Swamp Thing: A Match For Vampi

National Periodicals, by keeping writer Len Wein and artist Berni Wrightson working on the unhurried Swamp Thing has come up with the most graphically interesting straight comic since Smith�s Conan. Wein is in the process of incorporating every gothic cliche into his �saga,� hitting us in swift succession with: a) the mad old man in search of immortality, b) the Frankenstein�s monster (�The Patchwork Man� in Swamp Thing No. 3), c) a werewolf and d) a witch. But Wein is a careful writer and these hoary horrors are cleverly presented with as much plausibility as comics can muster. Strong, traditional dramatics.

I was particularly impressed with the werewolf issue, �Monster on the Moors.� The artist uses zip-a-tone in the right places, creating a sense of depth and texture without cluttering the panels. And his use of the* ghostly blue (Wrightson does his own coloring) for moonlight is extremely effective throughput, particularly in a lyrical scene where Swampi gazes after a retreating carriage as it trots off onto the foggy moors.

By the time this appears, Swampi will have joined Batman for a Wrightson special. Too bad they can�t fudge a few publishing borders and match the Swamp Thing with the super-hero(ine) he really belongs with: Vampirella. Their nicknames almost rhyme.

National has three books with consistently excellent graphics and solid writing. Swamp Thing is obvious. Not so obvious are Weird Western Tales and Weird War Stories, both edited by EC ace Joe Orlando. Weird Western Tales revolves around the sordid figure of Jonah Hex, brutal bounty killer. As written by John Albano and drawn by Tony DeZuniga, Hex is an amoral societal outcast, feared because of his bad-ass rep and an ugly flap of skin that connects his upper and lower lips like Siamese twins. The freak angle is for . compassion. Hex is a pretty vicious character, and when he�s riled he�s liable to blast everyone in sight. He would doubtless have been impossible' under the Comics Code just a few years ago.

The Golden Age is right now.

Copyright © 1973 by National Periodical Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Albano is a careful craftsman and though many of the stories revolve around a vengeance or betrayal theme, allowing Hex the maximum opportunity for mayhem, the characterizations are thoughtful. Albano gives special consideration to speech patterns, consistently developing a single character even though he is doomed at the end of the story. The reasons for Hex�s position as an outcast are cleverly implied or pictured (the hideous fact,) and Albano deals with his humanity most thoughtfully,

DeZiniga�s art is among the freshest anywhere. He combines a very modern sense of layout; plenty of open spaces and impressionistic panel combinations, with a strong sense of the Old West. He uses silhouettes most effectively and tends to show Hex on his horse against the sun or the moon. His faces are harsh but real; not the stock characterizations of most comic book faces. De Zuniga is a brilliant, dramatic illustrator, but I wish he wouldn�t show his gunfighters with their holsters strapped to their legs. Ridiculous. Can you imagine riding for six hours in the sun with a leather thong tied around your leg to keep your pistol down?

The other Weird Western standard feature, �El Diablo,� is a sort of mystic Zorro avenger figure. The stories never make Sense, but I appreciate the kind of eerie, supernatural-gunslinger effect the writers are trying to create. The art, whether by Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, or Albert Alcala (the latest and the greatest,) is always superb.

Alcala and DeZuniga provide most of the art for Weird War, which now combines a single theme in each issue�s several stories, tying them all together through a common character. In one magazine, we followed the adventures of a German officer during WW I who, in subsequent stories, became a Nazi General, then a war criminal. This unification of structure makes Weird War an engrossing mag, even if the overlying theme is a bit shop-worn. Nazi war criminals getting their just desserts is old hat. I suspect the theme predates the Third Reich. Issue No. 14 featured tales of the ghosts of an American soldier and his Japanese wife, both foully murdered by little yellow men who helped Americans during WW II. The stories lacked subtlety or invention, but the sheer strength of the unifying theme carries them through.

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But the art — ahh! Alcala and DeZuniga work so well together that they switch off pages within individual stories, and while the switch is apparent, it is not obvious. DeZuniga has a slightly more dramatic, punch-in-the-face, black/white effect. Alcala has a very precise feeling, a sense of literal graphic presentation.

Alcala, DeZuniga, and, another brilliant DC illustrator, Alex Nino, are all members of the Phillipine Cartoonists Association which works, believe it or not, out of the Phillipines. Orlando sends the completed scripts to Assoc, pinwheel Mrs. Tony DeZuniga who parcels the stories out as she sees fit. The plots fall where they may except for Jonah Hex, which always goes to DeZuniga. This fabulous organization can pencil, ink, and letter a page for less money than it costs for a penciled page alone from an American artist.

Meanwhile, Marvel, eager to slice in on the market the hated Jim Warren has carved for himself, is plastering the newsstands with giant black and white horror mags, starting with Dracula Lives and Monsters Unleashed. In three words, Marvel can�t compete. They can�t compete because their material is too little, too late. The graphics, by the standard �Bullpen,� are uninspired. The layouts are essentially the same as those used in the small comics, whereas the success of Warren�s titles are due in large part to the great freedom he allows his artists. Marvel�s entries are just big comics without color. So the subject matter includes drugs. Cute.

Just compare artist Rich Buckler�s familiar treadmill efforts in Marvel�s Dracula Lives to his work in Eerie No. 48.

With Dracula Lives, we get five or six Count Dracula stories. I�m a little sick of Count Dracula, even though Warren�s series in Eerie is certainly tons more interesting than Marvel�s watered-down plasma. Monsters Unleashed, too, is more of the same old crapola; standard ironic endings, standard monsters, standard tales of vengeance. Is there nothing new under the sun? Of course there is! But it�s all being drawn by underground cartoonists who can write about fresh ideas and draw with fresh pens. So let us leave the mouldering bodies of Marvel�s latest efforts to glom our eyes on Richard Corben�s latest Last Gasp publication, Grim Wit.

Corben is able to produce prodigious quantities of quality work. His art is unique and satisfying. Fully conceptualized. Although his characters all subscribe to two or three basic facial types, Corben is such a craftsman that those faces never betray a short-cut lack of humanity. His use of half-tones is exquisite; here is a master of shadow who can summon any atmospheric condition or any time of day in black and white.

Corben�s heroes are always extremely physical, either in a massive, blockcrunching way, or in a shrunken, misshaped, freakish way. No ninety pound weaklings. And they hang there in midpage, so well drawn you can almost smell the b,o. The only other comic artists who can consistently bring out this physical presence these days are Smith and Billy Graham.

Grim Wit ain�t the best Corben (see Skull No. 5 or Funny world No. 14), but it is superior comic art. And now, six words on Burne Hogarth�s magnificent new Tarzan book (Watson-Guptill; ten bucks); it looks a bit awkward and forced, not as natural as Hogarth�s Sunday pages. But the color is gorgeous and the mood is overwhelming. Incidentally, Russ Manning covers the same material as Hogarth does in this book, in an English special Tarzan publication available from William Publ. in London, but National will probably release the Manning material later this year in a little big book. So there will be three relatively recent treatments of the first two books of Tarzan in comic form: Hogarth�s, Manning�s, and Joe Kubert�s initial efforts on the National comic. In their own ways, they are all magnificent.