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By Alan Moore
After months of sporadically reading an issue or four, I have finally finished all six volumes of Alan Moore's Saga Of The Swamp Thing, a comic book which came highly recommended by Kevin Smith in one of his Fatman On Batman episodes. Smith actually read two issues of the book out loud in which Batman tries to save Gotham from the tyranny of the Swamp Thing. While arguably the highlight of the book for Batman fans, the entire saga is well worth a read. Most of the book was written by a pre-Watchmen Moore whose name wasn't yet as well-established as it is now. That doesn't mean this isn't pure Moore though; the prose, heavy on metaphors, as well as the satire, sex and Lovecraftian impulses are all here.
There's a main story line but many issues can be experienced in a more or less standalone fashion. Some issues are downright psychedelic poems without any direct ties to the main story. In other issues, we encounter John Constantine. In fact, Constantine of Hellblazer was conceived, by Moore, for this saga. Modelled after Sting rather than after Keanu Reeves - obviously - he's quite an interesting character right away. Mysterious, and interesting.
Forget the Wes Craven film adaptation and its sequel: those are based on the first 24 issues, written by Len Wein. Then Moore took over and he sent the Swamp Thing to hell, in outer space, across other dimensions, on different wavelengths, to Gotham City, ... Some of this stuff is so heavy on WTF's, one wonders if the book should have come with a warning: "don't be sober while reading this". But hey, I don't do drugs and I still had a blast with the Saga Of The Swamp Thing. After 40 issues of pure Swamp God power, I'm all swamped out for now. I could continue reading the books that came after Moore's final Swamp Thing, but his conclusion satisfied me and since I have a lot more to read, I'm going to leave the Swamp Thing alone for a while.
I will recommend this book but with a caveat. Understand what you're getting into. This isn't - uh - your typical, average superhero stuff. DC's Vertigo imprint brings its own brand of drug-induced-horror, sometimes totally adrift in terms of the madness laid out on the page. Imagine what Grant Morrison would do with a David Lynch story of a talking tree branching out into the farthest reaches of the cosmos and having sex with a young woman seeking solace in its vegetation, and you're still not close to what Moore's Swamp Thing sometimes has to offer.
I thought it was great though.
- all 125 issues of JLA + Identity Crisis
- the entire N52 Batman, starting - again - with the Court Of Owls
I think I'm going to go for JLA as that's the one I haven't read before.
Written by STEVE ORLANDO & SCOTT SNYDER
Art and cover by RILEY ROSSMO
Two of history’s greatest vigilantes are reunited at last! Murder has come to Gotham City, and Lamont Cranston appears to be the culprit…but he’s been dead for over fifty years!
Batman will go to the ends of the Earth to unravel the mystery of Cranston’s life, but the mysterious Shadow will do everything in his power to stop him from learning too much…
The superstar team of writers Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando and artist Riley Rossmo brings you a dark and twisty modern noir like nothing you’ve seen before, with a brand-new villain unlike any either hero has faced!
This is the unmissable crime series of 2017, so get on board now! Co-published with Dynamite.
Full Color, 32 pages, $3.99, On sale April 26.
This will be a must buy for me.
It s been years since I last read this exquisite third Comanche story from 1973. Looking forward to rereading the fourth, which is perhaps the best in the whole series.
Fun fact: The hero Red Dust is named Red Kelly in Norway because redd dust means scared sucker.
I actually finished this one over a month ago. For sure one of my favorite Batman comics. I liked the different take on Two-Face.
I'm getting ready to read Batman: Hush.
I know Neal Adams is the generally preferred option but I loved Jim Aparo because he was the Batman artist I grew up with (he did a bunch of Brave and the Bold's from 1982-84 that I used to buy as a kid on the way to school.) The stories are slightly weird but light hearted and usually involved Dick Grayson era Robin. I've got vol 2 to read as well but vol 3's release is the one I'm waiting for because that has the specific issues I owned as an eight year old.
Since Goscinny died 40 years ago, Lucky Luke has gone downhill. No one could match him, so why not reinvent the series instead? This is very mature and serious stuff, but Luke is still totally recognizable. Lots of interesting details and plot points. Good job, and worth the read.
Paul Dini is a genius.
I haven't yet but I'll for sure let you know when I do.
I'm getting behind on my comics. The other day I just added more to my library. I picked up The Dark Knight Returns, MARVEL Civil War (read it back when it first came out), and a new sci-fi graphic novel called Seven to Eternity. It has some pretty good reviews and I'm looking forward to reading it. Looks like a sci-fi/fantasy/western.
Holy smokestack! After all these years, Neal Adams returns to Batman, not just drawing, but writing as well and doing a great job! The inking (partly by Bill Sienkiewicz!) and the colouring is also top notch. I am having a great time with this.
Let me just quote from the blurb,as it gives you the gist of it without giving away spoilers:
"When a series of seemingly unconnected events brings Batman close to killing a man for the first time, Bruce Wayne must embark on a journey of self-discovery...which also reveals shocking secrets about Batman s enemies and allies alike.
From a secret chamber in Arkham Asylum to a hidden world below our own, this weird, wild journey will answer once and for all the question "Can a Batman that kills still be batman?"
Yes, it's the very same graphic novel Charlize Theron's upcoming film Atomic Blonde is based on. Or is it?
The Coldest City is the kind of spy thriller that is aptly named and given a descriptive accuracy over its belonging of the genre. A very classic conservative Cold War spy story dealing with convolutions only the likes of Len Deighton and John Le Carre would write. Set only a short period of time before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and as such is set around the German Capital City where a wild goose chase is ensued in a very slow paced narrative. There's very little to no action in the slightest. Just conspiracies and at the very end, a predictable plot twist.
Having read this graphic novel, which has the sort of artwork I don't find attractive nor appreciate, makes it difficult for me to follow when it's only black and white, with the outlines of the respective characters illustrated some incomplete, I've come to notice many similar scenes from the Atomic Blonde trailer that do parallel some panels from The Coldest City, but tonally are vastly different. Massively different. Some characters, like Kingsman: The Secret Service and the comic book it's based on, are replaced with new ones in the upcoming film, whilst the names are retained (from what I've seen in the wikipedia and IMDB cast of characters list) and remain intact to their roles, despite being overtly different from their graphic novel counterparts. The action packed display of the film is definitely something exclusive to the format since the graphic novel itself only includes one fistfight and it lasted very short whereas the film is full of them (no pun intended).
A bit of preview to those who would like to see what's inside the pages:
I finished watching the British television series THE PRISONER today and posted my thoughts on that show here. Then I proceeded by reading the follow-up four issue comic miniseries, published some 20 years after the show was aired. Surprisingly enough, I found myself liking the comic quite a bit. The artwork is at times very abstract but nevertheless suitable for the job. The references to the last couple of episodes from the television series are a nice treat to the fans. And the story does seem to make a lot more sense to me than it does to some very critical reviewers on the Internet. ;-) Overall, a fine read for those who, like me, have sat through the television series. If you haven't, however, this book will mean absolutely nothing to you!
I have been wanting to read this for decades, and finally got hold of it. Thank you, @DarthDimi for the recommendation and reminder!
I didn t know that Len Wein created both Swamp Thing and Wolverine.