blogging by Andrew Wickliffe


Swamp Thing (1972) #5


Sw05

Wein’s writing is back on track—except one page with incredibly awkward second person narration where he addresses the reader. Swamp Thing ends up in Maine, teaming up with a young woman accused of witchcraft and her little brother. Wein and Wrightson have a good time with the setting—even coming up with a conclusion I’m surprised the Comics Code let pass.

The issue opens with Swampy having to jump overboard on a freighter (there’s a brief explanation of how he got on the boat between last issue and this one) and it features some wonderful Wrightson art. Most of Swamp Thing, after the first issue, has been more traditional, British horror setting (even this issue) but the beginning is thoroughly modern. It’s interesting to see Wrightson do action, especially when it’s not monster-oriented.

The last page has a stunning soft cliffhanger.

Like every previous issue, this one’s indelible.


One response to “Swamp Thing (1972) #5”

  1. If you have the time (haha), you may be interested to know I believe Wrightson’s clearest influence is great EC comic artist Graham Ingels. From observation it looks as though Wrightson emulated Ingels approach with brush & ink directly, but Wrightson has much better composition and draftsmanship, although Ingels produced a much larger body of work in a shorter time than Wrightson.

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