Your Weekly Dose of God

The cover to Swamp Thing #88, a comic by Rick Veitch banned in the 80s but released under the title Swamp Thing 1989. It depicts Swamp Thing encountering Jesus Christ. I'll be writing about this.

A Moment of Comics

Saw a loved one at a hospital where they're undergoing physical therapy. Overall, the place is good, but when someone's too slow (in my mind) to help a loved one to the bathroom, I think of this underrated Swamp Thing story from ,Stephen R. Bissette. A reminder that horror has many hats. From Swamp Thing #59 by Bissette with art by Rick Veitch and Alfredo Acala. 

A Moment of Comics

"Somebody worked him to death. Just like a beast of burden." The words that summed up the life of Joe Schumacher, the artistic stand-in for Superman co-creator Joe Shuster in Rick Veitch's King Hell Heroica series. I've thought of this page since I got sick at the end of the weekend after spending over twenty hours on house projects. Being worked to death has been a major theme in many of my recent poems. I think a part of me is consigned that I'll work to death, but if possible it will at least will be work of my choosing. 

 
The page of Schumacher's death is from The Maximortal #6, originally published by Tundra Publishing and later reprinted in black and white under Veitch's King Hell imprint. The colors in the Tundra comics are by Sam Parsons.

A Moment of Comics

A congressman just called to end gay marriage. This is no surprise to anyone paying attention. More relevant than ever, here is a page from the 1988 anthology AARGH (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia) put out by Alan Moore and his short lived publishing venture Mad Love.

"The Mirror of Love"  was the anthology's lead story, written by Moore with artwork by Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch.

A Moment of Comics

Following the #TrumpSmells trend on Twitter (I won't call it X), I recalled that the wannabee dictator is in good company with at least one actual dictator. In Rick Veitch's incomplete Swamp saga, the main character travels back in time, there are two references to Hitler, who met with Swamp Thing's old foe Arcane. Hitler's apparently real life smell issues are referenced. First a panel from Swamp Thing #82 by Veitch and Acala, then a panel from Swamp Thing #83 by Veitch, Acala and Tom Mandrake. 

A Moment of Comics

Rick Veitch celebrated his birthday last week. It's amazing how he's still creating comics after all these years with no signs of slowing down. Looking back at his career, I'm a little sad that the screwjob he got at DC Comics meant he would never get his hands fully on John Constantine. I liked Veitch's take on the character. Still a schemer and user but occasionally showing signs of genuine warmth and even kindness.

Above are panels from Swamp Thing #70, drawn with an assist from the criminally underrated Alfredo Acala) where Constantine asks a young savant child for help in predicting which plane is going to crash. The panels are were part of one of Veitch's many two page spreads he was doing at this time so I had to present them on top of each other so they could be read on this blog. Veitch got very experimental in his story telling during his tenure with Swamp Thing. He also added satire wherever and whenever he could. Here, Veitch takes time poke to fun at the Millennium crossover that was happening at the time.

 

A Moment of Comics

I've been on a Rick Veitch kick lately. He wrote once about how he envisioned his early one page dream comics as a form of haiku. Here's one of those dreams set to actual poetry and starring collaborators Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette from the first issue of Roarin Rick s Rare Bit Fiends, a comic I missed terribly. Check out his recent dream collection Azoth.

A Moment of Comics

A page from Boy Maximortal  #1 by Rick Veitch. I just received the next two issues in the mail, and I can't wait to read them tonight. The King Hell Heroica continues!