TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN: A Bernie Wrightson Muck Monster Monday

Monday, January 12, 2026

A Bernie Wrightson Muck Monster Monday

Yes, that's right. SWAMP THING MONTH starts its second week here on TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN ( which at least Mike Sterling over at PROGRESSIVE RUIN will appreciate ) and since we have made our way through all the important eras we take it back, way back, all the way back for more classic DC goodness with Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson.

Yes, SWAMP THING WEEK has officially become SWAMP THING MONTH.

Attentive blog followers may have noticed that I DIDN'T get to write my fifth and last Swamp Thing post last Sunday. And the reason for that is that I did the stupid thing and went to the internet one final time to see if I could come across some additional original SWAMP THING artwork because I wanted to post more interior pages and not so many covers.

I mean covers are fine and all because by nature they are designed to grab your attention - as their prime purpose in the beginning was to get people to buy the comic which is something that has been sadly lost - so they are more exciting than interior pages by nature. But you can post covers any time while there is a time and a place for interior artwork.

In any case, as longtime visitors know I do a final internet search every time before starting a new post but in this case it was my doom. Because I found way too much great, exciting artwork to put it into a single post.

So with around 500 new art pieces in the folder we have enough material for a full month - including the complete artwork of issue 43 so that will be a post unto itself - and since there will be a number of new posts we go back to the two comic geniuses who started it all for the first one.

Speaking of things you can find on the internet, during my search for the color pages for the original artwork ( which is quite difficult since there are a lot of different SWAMP THING series and it is not always easy to match the correct issue with the corresponding black and white art ) I came across Spoof Comics SWAMP THANG one shot which doesn't include any nudity but at least sports a cover by Kelley Jones and interior art by Alfredo Alcala who have both also worked on the SWAMP THING books.

Coming back to the original artwork for this spotlight I thought about splitting it up into two SWAMP THING posts with most of the interior pages in this post and some selected interior pages, a few choice covers and more Bernie Wrightson SWAMP THING illustrations but I hate it when comicbook companies split up material that could be easily put into one volume into two books just to make more money. So I didn't want to do the same to my faithful readers. The unused SWAMP THING material will probably end up in my next Bernie Wrightson tribute since I only have enough pages from Jim Starlin's BATMAN : THE CULT for half the post.