If Ezra Pound was writing a review of comic books, which one would he advocate reading? Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing. (By the way, I suspect about 82% of the people who read this blog stopped reading at that last sentence, thinking, “Ugh—another one of those attempts to pretend that comic books are real literature.”) (Speaking of which, at the Liberty Fund conference last week, one of the other participants and I spent quite a bit of time trying to convince the Liberty Fund director that they really should do a conference on “Comic Books and Liberty.” Seriously. It would be a fantastic conference. The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The Dark Knight Returns at a minimum would make for a fantastic discussion of liberty. There are a ton of interesting questions those three books raise. I am very sad to report that the Director seemed less than keen about advocating for a Comic Book conference; he seemed to think the Board, serious professionals all, would be less than enthusiastic. Someday, comic books will be taken seriously. Well, at least two of us at the conference are certain of it.) But, to return to Ezra Pound. In one of his books or articles (I forget which (ABC of Reading perhaps) (I lent my Ezra Pound books to a student years ago, and they never returned (this happens frequently (years ago, I decided that if I was going to lend my books to students, I had to just assume they wouldn’t come back so that I wouldn’t agonize about it (it worked; I never worry if they don’t come back; I figure that spreading the joy of reading is one of my callings in life))), so I can’t look it up)), Pound argues that a good education would be reading the first work of any given type, those works which break the previous mold and do something entirely different. Now, when it comes to comic books, there is no doubt there is a giant break sometime in the early 1980s. The comic books from the 1970s are not the height of quality (the 1960s had a good run when Stan Lee came to Marvel), but by the late 1980s, there is a wealth of really interesting comic books. And what started it all? After reading Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, I think this is it. It is the first groping attempt to explore the possibilities of the medium. It is pretty good.
Pre-Moore, Swamp Thing is a pretty dull character. Moore makes him interesting. In particular, Moore raises serious questions of identity. If your consciousness, both your memories and sense of identity, was transferred into a plant, are you still the same person? Does the body matter, in other words? This is more than simply putting your brain in another human body—put your consciousness into plant material—are you still you? And then, imagine that you can actually change plant material at will—you can let one body die and grow another anywhere else there is plant life. Are you still you? And then, if you in your new plant body still love the human you loved when your body was human, and the human you loved loved the being that had your consciousness but a body of plant life, is there something illicit in that relationship? (Fortunately, the people who think comic books are a waste of time stopped reading long ago—otherwise I would be hearing the groans of dismay at this point.) And, then suppose there was a natural conflict between plants an humans—suppose, for example, that humans were engaged in activities which destroyed plants. To which species would you owe your allegiance?
Lots of interesting questions, to be sure. The books are a bit erratic, which isn’t surprising given a) this is early in the transformation of comics and b) it is Alan Moore, after all. The horror aspect of the books is bit over the top, and easily one of the weaker things about the series. On the other side, there is a fantastic homage to Pogo. I loved it even though I have only the faintest memories of Pogo—in fact my strongest memories of Pogo is of the four Plastic Pogo Toys we had when I was young (I think they were jointly owned by my brother and me). There was Pogo, Albert (the Alligator), the Porcupine (Porky Pine) and the Owl (Howland). (I had to look up the last two names on Wikipedia—why I remembered Albert’s name is one of life’s little mysteries (well, OK, one of life’s minuscule and totally irrelevant mysteries). But I digress (all this belongs in a post on Pogo if and when I ever read a Pogo comic book (they are reprinting the complete series as we speak)).
Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, in short, is the perfect comic book if a) you want to follow Ezra Pound’s reading advice or b) you have read lots of other comic books and are looking for something else which is good.
And, it has been awhile since I had a music video here. So, here is a song I assume was inspired by the comic book.
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