Book 1, Saga of the Swamp Thing

A true American classic. Although written by a British man, Moore has an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to American history and does a great job at using our countries dark past as inspiration for many of the stories. Swamp Thing deserves a space in any book or comic connoisseurs book shelf. Book four was me personal favorite because artist John Totleben added a really psychedelic aspect to swamp things jouneys, especially the scenes where swamp thing goes into the collective conscious of all plant life called "The Green". These pages have some of the most outstanding prose writing and perfectly inked and colored panels. Absolutely beautiful.

Alan Moore transformed the Swamp Thing from a simple horror comic to a review of morality and the human mind. This series is a must read for any Swamp Thing fan and forms the basis of all future story lines.

For those of you skeptical as to whether you will be able to enjoy a horror comic instead of the usual superheroes, allow me to set your mind at ease. Alan Moore rarely disappoints, and this is some of his best work.

You might be against starting a series with issue #20, and I'll admit the lack of setup for some of the characters in the first issue is a little weird. But ultimately it doesn't matter. Moore redefines this world and this hero so forcefully in just five issues you will not care about what came before. Get buyin'.

I grew up with swamp thing action figures, but had yet to really explore his origins and presence in pop culture. these books are a fun and intelligent meditation on humanity and relationship, expressed in the splashy and captivating horror graphic novel format.

A great book, the comic was received quickly and in amazing condition. No scratches or dents. Fantastic. The comic itself is good, a good story and I would definitely recommend anyone who loved other classics such as the Watchmen. Alan Moore is a genius.

A great book, the comic was received quickly and in amazing condition. No scratches or dents. Fantastic. The comic itself is good, a good story and I would definitely recommend anyone who loved other classics such as the Watchmen. Alan Moore is a genius.

Nice collection of Swampthing stories.I haven't read Swampthing in years. Read my first isuue almost 40 years ago. I have always enjoyed the character and had not seen the stories in this volume before. Very creative and imaginative horror. If you have ever been a fan of Swampthing you will enjoy this volume and the others in this series.

What can I say about this collection and Alan Moore that hasn't been said a million times already? This entire collection is excellent and reminds me what it was like when I was younger and comic books were actually good! That feeling of not being able to wait for the next issue to come out is something that comics have completely lost in today's event-driven shock-and-awe comic publishing world.

I have given up DC Comics as of the ridiculous reboot, but I will continue to purchase these excellent collections from a bygone era.

If you want to read a series that shows what graphic storytelling CAN be at it's finest, purchase this series!!!

Highest possible recommendation!!!

This volume closes out Alan Moore's time on Swamp Thing. After an explosive start and long creative plateau the book started to run out of steam. These stories don't compare with the best of Moore but they're still a good read.

The book has very good atmospherics and great art work, but the storylines are a little weak. Why are we shown an ineffectual Justice League in the latter part of the Floronic Man story at all? And the Monkey King story doesn't make a lot of sense...Still, the Swamp Thing is a unique character and his story is a rare attempt to blend both the supernatural and superheroic worlds.

If you're into Horror that is actually scary, and has meaning to it rather than just to scare people, and if you also are into comics, this is the cream of the crop. Hands down. The only other book I can even nearly hold in it's regard is Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. Difference being is that was made to be a one-shot, and Swamp Thing was a monthly comic.

Amazing, southern gothic tale that capitalizes on the promise created in volume one. Moore explores the dark, psychedelic world and the result is moving, romantic, troubling and, ultimately, wonderful.

The 8 issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing contained in this volume (#20-27) contain one of the best story arcs in comic history. Anyone who is a fan of Alan Moore (The Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc.) should put this book high on their list of priorities.

This volume has two major boons over the previously released paperback version of the TPB from 1998:

1. The obvious one: the hardcover is nice for damage mitigation, and is a nice presentation.
2. The important one: the hardcover version contains issue #20, which is actually the first one written by Moore (but illustrated by Dan Day not Stephen Bissette), the *previous version* of the TPB does not.

That being said, I was disappointed that they didn't go with a higher grade paper for this hardcover volume, something glossy would have been nice. Unfortunately it is the same newspaper-print stock type paper that was used in the paperback (were it not for this I would have rated it 5 stars easily).

Another issue, probably due to the fact that I pre-ordered the book and it was shipped the day it was released: the cover feels sticky, like the ink isn't completely dry. We'll see if that goes away after a few days.

All in all a great book. If you don't already have the paperback TPB definitely pick this up. Even if you do, you will probably want to get this version for issue #20 if you are a die hard Moore fan.

*edit* Decided to update this based on a user comment. I noted that the previous version of the TBD does not have issue 20. The new version, basically the same as this hardback, does contain that issue.

I own the original issues, presented in this volume - they are incredibly written and illustrated. It is very nice to be able to read these stories again on my Kindle without having to handle the books in my collection.

What can I say about this collection and Alan Moore that hasn't been said a million times already? This entire Swamp Thing collection is excellent and reminds me what it was like when I was younger and comic books were actually good! That feeling of not being able to wait for the next issue to come out is something that comics have completely lost in today's event-driven shock-and-awe comic publishing world.

I have given up on DC Comics as of their ridiculous reboot, but I will continue to purchase these excellent collections from a bygone era. I really hate to see the end of the Alan Moore run on this series.

If you want to read a stories that show what graphic storytelling CAN be at it's finest, purchase this entire series!!!

Highest possible recommendation!!!

Honestly, this is pretty bad compared to Moores better known works(Watchmen, V for Vendetta), and if I could, I'd ask for my money back. It lacks the fun of the earlier 20. These feel like Moore had no knowledge of the fairly small lore up to that point, and just took the names and appearances of characters and ran with it. Arcane all of a sudden feels compassion for a man she NEVER KNEW before she encountered him as swamp thing. She both her and Matt are really torn up over Alec and his wife, when Matt was just there to keep them safe in the first issue as their contact with the government. They were never best friends or anything, hell they almost seemed to dislike each other if anything. The only reason they were after Swamp Thing to begin with is because Matt ASSUMED Swamp Thing was responsible for initial murders of Alec and his wife.

I'll admit, its clever whats revealed with Moores first issue about Who(or what) Swamp Thing REALLY is. I like it. I'd prefer what we were led to believe earlier was true, but Moores version Does work well. Too bad he takes it into a weird place with hallucinations and such. Matt's now an abusive Alcoholic who's constantly sitting around, drinking away his sorrows(sorrow for what, I couldn't rightly tell you), I guess Arcane is now in love with Swamp Thing, or is at least affectionate towards him. I don't know what to say.

I'm curious to see if it gets better in later books, but it seems like such a punch in the gut to the things I really enjoyed about the first issues that I'm extremely hesitant to spend another $30 on a book I wont want to finish. So if you ask me, I can't recommend this unless you have a zealots belief in Moore.