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Summary: Graphic SF Reader
Comment: The second volume of Swamp Thing explores the relationship between the former man, and the human woman.
Holland has come to realise that he is no longer human at all, but rather vegetable, and an earth elemental. Why, then does he have an interest in a human woman at all, or go out of his way to care for her?
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Summary: Love it to Death!
Comment: This is a magnificent collection of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing stories, featuring the incomparable art of John Totleben, Steve Bissette, and Shawn McManus. Picking up where the previous volume left off, we find Swamp Thing facing one of his greatest foes with his friends Abby and Matt Cable in mortal peril throughout the entire book. Moore's writing is brilliant as usual, and Swamp Thing starts evolving as a character in these stories into the powerful plant elemental that he is today. Featured in Love and Death are the following tales:
"The Burial" where an all-too familiar spirit of the restless dead plagues our favorite muck monster.
"Love and Death", the titular story, where we see horrific things stirring in the house of the Cables as Abby deals with what she knows her husband Matt has become.
"A Halo of Flies" where an unwanted family member returns, while Swamp Thing and Abby are haunted by premonitions of a terrible apocalypse.
"The Brimstone Ballet", featuring the climactic battle between Swamp Thing and his long-time foe Arcane, as only Alan Moore can tell it.
""Down among the Dead Men" where Swamp Thing goes on an odyssey to reclaim the soul of someone he loves, and encounters a host of DC's supernatural characters on his way to purgatory. Starring Deadman, The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, and everyone's favorite demon Etrigan!
"Pog", one of the most heartfelt stories I have ever read featuring wonderful dialogue created by Moore where familiar words and expressions are combined to create an alien language unlike any other.
"Abandoned Houses", where Abby encounters Cain from the House of Mystery and Abel from the House of Secrets, and learns a shocking truth.
And lastly, "Rite of Spring", the famous plant-sex issue, a beautiful love story that stabs at the heart.
For any comic fan, the name Alan Moore is enough reason to buy this trade, but for those of you out there who have never read any Moore, pick up volume 1 entitled Saga of the Swamp Thing first, and then start with Love and Death and the subsequent books, collecting some of the most amazing comics you'll ever read.
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Summary: Alan Moore's writing made writers like Neil Gaiman possible!
Comment: I was turned on to The Swamp Thing after reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Gaiman credits Moore for breaking new ground and showing him what was possible in comics, and when you look at Love and Death, you see what Gaiman meant. The macabre tone, the unusual use of panels (or lack of them), the unexpected bleeds across the gutter, all appear later on in Gaiman's work--but by reading this collection of The Swamp Thing, you can go back in time a bit and "see it for the first time." It's still fresh, it's still top notch writing after twenty years or so, and it will continue to hold up against the vast reams of mediocrity published monthly by Marvel and DC for the next twenty. Alan Moore didn't write this series for little kiddies: you can consider it the forerunner of DC's Vertigo line of comics, of which Sandman was the most famous.
This collection details the burgeoning (dare I say flowering?) relationship betwixt the Swamp Thing and Abby. The splash pages are incredibly well done, especially at the end of the story arc. Moore is practically silent on those pages, because he's smart enough to know when to shut up and let the artists tell the story. Highly recommended, both for its writing and its illustration!
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Summary: Worth it just for, 'The Rite of Spring'
Comment: Vol. 2 of Alan Moore and Steve Bissette's, 'Swamp Thing,' collaboration continues the 30 issue horror epic in excellent fashion. Readers are treated to 200+ pages of horrific goodness encompassing everything from the Swamp Thing's backstory, to his descent into a highly imaginative realization of Hell to a whimsical homage of Walt Kelly's, 'Pogo,' comic strips. As good as these bits are the absolute strength in Vol. 2 is found in its final chapter - "The Rite of Spring.' Published originally in 1985 as issue #34 of, 'The Swamp Thing,' this episode from start to finish deals with the physical/metaphysical consummation of love between the Swamp Thing and Abigail that will blow your mind. Forget all that you've heard that this episode is nothing but 'sex with a vegetable.' At its base, 'The Rite of Spring,' recreates the swooning emotions of love and passion in comic book form more effectively then 99.99% of every page of published prose out there on that matter. At its original time of publishing it was a watershed moment in comics history and reading that chapter some 20 years later it still retains every bit of its artistic strength.
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Summary: Shush Your Cyanicisms
Comment: I can't take credit for the title of this review. That's a line uttered by the incongruously adorable guest character Pog in this volume of the Swamp Thing series. This is the second collection of the brilliant run by Alan Moore. This edition is a little bigger than the others in the series, as it contains seven original Swamp Thing issues (#28-34) but also the double-sized 1985 Annual issue. Due to the very high quality of the Swamp Thing series, especially in terms of art, the plotlines got a little jumbled during this period. As described in the very cool introduction by Neil Gaiman, regular artists Stephen Bissette and John Totleben were unable to complete all the intricate artwork for each issue on time, especially with the addition of the Annual. So "fill-in" stories had to be used to relieve the deadline pressure, and guest artists were utilized. Much credit goes to Shawn McManus for contributing two issues during this period, including the bizarre and whimsical "Pog," which is Moore's very unusual tribute to Walt Kelly's original swamp denizen Pogo. In this run of Swamp Thing installments we are still learning more about Swamp Thing's origins and abilities (as he is himself), and getting much closer to the Abby character, who is surely one of the most intriguing and bewitching women in comics history. Moore even brilliantly incorporates a reprint of Swamp Thing's first appearance in the House of Secrets series from back in 1972, deftly clearing up some kinks in the character's continuity. The most amazing story here appears as the last installment, "Rites of Spring" from issue #34, a tremendous poetic composition made all the more incredible by the art of Bissette and Totleben, in which Swampy and Abby find true earthly love. And impossible as it might be to believe, the series got even better after this.
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