Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore Vol. 1 (New Printing)
In 1983, a revolutionary English writer joined a trio of trailblazing American artists to revitalize a longstanding comic book icon. By the time they'd finished their work four years later, SWAMP THING by Alan Moore, Stephen R, Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch was universally recognized as one of the handful of titles that defined a new era of complexity and depth in modern graphic storytelling, and their run on the series remains one of the medium's most enduring masterpieces.
Now DC Comics and Vertigo are proud to present an all-new vision of this landmark achievement. Comprising three deluxe hardcover volumes, ABSOLUTE SWAMP THING BY ALAN MOORE debuts completely new coloring for every page, crafted exclusively for this definitive collector's edition by legendary color artist Steve Oliff (Akira, Miracleman). This first volume includes the issues THE SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #20-34 and SWAMP THING ANNUAL #2 and features a monumental new afterword from Bissette accompanied by a wealth of historic behind-the-scenes material from the title's original creative team.
Reviews (59)
Absolute Disaster
I have to admit that DC was honest in the product description when they wrote, “brand-new coloring.” They question is, why? My review was going to be all about my love for the 1984 Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing and how it was a perfect marriage between art and writing. I bought these comics when they were first released, and they made a profound impact on me in my teenage years. I wanted to talk about how Stephen Bissette and John Totleben were perhaps the first artists where, for me, their names became synonymous with the series they worked on. I was always disappointed when an issue was released without their art, but I understood given the detail of Bissette’s penciling and Totleben’s inking. Unfortunately, DC made one disastrous decision in this Absolute Edition. I’m not one of those purists who thinks that every reprint should look exactly like the original. It makes sense that a more expensive version is going to have superior paper, printing techniques and modern tools so things are going to look different, and hopefully better. In fact, if the Absolute Edition looked like a scan of the original, I’d be complaining. The problem here is that DC looked at the colors supplied by Tatjana Wood and decided they could do better. Issue 30 opens with, “The returned man smiles” as the lips of a green skinned alien part. Wait, what? That’s supposed to be Matt Cable and in the original his skin is flesh colored. It was a great moment in the original comic but now it looks distractingly weird. It was as if DC decided that the comic was too gothic and gritty and decided to give it a more disco appearance. Scarcely a page goes by without radical color shifts. Pages that have greens and blue are now purple and grey. The last panel of issue 25 shows an image of Goya’s ‘The Sleep of Reason’ in all red. Now, it’s shades of purple. Did that improve it? Nope. Page after page is altered and the worst thing is, these new colors are more often than not, softening Totleben’s inking. His inking was sharp and frightening and now it’s soft and friendly. The monkey king was original black and white but now has shades of grey. Is he more frightening? No. Sometimes colors are added such as giving Swamp Thing an orange tongue where it was originally green. Sometimes images have a single color where there used to be multiple colors and details are lost. I know that Alan Moore gets 98% of the credit for this run but it was a collaborative effort. Tatjana Wood isn’t even given coloring credit. She’s listed as the original comic colorist, but coloring credit goes to Steve Oliff and ‘Olyoptics’. Oliff is an award winning colorist and a veteran in the industry but radically changing the colors is akin to changing Alan Moore’s text. If the recoloring improved the visuals I would be forgiving but the changes are almost always either gratuitous or make the visuals worse. BTW: Even the covers are recolored and it is just as much of a disaster. Issue 21 has Swamp Thing menacing General Sunderland as light from a window illuminates the terrified man. In the recoloring, the light seems to fall across Swamp Thing but based on where the light is coming from it doesn’t make sense and the light hits his body flat as if he were two dimensional. My assumption is that this was just a coloring screw up. Nice job. This was not the review I wanted to write. I wanted to talk about my love of Swamp Thing and how DC finally produced a high-quality compilation of one of their greatest comics ever. I often roll my eyes when reviewers nitpick details in reproductions as if they were just itching to complain. I’m sure Steve Oliff spent a lot of time on recoloring and it looks like volume 2 of Absolute Swamp Thing will be getting the same treatment. I just feel that when you have a series that comes this close to perfection that no one has a right to decide they can improve it and I would have to assume this was an editorial decision from DC. The Absolute Edition has a very neat, soft, moss like cover and some really good extras including sketches and a long, well written article by Stephen Bissette. Bissette also wrote the introduction in book 6 of the TBD but the one in the Absolute Edition is brand new. Oh, and the cheapo TPB’s used the original coloring and look better. *sigh* Maybe if enough people complain, DC will reverse course or possibly even redo the first version of the Absolute Edition. Probably not. Still, it was nice revisiting these stories and as far as I know the stories are entirely unaltered.
Beautiful if you're open to change.
Let's get the main talking point out of the way. This book is almost entirely recolored. There are pages that do not even closely resemble the original coloring on the artwork. Purists are not likely to like this book but if you're open to the changes, they are absolutely beautiful and well done. It would be one thing if the original trade paperbacks were not available but they are and for rather cheaply. Those that want the original gritty 1980s feel are better off getting the paperbacks. If you're into a high effort re-imagining of the original coloring, this book is going to absolutely blow you away. If you're open to regenesis (see what I did there), this is a must have.
An absolute Masterpiece!
