A desire to retreat
Rereading Swamp Thing #160-#164 by Mark Millar, Phillip Hester and Kim DeMulder. We have to invent our terms, writing about comics, and revisionism is one of mine. If there’s another term that means the same then I apologise for not knowing it. What I mean when I talk about revisionism is the storytelling trick where … Continue reading
The parallel worlds you used to read about in comic books
Rereading Swamp Thing #151-#158 by Mark Millar, Phillip Hester, Kim DeMulder, Chris Weston and Phil Jiminez. “The superhero genre is like a big field,” Kurt Busiek once said, “and we’ve built this gigantic city in one tiny corner. Every now and then some visionary guy drives out of the city and goes off in a … Continue reading
The problem of covers
I’m sorry about the image directly below this post, the one that’s the feature image for the post about Mark Millar’s first run of solo issues, the post titled Everything You Once Were. I’ve hated visiting my own blog this week and seeing its ugliness. The knotted-rope Swamp Thing, the 70s-shag-pile orange of the background, … Continue reading
Everything you once were
Rereading Swamp Thing #144 to #150 by Mark Millar, Phil Hester and Kim DeMulder. We are in Vertigo now, in Mark Millar’s Swamp Thing. The formalisation of the Mature Readers stroke Karen Berger unofficial universe hit during the Nancy A Collins years. We’re still in the first phase of Vertigo as the Morrison/Millar revamp begins, … Continue reading
The seven-inch Supreme
I bought a comic today. That happens rarely enough that it’s an event. I’m reading comics all the time – currently the second volume of Casanova and Dave McKean’s Celluloid – but they’re books, collected volumes, graphic novels, whatever. It’s unusual for me to lay down cash for a floppy-covered actual periodical. The comic I … Continue reading
Home doesn’t feel like home anymore
Rereading Swamp Thing #141-#144 by Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Phil Hester and Kim DeMulder. Everything I’ve ever written has been first draft, Alan Moore once said. It wasn’t a vainglorious remark meant to elicit awe at the master’s works. It’s a statement of fact: when working in a serialised medium, you don’t get to go … Continue reading
Suggested For Mature Readers 