One of the most celebrated runs in horror comics is getting the full original-art treatment. Skybound and Act 4 Publishing have announced Bissette and Totleben’s Swamp Thing Artist’s Edition, an oversized collection of Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben’s art from The Saga of the Swamp Thing, the series they defined alongside writer Alan Moore.
The book measures 12 by 17 inches and collects more than 170 pieces of original artwork, including interior pages and covers. It will sell for $150. According to Comics Beat, it arrives in comic shops on July 7, 2027, with the book market release following on August 3.
What’s inside
Bissette and Totleben joined the series with issue #16, and Moore came aboard with #20. The Artist’s Edition includes pages from storylines such as “The Anatomy Lesson” and “American Gothic,” plus the complete “Jack in the Green,” the last story Bissette and Totleben worked on together at DC. Extras include covers, sketches and introductions by Bissette and longtime DC editor Karen Berger.
Like the rest of the Artist’s Edition line, the pages are scanned in color even though they look black and white. That lets readers see ink gradients, blue pencil, corrections and other details printed at the size they were drawn.
Getting the art back
For Bissette, the book is personal. “Back in the mid-1980s, John and I basically subsidized our ongoing work on Swamp Thing by selling the original art (at what were, at the time, affordable prices) and as many sketches as we could muster—having this book is happily putting some of the artwork that we’d let go long ago back into our hands. And, thankfully, all of yours,” he said, as quoted by Bleeding Cool.
Totleben said the reproductions come “closer than anything else” to the look and feel of the actual pages. “Almost like having a collection of the original pages, and… you don’t need to be a billionaire to afford it!”
The new edition joins other entries in the Skybound and Act 4 line, including books dedicated to Paul Smith’s Doctor Strange and George Pérez’s The New Teen Titans. It also lands while Swamp Thing is back in the spotlight at DC, which recently announced Swamp Thing: Hallowed Ground.
