved from ultimate
evil? Probably. But that doesn't mean there won't be any
surprises.
"IA/e know where we re going with the story, but it hasn't
been all figured out. There's a lot to do yet." noted Berger. "We
are all really excited about the shape of things to come for
Swampy."