Another Swamp Thing Reunion(dammit)

If, by chance, you're hanging around San Jose in April, you might want to check out the BIG WOW COMIC FESTIVAL for a couple o' good reasons:
1) It's a comic book festival - that's already excellent.

2) SWAMP THING REUNION!!!
One featuring Steve Bissette, John Tottleben, Rick Vietch and the underappreciated Tom Yeates. To say I wish I could attend would be an understatement for sure, but you should go for me...
You can say "thanks" to Frank Cho for the groovy Swampmen cover, and get a whole bunch of Swamp Thing sketches by those amazing cats.
The guest list is wild, and having gone to NY comicon in '08 I can say honestly that if you haven't done one of these, YOU SHOULD. You can't imagine the energy of it, and there are surprises around every corner, and you'll find your face hurts from smiling.

The fest runs April 18/19 @ the San Jose Convention Center, and if you're a Swamp Thing devotee, this is one for you.

Cheers,
AC

The SWAMPMEN

Comic Book Creator is a magazine about the men and women who make comic books - specifically, really really good comic books.
And this is a really really good issue.

It's an absolute goldmine of info about ALL of the comic book and magazine published swamp monsters over the years, but yeah - Swamp Thing is clearly #1, having had more than one extremely

strong run as a series, and an undeniable impact on the industry itself.

Lively new interviews with Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Tottleben make this an absolutely irresistible read, and a treat for those of us who devoured every issue as it rolled out to the stands.

The book is gorgeous, and a must for any fan of the era, the characters or just plain good old fashioned creepy storytelling. It's filled with trivia, and a lot of new artwork too - if you know any Swamp Thing fans, I'd buy them this one.

I finally get a shot of Man-Thing and Swamp Thing together by Stephen Bissette, who is one cool cat, and another goldmine of groovy comic book knowledge.
Beautiful cover by Frank Cho, who should be commissioned to do a Swamp graphic novel - just saying...

Thanks to Jon B. Cooke and George Khoury, who had planned on publishing the book a few years back but waited. It was worth it, and I for one am extremely happy with it.

Cheers,
Arthur

New TITLE of our Swamp Thing Blog

From here on in the blog formerly know as
Swamp Thing: Blog from the Bog
will be retitled and called
Swamp Thing 101. It's simpler and I've never actually been a big fan of the word "blog".

"argghh, this title is long and unwieldy..."

Swamp Thing 101 will be doing a lot more writing/publishing.

Yayyyy!! Swamp Thing 101

Simple is better.

cheers,
Arthur

Len Wein is Back!!

Well well well...

I was already pretty stoked for DC's CONVERGENCE, if only for the fact that it isn't the New 52.
Sorry - that sounded mighty negative ...instead I'll say that it will be wonderful to see a LEN WEIN Swamp Thing story again - that's right - THE CREATOR OF SWAMP THING HAS WRITTEN A NEW STORY.
It's been a long time, and having met the man I can say he's as nice a cat as you'd hope - humble, cool and funny - fact is, it's a dream to have him on Swampy again...

and just to put this in perspective...
WE HAVEN'T SEEN A PUBLISHED LEN WEIN SWAMP THING STORY SINCE 1975!!!

Yes, it would be nice to have Bernie Wrightson back but in a nice allusion to his extraordinary style Kelley Jones will handle the art chores, and I couldn't think of a better "relief-pitcher".

The Return of Swamp Thing's Papa

Kelley's 1st ...not bad

This isn't his first time drawing Swampy but I bet it will be the best. Len Wein just seems to have that effect on people, and this "event" already seems to have a really good energy - there's a lot of anticipation and a lot of online chatter.

As a frustrated long term fan of this particular publishing company, I think they've lost a few of the old-time-readers with the ultra-confusing New 52 and Convergence may just be what DC comic fans really need right now.
I have no doubt this'll be a very enjoyable read - BIG thanks to those smart enough to bring it together.

Now, you go right out and get the latest issue of Swamp Thing so we can talk all about it.

But you'll have to wait a couple months for this issue - it'll be worth it.

Cheers,
Arthur