The First Rule of Blogging (Or, at Least, It Should Be): Know What You're Talking About

Roots of the Swamp Thing: Your Portal to the Universe of Swamp Thing, The Un-Men and John Constantine: Hellblazer

• Part 1: Before Year 1
• Part 2: Year 1 to 1899
• Part 3: 1900 to 1969
• Part 4: 1970 to 1979
• Part 5: 1980 to 1984
• Part 6: 1985 to 1988
• Part 7: 1989 to 1991
• Part 8: 1992 to 1994
• Part 9: 1995 to 1999
• Part 10: 2000 to Present

Born on the Bayou
A history and introduction

Creature Features
Articles and feature stories

Cover Gallery
Judge the books by the covers

Forgotten Lore
Unpublished tales

In the Swamplight
Issue-by-issue breakdowns

Elemental Lineage
Past lives and other entities

Upcoming Releases
Coming to a bog near you

What's New Bayou?
Archived news updates

About Me
Portrait of a swamp-nerd

Homepage
Go back to the roots

Contact Me
Comments, corrections & tubers

Thanks to Joe Bongiorno, who first dragged me kicking and screaming into the mucky mythos of Swamp Thing, and to Paul Giachetti, who created the amazing header banner.

Thanks also to reader 'Alec Holland,' whose support has been invaluable; Mike Sterling, for promoting Swamp Thing and this site; and Kevin Church, for his excellent optimization advice.

And thanks to Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore, John Totelben, Stephen Bissette, Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis and all the other creators whose work inspired this site.



The First Rule of Blogging (Or, at Least, It Should Be): Know What You're Talking About by Rich Handley *Sept. 3, 2010* I came across a site called Pajiba.com, which published an uncredited article about Swamp Thing one year ago this week, titled "You're Wading Knee Deep And Going In, And You May Never Come Back Again," and I found myself shaking my head while reading it. The article in question seems to be written by a guy who has never read the very comics he's discussing (which may be why he/she chose to publish it with no byline). I'll note the mistakes point by point, with my comments in green: "For those who haven’t read the comic, or who missed out on the two unfortunate existing film adaptations (and one really unfortunate USA television series), Swamp Thing is either Alex Olsen or Alec Holland (depending on which series you read—the Alan Moore reboot featuring Alec Holland is far superior). Okay, right off the bat, this makes no sense, as Alec Holland was the protagonist of Swamp Thing long before Moore came aboard, and remained so long after he departed. In fact, other than in Brian Vaughan's brief run, which starred Alec's daughter, Tefé Holland, Alec Holland has been the protagonist of EVERY incarnation of Swamp Thing to date, whether comic book, film, TV episode or cartoon. Alex Olsen has never been the star of any Swamp Thing series. Rather, he appeared in the eight-page "pilot" tale in House of Secrets #92, back in 1971, before being replaced by Holland as of Swamp Thing issue #1, and was only briefly brought back into the story years later... by Alan Moore. (I do agree with the author, however, about the TV series, which I recently tried watching, only to find that it's practically unwatchable.) "The creature is, through either science gone wrong or a strange form of elemental possession (it was re-conceived as an entity possessing the thoughts and, perhaps soul, of Alec Holland) a plant-like monster who… Actually, no. Alec Holland, in Len Wein's run, was not killed by "science gone wrong," but rather by mobsters who murdered him to steal his invention. And Alex Olsen, before him, was murdered by his best friend, who coveted Olsen's wife. When Moore came aboard, he did re-conceive the character, yes—but no "possession" of Holland's soul was involved. Rather, a facsimile of Alec Holland was formed from plants, containing an elemental spirit who thought it was Alec Holland because it had his memories—but was not. Holland's soul was in the afterlife with the spirit of his late wife, Linda, and he and the Swamp Thing even met at one point, while the latter was visiting Heaven. "...it’s complicated. There have actually been around five or six Swamp Things—those are just the main two. In actuality, there have probably been hundreds, or possibly even thousands, of them, going back to the dawn of time. Those we know of, in addition to Holland, Olsen and Tefé, include Yggdrasil, Tuuru, Eyam, Canan Kax, Misk, Matango, Bifa, the Swamp Knucker, Fields-That-Stalk, Hart-in-the-Trees, Bog Venus, Gangmi, Great Url, Great Phoenix, Ghost-Hiding-in-the-Rushes, Saint Columba, the Monster of the Fens, Jack-in-the-Green, Lady Jane, the Kettle Hole-Devil, the Heap and a lot of others we've seen but have not learned the names of. And to say Holland and Olsen are "the main two" is seriously overstating the case in terms of Olsen, who is a minor player at best. "Swamp Thing is a shambling plant creature that fights bad guys and tries to find a cure for his strange existence. Well, that might have been true at the very beginning of the series, but he actually came to revel in what he was, and had stopped trying to find a "cure" pretty early on—in fact, only the very first series, in the early 1970s, dealt with that theme. So that's, what, 24 issues out of almost 300? "He’s a hideous thing who has super strength, can regenerate, and... um... control plants. It’s cooler than it sounds, though not much cooler." And it's that snarky "though not much cooler" comment that, I'd say, nails the point home: This blogger, like many on the Web, is writing about something he/she doesn't really know much about. And that's unfortunate, because when people do Google searches, it's sites like Pajiba that pop up in the search results. I can only hope that no one who reads that article ends up believing that it accurately depicts Swamp Thing's history. Archived News >

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