I have been, for long, a huge fan of Alan Moore -the British Comic writer – who has shaped the form that comics have taken since the 1980’s.

The 1960’s and 1970’s were the time when comics in general, and super hero comics in particular were bright and cheesy – and mostly for teenage boys. People like Alan Moore and Frank Miller changed that around – making characters created at a different point in time & invariably single dimensioned – into layered characters that you and I will want to read week on week, month on month. In a way what they did to comics in that period of time is pretty much what studios in the US are doing to old shows like Battlestar Galactica or Mission Impossible or Star Trek … reimagining them for a whole new audience and a whole new world.

In its original avtaar, the Swamp Thing was a scientist – Alec Holland – who fuses with bio stuff from a swamp – after a murder attempt – and becomes the Swamp Thing. He had his own set of villains – and it was more or less set in the horror space.

Alan Moore took over the comics and turned it on its head. In his version the Swamp Thing is not a creature out of horror, but a soldier of earth, who protects nature from those who pollute it. It’s a creature that has fused with intelligence and can call upon a million memories.

This year, JD got me the Saga of the Swamp Thing for my birthday. It blew my brain. Gone was the swampy Hulk types that took deadly revenge on those who messed around with it, with muddy origins, and in came Nature’s soldier .

The first issue of the first arc, has a dead Swamp Thing – and the introduction of Jason Woodrue – (him of the poison ivy fame) by the ‘wicked’ General Sutherland to figure how Alec Holland was tranformed into the Swamp Thing. The answer changes the ‘mythology’ of the Swamp Thing – rendering it timeless. 300 years from now – if we haven’t anihilated ourselves – the new improved origin of the Swamp Thing will still stand, and allow for contemporary stories to be written. The rest of the stories are equally gripping.

Art by Stephen Bissette – is moody and atmospheric – and i am glad that they have gone in for the slight matt finish to the books – giving it that character of arcaneness

If you like the works of Alan Moore or indeed the comic book form – this is a book to check out.