Or how Alan Moore saved this kid from abandoning comics senior year. The year was 2002, 2nd semester, a young impressionable young man was finally calling it quits on Super-hero comics. WHY? you ask. Because after years of sitting around watching as the assorted heroes would rehash the same tired battles, have earth shattering moments only to be rewritten once the creative team changed and come to an end to only be brought back a month later with a new spangled #1 issue. I had enough. The stories I would recount to my friends about my God-cousin Chris Britton handing me his copies of 80’s X-men, later followed by Sergio Aragones, Groo. Or how it was first peaked when my cousin Damiean passed over an issue of Wizard Magazine featuring Storm,Jean Grey,Jubilee and Rogue. He even allowed me to read the classic Batman comic “Death in the Family”. You can easily say I was hooked. I began browsing through comic bins at local establishments, Reality Adventures, Retail stores Hy-Vee, Eagles,K-mart and soon the mecca of comic exploring Tim’s Corner.

But by 2002, I was thoroughly burnt out. That is until during a Mass Media project. While watching David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, my lab partner, J.J. Philips went into his closet, then proceeded to pull out The Death of Superman (so wasn’t helping the cause) talking about the impact the series had on him, recounting how the invincible Man of Steel died. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I already read the novelization the previous year. He then pulled out Swamp Thing volume 3: The Curse.

The cover evoked a haunting image of a dour looking creature with its red eyes sorrowfully focused on the reader. The back cover read as so,

“I’m a Nasty piece of work, chief. ask anybody.”

With these words, trench coated mystic John Constantine introduces himself to the Swamp Thing – and starts the man-monster on a voyage of discovery that will take him from the darkest corners of America to the roots of his own long-hidden heritage. this classic saga by the legendary creative team of Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and Rick Veitch redefined the Swamp Thing as a powerful elemental being, with a potential as vast as the earth itself. Brimming with visceral horrors including underwater vampires; a werewolf under an unusual curse; the hideous madman called Nukeface; and the first appearance of John Constantine, Hellblazer, these are the stories that changed American comics forever.

Those passages made the prospects of reading limitless. The stories within covered topics included above in addition two stories titled “Southern Change” and “Strange Fruit” dealing with a slave plantation and the evil held there rising up during a movie shoot. Starting in the middle of a story would disinterest others but Mr Moore knew how to impress no matter where the reader stepped in. These comics opened the mind of a impending college student who was now shown the maturity of the medium, albeit written in the 1980’s, was rather still relevant.

The first and second chapter titled “The Nukeface Papers” deal with the mounting destruction of toxic waste dumping. This is shown by the main antagonist Nukeface, a walking, talking nuclear drifter who has lived off the “waste” for years and is now tracking down where they’re moving his stash too. The second part deals with the aftermath of the creatures ventures coming across Swamp Thing and the local citizens ending in a heartbreaking scene that only a comic can pull off.

The Curse which is also the title of the trade, deals with a housewife living on old Indian grounds once used to confine the women during their monthly cycle. The effects are startling as Alan Moore tells a different kind of Werewolf story. Not only is it controversial but well written horror story with a modern (for the 80’s twist).

The stories don’t have a bad one in the bunch. 8 tales that cover ingenious level of originality and entertainment. This is what reawoken my love in comics which further lead me to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman,Warren Ellis Transmetropolitan, and Garth Ennis’ Preacher. So the next time you browse your local comic shop and need something besides Superman, Spiderman or Batman just ask about Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. And trust you will not be disappointed.

Horror comics at its finest.