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

Collected In

Showcase Presents:
The Phantom Stranger Vol. 1

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
The Phantom Stranger #14

Story Title	Pub. Date
"The Spectre of the Stalking Swamp"	July-Aug. 1971

Writer	Artist
Len Wein	Tony DeZuniga

Cover	Editor
Neal Adams	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• 1871: A family of settlers, heading south, gets lost in the swampy bayou. One settler, an uncle, is separated from the others, never to be seen again. According to rumor, instead of dying, his body mixes with the bog and turns into a bog-creature known as the Swampster. Over the next century, several claim to have seen the creature, which reportedly abducts others from time to time, out of loneliness.

• 1971: The Swampster attacks Charley Bates in the bayou and carries off his girlfriend, Elly Mae. Sheriff Taylor calls Dr. Terrence "Terry" Thirteen (a.k.a. the Ghost-Breaker) to solve the crime. Thirteen heads into the swamp and is caught as well, and his wife convinces Taylor to find him. In the swamp, they find New Eden, a pollution-free city filled with hypnotized drones. The Swampster is actually a disguise worn by Professor Zachary Nail when outside his filtered dome. Taylor tries to arrest him, but Nail suffocates him with foilage-fungus. Among the drones is Dr. Thirteen, who breaks out of his trance when told to make a drone out of his wife. As Thirteen and Nail brawl, the fungus suddenly rears up to cover the city, affected by waste from the city's atomic reactors. Panicked, Nail runs to his control station, ignoring Thirteen's urging to seek shelter. Thirteen and his wife lead the drones safely away, but the dome sinks into the swamp, with Nail apparently still inside.

Trivia
• This classic tale is not directly connected to the Swamp Thing mythos. Still, the similarities in storyline and theme, and the fact it is written by noted Swamp Thing writer Len Wein, is enough for me to consider it part of the saga.

• Writer Len Wein continued this story three years later in Swamp Thing #11, which featured the return of Zachary Nail.

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