David Michelinie Gerry Conway Popular Books

David Michelinie Gerry Conway Biography & Facts

The character the Swamp Thing has appeared in seven American comic book series to date, including several specials, and has crossed over into other DC Comics titles. The series found immense popularity upon its 1970s debut and during the mid-late 1980s under Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totleben. These eras were met with high critical praise and numerous awards. However, over the years, the Swamp Thing comics have suffered from low sales, which have resulted in numerous series cancellations and revivals. First series Len Wein The first Swamp Thing series ran for 24 issues, from 1972 to 1976. Len Wein was the writer for the first 13 issues before David Michelinie and Gerry Conway finished up the series. Horror artist Berni Wrightson drew the first 10 issues of the series, while Nestor Redondo drew a further 13 issues, the last issue being drawn by Fred Carrillo. The Swamp Thing fought against evil as he sought the men who murdered his wife and caused his monstrous transformation, as well as searching for a means to transform himself back to his human form. The Swamp Thing has since fought many villains, most notably the mad scientist Anton Arcane. Though they only met twice during the first series, Arcane and his obsession with gaining immortality, aided by his nightmarish army of Un-Men and the Patchwork Man (Arcane's brother Gregori Arcane who, after a land mine explosion, was rebuilt as a Frankenstein Monster-type creature by his brother), became the Swamp Thing's nemesis, even as the Swamp Thing developed a close bond with Arcane's niece Abigail Arcane. Also involved in the conflict was the Swamp Thing's close friend-turned-enemy Matthew Cable, a federal agent who originally mistakenly believed the Swamp Thing responsible for the deaths of Alec and Linda Holland. Despite Wein's writing the first 13 issues, only the first 10 issues of the original Swamp Thing series had been collected in trade paperbacks or reprint comics, primarily due to the popularity of Wrightson's artwork, stopping rather than concluding the story arc. Wein ended his run as writer by having the Swamp Thing reveal his identity to Matt Cable and ultimately avenging the death of his wife by killing Nathan Ellery. The full Wein 13-issue run was released in hardcover by DC in June 2009 as Roots of the Swamp Thing, volume 4 of the 9-volume book series the DC Comics Classics Library. David Michelinie/Gerry Conway/David Anthony Kraft As sales figures plummeted towards the end of the series, the writers attempted to revive interest by introducing fantasy creatures, sci-fi aliens, and even Alec Holland's brother, Edward (a plot point that was never referred to or even mentioned again by later writers), into the picture. The appearance of Holland's brother toward the end of the series marked a series of plot developments, designed to provide the series with a happy ending, which generated much controversy. In Swamp Thing #23, Alec finally regains his humanity and while the creature was on the cover of the 24th and final issue of the series (albeit transforming into human), Holland appeared as human throughout the interior story. The cover illustration showed a yellow muscular creature, Thrudvang, beating up the Swamp Thing; the interior showed Holland imagining the Swamp Thing beating up Thrudvang, in similar positions but with roles reversed—the issue itself depicting Holland and his new love interest (and his brother's research assistant) running away from Thrudvang. A battle between the Swamp Thing and Hawkman was promised for the next issue, but no such battle occurred until Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #58. During the short-lived revival of Challengers of the Unknown in issues #81-87, also by Gerry Conway, the Swamp Thing returned as Alec Holland who, without continually producing and self-medicating with the bio-restorative formula, reverted into the form of the Swamp Thing. Holland, along with the Challengers of the Unknown, encountered the supernatural being known as Deadman (though they were unaware of Deadman's presence), a fact that would confirm the post-Wein Swamp Thing stories existence in DC Universe continuity years later when Deadman and the Swamp Thing met again during Alan Moore's run as writer. The Swamp Thing also appeared with the Batman twice in The Brave and the Bold #122 and 176 and with Superman in DC Comics Presents #8. In the latter, by Steve Englehart, he tried in vain to stop Superman from committing what he perceived as genocide (using a compound developed by S.T.A.R. Labs) on 60 Solomon Grundys living in the sewers of Metropolis. Second series Martin Pasko/Dan Mishkin In an issue dated May 1982, DC Comics revived the Swamp Thing series to try to capitalize on the summer 1982 release of the Wes Craven film of the same name. The title, called The Saga of the Swamp Thing, featured in its first Annual the comic book adaptation of the Craven movie. Now written by Martin Pasko, the book loosely picked up after the Swamp Thing's appearances in Challengers of the Unknown #81-87, DC Comics Presents #8, and The Brave and the Bold #176, with the character wandering around the swamps of Louisiana as something of an urban legend that was feared by locals. Martin Pasko's main arc depicted the Swamp Thing roaming the globe, trying to stop a young girl (and possible Nazi-affiliated Anti-Christ) named Karen Clancy from destroying the world. The series also featured back-up stories involving the Phantom Stranger by Mike W. Barr, which led to a collaboration between the Swamp Thing and the Stranger in a guest run by Dan Mishkin that featured a scientist who transformed himself into a silicon creature. The primary artist for the bulk of Pasko's run was Tom Yeates; towards the end of the run he was replaced with Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben (who began by inking Yeates' pencils). Bissette and Totleben, who had known Yeates at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, had been ghosting various pages for Yeates, and were given the assignment on Pasko's recommendation. In issue #6, editor Len Wein declared, in response to a published letter, that Alec never had a brother and that every Swamp Thing series story after issue #21 of the original series never happened. The letter, however, questioned why the Swamp Thing had reverted, which had already been explained in the Challengers of the Unknown run. A later column pointed this out, so they said they would not deliberately contradict it, even though they would still go from the assumption that it never happened. The arrival of Bissette and Totleben came as Pasko, who wrote the second Brave and the Bold team-up shortly before he began the series, resurrected plotlines from the original series. Abigail Arcane and Matt Cable were brought back and shown to be married, though this development had a darker side: Cable had been tortured via repeated electroshock treatments by his black-ops superiors over his decision to stop working.... Discover the David Michelinie Gerry Conway popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Michelinie Gerry Conway books.