'Give 'em more words to read,' is hardly a popular sentiment from today's writers of graphic narrative. That's a radically different perspective than what you'd expect from any comic book writer today. Even colorist Tatjana Wood and letterer John Costanza remained throughout. From an artistic point of view, there isn't much to differentiate the Alan Moore issues from the ones that came right before. Though Dan Day drew Moore's first issue, Totleben's strong inks maintained the consistency with what preceded and followed. Steve Bissette and John Totleben had already in place on 'Swamp Thing' since issue #16. On first glance, this issue looks like it comes straight from the middle of Alan Moore's run on the series, even though he had nothing to do with this comic book until a month later, when he started to tie up Marty Pasko's loose ends with a story entitled, shockingly, 'Loose Ends.'īut unlike most other famous runs, Alan Moore didn't come into this series and begin with a brand new #1 issue or even make his entrance with a new artist using a distinctly different visual style. This comic? 'The Saga of the Swamp Thing' #19, cover-dated December, 1983. The 'Swamp Thing' issue that came out right before Alan Moore came in to change the landscape of American comic books forever. This week's subject: the issue before one of the most famous runs of all time.

Or maybe I'll just talk about what's inside the pages of that one issue. These lesser-than issues are the launching pad, and I'll use them to jump off and expound on whatever ideas seem to relate. If you have been any kind of regular 'When Words Collide' reader, you know I can be discursive whenever I try to focus on a single topic, and that's kind of the point here. I may not directly address any of these questions, but they will be in my mind as I look back at these 'Before They Were Famous' issues. I'm genuinely curious to see what was going on in those comics and to read (or, in most cases, reread) those less-than-famous issues with an eye toward exploring these kinds of questions: what's the difference between 'good' comics and 'bad' comics? What was so distinct about these comics that made the following run so legendary? Are some of these comics just so terrible that anything would have looked great by comparison? Or are these comics good in their own right, but there was just something special about the new creative team that soon arrived? What was that last pre-Walt Simonson 'Thor' issue really like? How about that 'Stormwatch' issue before Warren Ellis showed up? Or 'Doom Patrol' immediately preceding Grant Morrison? Or even something as recent as the last issue of 'Detective Comics' before Scott Snyder began his run?

Saga of the swamp thing