Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More

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

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.

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In the Swamplight
Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days

Story Title	Pub. Date
"Jack in the Green"	Dec. 1999

Writer	Artists
Neil Gaiman	Steve Bissette and John Totleben

Cover	Editor
Dave McKean	Karen Berger

Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days: Jack in the Green


Chronological Breakdown
• 1660s: Jack-in-the-Green, an elemental once known as Alfred "Alf" Oldland, befriends a man named Simon, who lives in the Bubonic Plague-ridden town of Purchester, England. Simon believes him a demon because of his plant-like appearance and strange powers, but still thinks fondly of him. Jack tells Simon of his wife Lil and his travels to Egypt, Africa and Antarctica. When Simon dies of the plague, Jack creates a gravesite for him, summoning forth great flames to cleanse the entire town of disease.

Trivia
• Gaiman wrote the story "Jack in the Green" in 1985, after asking Alan Moore how to write a comic-book script at a convention. A year later, he sent it to editor Karen Berger, who said she liked it. The story went unpublished for 13 years, during which time Gaiman made a name for himself with such titles as The Sandman and Black Orchid. In 1999, Vertigo collected a number of his previously published works in a trade paperback entitled Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days, and Gaiman's long-unpublished "Jack in the Green" story was included as well.

• Jack-in-the-Green (whose name is printed unhyphenated in this story, but hyphenated in others) also appeared in issues #47, #90, #129 and Annual #5 of the second Swamp Thing series, as well as in the Hellblazer Special—Lady Constantine miniseries. The latter expanded Oldland's backstory to mirror that of fellow elementals Alex Olsen and Alec Holland.

• A similar-looking character named Jack-in-the-Green featured throughout the Paul Jenkins run on Hellblazer, but Hellblazer's Jack was a fairy from Abaton and very unlike Oldland in personality. Both were based on the figure of the same name from British folklore, honored during traditional May Day celebrations, and on the Green Man depicted in some mediaeval church carvings.


Cover Variations
None

Other Collections
None

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