Comics are for Idiots:

A blog about the smarter side of sequential art

(tentatively titled)

I was wondering what comic I should recommend first when the plant on my nightstand began to writhe.  A tangle of vines and sickly-sweet flowers shot forward and twisted into a strange form that left the shadow of a man on my wall . . .

Okay, it didn’t happen exactly like that. Really, I saw this Wired article, remembered the intoxicating journey through bog and space, and it seemed like a great time to talk about Swamp Thing.

Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing is nothing like you’d expect.  I walked passed it on the shelf at least a hundred times - recalling the hokey eighties films with plastic tentacles and corn syrup blood - until Moore reached such a godly state that I could not stay my hand from buying everything with his name on it.

Moore takes the full spectrum of senses and brings them to bloom in a way only a man made from plants could.  When Holland embraces Abbey with his great green arms, you can almost smell the moss on his breath, hear his rasping speech, taste the tubers growing in his chest (which she does, leading to one of the strangest love scenes ever).  In short, prepare to be ripped from your comfortable comic-reading position into the swamp and the horrifying tasks wrought on a man trapped by vegetation.

Depending on who your background, the art may breed discomfort or nostalgia.  The color is cheap; the drawings like those of the old Tales from the Crypt comics, but the content is a far stretch from three-color standards and predictable twist-endings. This is Moore on the cusp of Watchmen, frothing with ideas and ready to twist the brains of those touched by his ringed fingers.

Recommended to those who like Sandman, old horror comics, or those would like to take drugs but are too concerned about the long-term side effects.

Pick it up and let me know what you think.

-C

A roadway, cobbled with colorful panels, to lead comics out of the idiocy stigma and into the light.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under All Comics, Rez Sick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.