This unique rendition of the Allan Moore run of Swamp Thing is a marvelous remastering of the content from the origiinal series. With enhanced colors and a larger format print, you are given an enhanced version of the classic run of Moore, Bissett and Totleben. The book comes in a deluxe slipcase worthy of the recognition of this incredible reworking of the character. The book when taken out of the slipcase has a mossy feel to it and has earthy like smell! It's beyond a reading experience, you feel like you're holding something genuinely organic! If you're familiar with the story and have read it prior, you'll wanna get your hands on this book. If you're new to Swamp Thing and want to read some of the best stories ever written for this character, then I highly suggest you purchase this book immediately!
Binding falling apart
On my copy, the binding is already falling apart after barely cracking it open. Other reviewers haven't mentioned this so it might be an isolated problem. Will be sending mine back. The reviewer complaining about the recolors is being a bit ridiculous, IMO. I like the changes, personally. Was he also one of the people that was upset about the Sandman recolors?
beautiful book, magnificent colours, but bad binding
I really like how the modern colorisation process can enhance a book. I am not like the purists who think old newspaper paper and limited colouring is the best. the new colours simply vibe and explode with this artwork, making it even more eye candy than it ever was. big minus though, I haven't even managed to finish the book, the cover already fell. the binding glue didn't last even 1 read. I blame it on the heavy paper and large format, weighing too much on the cover, making it hard to stick. Just glued it myself now, let's see how it holds up! it's a shame as it's quite expensive and the cover is just magnificent! the emboss and the smooth feeling...
The 80s greatest monthly comic in a truly refined reading experience.
Could the early to mid-80s have been a finer time? As Watchmen waited in the wings, as "Whatever Happened to the Man from Tomorrow?" and "For the Man Who Has Everything" cooled, prior to Morrison's American debut with fourth-wall breaking postmodernism in "Animal Man," we always had Alan Moore's reinvention of "Swamp Thing," in those halcyon days prior to the grim days when the industry believed that Moore and Gibbons's magnum opus succeeded due to its mild sexual content or its often 'off the page' violence of a more graphic nature - as the great James 'Starman / JSA, Golden Age' Robinson has pointed out, the industry took the wrong message... it was Watchmen's complexity, its depth, which made it a game-changer in comics history - one, indeed, proceeded by Swamp Thing - an elegiac, even romantic book that didn't lack for mindblowing SF. Moore's save - as the title neared cancelation, it proved a perfect vehicle for Moore and his great art team... Steve Bissette, John Totleben, an initially uncredited Rick Veitch, who will helm the series later, letterer John Costanza, who makes individual voices breathe, and colorist Tatjana Wood, who got more out of pulp paper than anyone this side of Richmond Lewis in Batman: Year One. Of course, the absence of Ms. Wood in these II volumes (pardon, having received them both today after oft-reading them) I am excited and review - the book design here) may, indeed, engender controversy - a concern I had, until I received them, and showed my son. I concede, for this book design, the move to colorist Steve 'Miracleman' Oliff - simply works. Above all, the book is as raw, as vital, living, and organic as it ever was. In fact, these two absolute editions particularly impress with their higher-end production values, better than those on other fine absolute editions. Is the interior cover thread? Whatever the coating, it mimics moss with its tackiness. These production values represent less of a reinterpretation and more of a refining. The additions of Moore's promotional material (Volume 1) "This is the place" - a downright literary flexing of verbal muscle - is better than nice. The full script in volume II - look at Moore's novelistic description... truly he had the right art team in place... make both volumes shine., so now we have The Anatomy Lesson and American Gothic - once more. I am more than eager to revisit Moore's fine, romantic coda in Volume III.
Well done omnibus
Beautifully done omnibus. I wasn't sure about the recoloring idea but after thumbing through it it looks great! Really looking forward to rereading these stories.
Sensational Swamp Thing
Alan Moore’s incredible Swamp Thing rum receives DC’s royal Absolute treatment. I love Steve Oliff’s recoloring. If you insist in Tatiana Wood’s also great, original palate, DON’T buy this and then bitch. Or better, DO buy the Absolute version and then get the done Saga of the Swamp Thing tpbs, with Woods’ original work. Alan Moore planted a scientific seed to totally reimagine this character’s origin. And Steve Bissette and John Totleben sumptuously adorn Swamp Thing in an emerald cloak of fern and grass and glade and herb. There’s ample horror, appropriate environmentalism/anti-nuke, metaphysics and philosophy. Like Frank Miller’s two Daredevil runs, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing will never be overgrown. Moore’s masterpiece finally put the writer at the top of the comic book heap, brains before beauty, words over pictures. I would have LOVED a Moore-Wrightson collaboration but ‘‘twas not to be...
The ULTIMATE edition for hardcore fans of Alan Moore's run...
Swamp Thing is such an interesting character to begin with. However, Alan Moore breaks all bounds with what his "roots" are and takes him to new and bold heights. The interior pages are remastered on a thicker cover stock. This new printing and substrate allows the colors to really standout and gives more depth and dynamics to this story. There was some musty charm in the duller quality of the previous editions being printed on a newspaper style paper, but this is like reading in HD. This thing is a tome, so it's not for light (in the literal sense) reading. It has some great supplimental materials at the end as well. It is well worth the extra money. I highly recommend!
New coloring enhances classic tales
This run is legendary... a career defining moment for all of the creators. This volume represents the beginning of the Alan Moore run and it is spectacular. This series basically helped define the direction of the Vertigo imprint for DC comics. It has had a huge impact on serious comic book writing and is still as good today as it was before. This volume featured revoloring by Steve Oliff... and it is spectacular. The coloring brings new life to these classic tales. Highly recommended.
