i read swamp thing last night

watchmen = rub
dark knight returns = much better than i remember
bits of cerebus church and state = as i remember

??? X-Men Unlimited is what you're thinking of here.

comics = singles
Graphic Novels = albums
TPBs (like you were reading) = singles collections

The very best TPBs = PulpIntro, as proven by science.

FACT: Mark Millar's run on Swamp Thing gives Moore's a run for its money. (no-one else knows this fact)
FACT: Mark Millar's previous work was under the editorship of our very own M. Skidmore
FACT: Mark Millar's work has gotten worse the longer it has got from this high point. (er, this may require you having never heard of Skrull Kill Krew)
Result: Mark Millar should reunite with M. Skidmore and fucking finish Saviour!

Andrew - surely the logic is that Mark Millar finishing off Saviour will just mean that it will end badly?

Mark S is unkind to the Bissette/Totleben art. I'm not a fan, but it sets a rough and uneasy and unpleasant atmosphere, which is generally apt I think. Both could draw, and thought about their layouts (though Alan always gave exceptionally detailed instructions, sometimes including sketches.

My infinitessimal contribution to Swamp Thing: Alan and I were talking about Tom Waits one day, and we both loved his song Burma-Shave. Out of this came the end of one issue, an open nod to that song. I also suggested he feature the great old soul singer Swamp Dogg in a cameo sometime, as a kind of joke on the old comics habit of creating Superdog, Batdog and so on, but he didn't. (I was in a mailing group with Swamp Dogg for a while last year!)

I think Swamp Thing is a great example of Alan using his intelligence and thoughtfulness in a very positive way - he looked at a pretty dreary title, and reimagined it in a way that fit with its history, that was entirely fresh and new, and that opened up all sorts of possibilities which have been the foundation for this title for another twenty years. There's no sense of Alan feeling he is better than his material, or just trudging through yet another clever pastiche.

But Mark Millar swore to give us a Swamp Dog, and did!

to be a bit fairer than i was upthread, i think the leprous repro for the compilation book may be partly to blame

I remember a later issue in which the swamp thing is a golem in an alternate world where the Nazis won world war II and Marilyn Monroe is Amerika's first lady... who wrote that?

I also love the art in the Millar stories: it was by Philip Hester and Kim DeMulder, and I don't think either of them have done better since. Though it was very suited to horror.

I agree that Bissette's pencils can be v. rough, but in compensation they have a great deal of energy and even, at times, a v. scary 'aura'/atmos. Totleben is one of the few comics artists who seems to have been influenced by Virgil Finlay, who I adore, and I like the combination of the rough and smooth in their collaboration - Bisette is too sloppy on his own, Totleben too stiff. The issues drawn by Rick Veitch and inked by Totleben are nowhere near as gd, imho. And unlike the Vicar, I much prefer their appearance in colour in the original comic books - subsequent reproductions (esp. the Titan editions) were shot from film, not the original artwork, and often look terribly muddy.

of course, maybe he KNEW that the eventually Rorshach and Nite Owl would work out what was going on, so he made his password readily guessable so they would find out he was behind IT, whatever IT was, and so be out of NY when IT happened.

On Bissette's art - it's brilliant. It's visceral, and glutenous, and he does amazing things with eyes. They kind of stare at you.

Dark Knight Returns is a big fat Batman comic with no sense of humour whatsoever. Did the Rainbow Batman die for this?

What was the new series of ST like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lU8vSa5se0

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/09/dick_durock_1937-2009.php

RIP: Dick Durock, Swamp Thing. Died of pancreatic cancer