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
Swamp Thing Series 1 #6

Story Title	Pub. Date
"A Clockwork Horror"	Sept.-Oct. 1973

Writer	Artist
Len Wein	Bernie Wrightson

Cover	Editor
Bernie Wrightson	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• 1973: Alec and Linda Holland win a Nobel Prize for their work restoring destroyed cells in the human body.

• 1973: Following the deaths of Alec and Linda Holland later that year (as shown in issue #1), Matt Cable and Abby Arcane review the Holland case in Matt's D.C. office until Agent Jack tells Matt he's been pulled from the case to investigate Bürgess Town, a Vermont village recently discovered. Meanwhile, a pothole jars the Swamp Thing off of a vegetable truck and over a mountain pass. Knocked senseless, he finds replicas of Alec and Linda Holland coming to his rescue. They take him to Mayor Hans Klochman, a Swiss carpenter and watch-maker who built the town and its robot inhabitants using faces from obituaries; his creations are free of base emotions, designed to give mankind a second chance at happiness. Linda's replica takes him for a stroll in the woods, missing Matt and Abby's arrival. Mister E, meanwhile, sends Task Force Four to secure the town. Troops storm the village, led by a robot transmitting Mister E's commands. They capture Matt and Abby and begin destroying the replicas. Furious, Swamp Thing defeats the robot and kills the troops. Klochman tries to stop the fight but is gunned down. His vengeful robots slaughter the troops and are destroyed in the process. In the end, only Swamp Thing survives; finding his dog Mutt, he hops a train to Gotham City, New Jersey, to rescue Matt and Abby from Conclave headquarters.

Trivia
• The revelation about the Hollands' Nobel Prize can be found in a newspaper clipping seen on page 1. Given the very short time between their marriage and their deaths (less than a year), and that Linda's last name is already "Holland" by the time they win the prize, the window for this event is extremely small (not to mention unlikely, given their relative lack of success in their experiments).


Reprints and Collections

DC Special Series #17— The Original Swamp Thing Saga	Roots of the Swamp Thing #3


Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis	Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis	The Secret the Swamp Thing

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