AKA... Swamp Thing vs. M'Nagalah

No... this isn't really a Celebrity Grudge Match... nor is this a fantasy comparison of each author's works to determine literary superiority... No!... this is simply a look back to when Len Wein's creation, the Swamp Thing, took on an HP Lovecraft inspired Great Old One.

Many of you already know I am a big fan of Swamp Thing. I've recently posted a journal entry (see "Cornering the Market"), espousing my love for the classic first volume. But I'm also a huge fan of the legendary horror writer HP Lovecraft... and after recently purchasing a CGC 9.8 copy of Swamp Thing Volume 1, Number 8 (see pic), I thought I'd share with you why this issue is not only one of my favorites of that storied run, but how I believe was inspired by the works of Lovecraft.

39 years ago... way back in 1974, 19 years before Mike Mignola's Hellboy was battling otherworldly nasties inspired by the late great Lovecraft, the genius of Len Wein gave us a preview of things to come. Len Wein no doubt found his muse for this particular issue in Lovecraft's 1928 novella, The Dunwich Horror, and the inferior 1970 movie adaptation of the same name (well... probably not from the movie since... how do I put this?... it really sucked!). The Dunwich Horror, in an nutshell, concerns the diabolical machinations of Wilbur Whateley, described as a tall, dark, goat-like being (the hybrid spawn of the union between an albino witch and a Satanic entity)... the last heir of the Whateley's... a grotesque inbred family of dubious origins....through the practice of the Black Arts, summons and unleashes an invisible otherworldly creature on the back-water people of Dunwich (a fictional hamlet set in New England). And for you Batman fans, if you read the Dunwich Horror, you'll be quickly introduced to the fictional neighboring city known as Arkham... a name which later resurfaced as the infamous holding pen for Batman's Rogues Gallery... Arkham Asylum. And of further pop culture interest to note, Arkham is the home to the equally fictitious Miskatonic University... that fabled educational institution on par with Harvard, and the one time resting place of the dreaded tome, The Necromicon, written by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred. The Necromicon was the blatant inspiration for director Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy.

Do you begin to see the scope of HP Lovecraft's mystical storytelling influence?... The Evil Dead, Batman's Arkham Asylum, Swamp Thing, Hellboy, and a multitude of fictional works, can trace an aspect of their terrifying roots to Lovecraft. But it doesn't just end there...

...In fact, If any of you have read House of Secrets 92, the Bronze Age debut of the "first" Swamp Thing (Alex Olsen), you should know that story was partly inspired by HP Lovecraft's 1921 short story "The Outsider". Don't believe me? Read it for yourself and you'll discover the similarities. That story along with Theodore Sturgeon's "It!", inspired the likes of not only Swamp Thing, but Solomon Grundy, Hillman Comics The Heap, and Marvel's Man-Thing. I could even see a vague and subtle influence on Harlan Ellison's first published work from 1956, "Glowworm", about a "green glowing" survivor of a nuclear holocaust.

As for Swamp Thing Volume 1, No. 8... after escaping Gotham City and the clutches of the Dark Knight, the Swamp Thing finds himself lost in the Appalachian's, and chances upon a mysterious village called Perdition, where its townsfolk are harboring a horrific being named M'Nagalah, brought into the world from another dimension by Arcane Arts... a being who is every bit on the level of Lovecraft's legendary Great Old One's and the "invisible" otherworldly creature from Ambrose Bierce's classic 1893 short story "The Damned Thing" (which no doubt inspired Lovecraft's fevered imagination).

Now, in no way am I implying Len Wein is a copy-cat or rip-off artist... no, on the contrary! The Dunwich Horror and ST8 differ greatly to make them unique stand-alone literary creations in their own rights. What I am hoping to convey is how influential one author can be to actually inspire the great works of others! Len Wein has produced some of Comicdom's greatest creations (Swamp Thing, Wolverine, 2nd Generation X-Men, etc.), and deserves membership in the pantheon of the greatest fiction writers and literary creators the world has come to know... His works have equally inspired, much like Lovecraft's, and can therefore be considered canon!

If you haven't read ST8 it is available in various reprint formats... or... I'm sure you can obtain a decent reading copy at a fair price.

As for Lovecraft... if you haven't read any of his classic short stories, then I urge you to seek out his collected works at your local bookstore, library, in digital formats on your Kindle or Nook, or even in the classic pulp pages of Weird Tales where many of them first appeared (if your lucky enough to find them).

Thanks for reading.

Feedback, opinions, and comments always welcomed.

Happy Collecting!

SW3D

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