Gotta squeeze this one in, just to upset those of you who think politics and comics shouldn’t mix.  It’s all in good fun.

It’s just a bit of fun, really, but I get a real kick out of imagining what a Conan/Swamp Thing administration would be like.  I figure national security wouldn’t be a problem (who’d wanna mess with an axe wielding barbarian?) and environmental issues would definitely take center stage.  Hell, even the current financial mess in the US would probably benefit — you could imagine President Conan meeting with Wall Street heads and scowling, “Crom!  You’re all thieves!  You should all be strung up by your fat necks!“.

And if your are interested in politics in comics, you should really check out our recent Major Spoilers podcast where we discussed these issues in depth.

via Michael Cho’s Sketchbook via Blog@Newsarama

Or - “The Seed From Which Everything Vertigo Will Eventually Grow…”

Back in 1985, the choices in terms of comics reading were much more limited in scope than they are now (at least the choices within bicycle range of my house in North Central Kansas.) Sure, Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal were still around, but those books held the distinction of being:

A. Expensive
B. Marked 18 and up.
C. Distributed differently than the comics, making them harder to find in the drugstores and Pump ‘N Pantries I frequented.

When Alan Moore took over DC’s faltering super-hero/horror hybrid title, Swamp Thing, the very first issue was a complete deconstruction of the character, an example of how the “Everything You Know Is Wrong” syndrome can really galvanize a story. My love affair with the title, however, came a couple of years later, with issue #34, ‘Rites of Spring.’ It put Swamp Thing on my “must have” list, and when this issue came out, it was nothing less than a revelation, with a whole new status quo for the title character, and the debut of one who would prove to be among the most versatile and interesting characters in DC’s impressive arsenal… John Constantine.

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