Finding Peace in the Swamp: The Spiritual Heart of Alan Moore’s Run

Reaching the Heart of Swamp Thing

A lot of reading has been going on lately. I think I’m just trying to recharge or refill my creative well, which has been feeling a bit dry.

I have completed my reading of Alan Moore’s The Saga of the Swamp Thing with the creative teams of Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Rick Veach, Alfredo Alcala, and some occasional issues drawn by other artists, including Tom Yates. I will say that while in the middle of reading it, I felt like I wasn’t enjoying it as much as other works of Alan Moore, but I was compelled to complete it. It wasn’t just a completist thing—there was something about wanting to know what happens next that kept me going.

Yes, that is what good stories are supposed to do, but I’ve definitely reached the point in my life where if I’m reading something and I’m on the fence about it, I’m more likely to just cut and run. But the rather existential and spiritual overtones of the story Alan Moore was telling—about a creature struggling with existence and being connected to something greater than himself—really drew me in and appealed to me.

While it definitely remained a horror book through most of the story, and was about Swamp Thing dealing with horrific things, it became more and more about a creature who was not necessarily focused on beating the big bad, beating the big evil, or winning an overwhelming battle of good against evil. It was more about a creature struggling to find peace. I think that’s a really beautiful sentiment, and that’s what drew me to complete the story. In that sense, it was wholeheartedly a success. I’m glad that I picked it up.

The Ever-Growing Reading Stack

I still look forward to starting Alan Moore’s From Hell with Eddie Campbell at some point, but for now, I’m diving back into Akira, picking up right with volume four where I left off. At the same time, I also have my copy of Frank Miller’s autobiography, Push the Wall, ready to start. I have a plethora of unread books laying around my “to-read” pile.

I am also going through books in my Audible account that I never got around to listening to. One of them, which is very gripping, is Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle, a World War II spy thriller. I had it on during a long car ride, and it is a riveting thriller about D-Day, keeping the invasion plans secret, a German spy who discovers those plans, and the British operatives trying to intercept him before he can get that information back to Germany.

It’s a great thriller. Even though it’s a period piece, the pacing and writing are extremely contemporary, and you’re sucked right in. (Editor’s note: There actually was a 1981 feature film adaptation of Eye of the Needle starring Donald Sutherland as the spy!) It really is one of those stories you could easily see being adapted every few decades—it would make a fantastic 4- to 6-episode miniseries today.

Before jumping over to that on the car ride, I finished African Samurai, the story of Yasuke—the first, and as far as I know, only African samurai in 1500s Japan. That was a great historical book. It has a very novelistic, cinematic tone, almost like Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy, but it tells history without inventing traditional fictional dialogue. It was excellent, and I’ve really been enjoying everything I’ve been reading lately.

Have you ever finished a book or comic where you weren’t fully enjoying the pacing, but the core theme or spiritual resolution made the entire journey completely worth it?

When you’re trying to “refill your creative well,” do you lean more toward reading books in your own medium (like comics and visual art), or do you prefer diving into prose, history, and audiobooks to reset your brain?

Which Alan Moore work hits the deepest emotional or existential notes for you—is it the tragic heroism of Watchmen, the revolutionary spirit of V for Vendetta, or the peaceful struggle of Swamp Thing?