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. |
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In the Swamplight
The House of Secrets #140
| Story Title |
Pub. Date |
"Reprise—The Patchwork
Man (An Epic of Life
and Death)" | Feb./Mar. 1976 |
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| Writer | Artist |
| Gerry Conway | Nestor Redondo |
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| Cover | Editor |
| Ernie Chan | Joe Orlando |
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| Chronological Breakdown |
| • Before 1955: Gregori Arcane, unaware that his brother Anton resents his marrying a woman Anton loves, deludes himself into believing his evil-minded brother is watching out for his best interests. |
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| • 1955: Abigail "Abby" Arcane, future wife of both Matthew Cable and Swamp Thing, is born to Gregori and Anise Arcane in the Balkan city of Transylvania, Romania. The birth occurs at Castle Arcane, her family's ancestral home. |
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| • 1958: Ernie Kempler begins working as a security guard at Stacy's Department Store. |
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| • 1965: On Abigail Arcane's tenth birthday, Gregori learns the government wants to take custody of Abby since his constant business trips make him an unfit father. Refusing to give her up, he is grateful when Anton offers to help him secure a lawyer when he returns from his next trip. |
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| • Late 1973: After from the top of Castle Arcane [in Swamp Thing issue 3], Gregori Arcane survives because of his superior strength. |
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| • 1975: A European correspondent for the Mount Good Hope Institute locates Gregori Arcance wandering the Bavarian countryside and contacts Dr. Elijah Chomes, an experimenter in biological oddities. Chomes has Gregori flown to the United States, but he escapes and remains at large until Chomes can re-capture him. |
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| • 1975: At 3:00 a.m. one day, Gregori Arcane breaks into Stacy's Department Store in Manhattan and hides among the lingerie. Six hours later, as two women open the department for business, one (Ruth) tells the other of a fight with her boyfriend, Brad Parker. Startled, the creature crashes into her. Security guard Ernie Kempler runs to their aid, but Gregori attacks him. Finally, a guard named McElroy shoots Gregori unconscious. Policeman O'Neal brings him to a precinct house, where Dr. Elijah Chomes of Mount Good Hope Institute's Department of Mental Sciences arranges for Gregori's release. Chomes takes Gregori to a lab, where he lapses into memories of his daughter Abby, the accident that changed his life and his meeting with the Swamp Thing. Chomes tells his staff, Darleen Greer and Andrew Harty, of his attempts to capture the creature. Darri is disturbed by Gregori's infantile mind, for she is pregnant and considering an abortion. That night, Chomes and his assistant Christian subject Gregori to a genetic replicator. The pain is so intense that he breaks free and runs into the street, where a sympathetic cabby, Eddie Morgan, takes him home. Christian notes the cab's number as they drive away. |
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| Trivia |
| • The timeline in the Swamp Thing issue of Vertigo Secret Files & Origins places Abby's birth in 1960, though that placement does not fit what's been established in other tales. Issue #21 of the fourth series takes place on her 50th birthday (in 2005), moving her birth back five years to 1955 (a much more sensible placement). It should be noted that the Swamp Thing Sourcebook erroneously places Castle Arcane in Bavaria, not the Balkans. |
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| • Another Eddie Morgan appears in Hellblazer #28 as Chas Chandler's boss. It's unclear whether they're intended to be the same person, but given that both Eddie and Chas are cab drivers, it's certainly possible. |
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| Cover Variations |
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| None |
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| Other Collections |
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| None |
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