House of Secrets #92 page #5: Historic Origin & 1st appearance of Swamp Thing.

It's not often you see a key origin page from the 1st appearance of a legendary comic book. A true historic issue, 1971's House of Secrets #92 featuring the 1st appearance of Swamp Thing drawn of course by the master of the macabre himself, Bernie Wrightson. This page features the origin of the 1st version of Swamp Thing, Alex Olsen, an early 20th century scientist who is intentionally blown up in his lab by a co-worker intent on gaining the hand of Olsen's wife. The page explains how the co-worker places Olsen's body in the swamp, where the mix of chemicals and the forces within the swamp transform him into the monster known as Swamp Thing.

The success of this story led DC to hire its creative team--Wrightson and writer Len Wein, to do an on-going Swamp Thing title, which premiered the following year. For the continuing saga, the setting was updated to the contemporary 1970s and Alex Olsen became Alec Holland, a scientist working in the Louisiana swamps on a secret bio-restorative formula before, like Alex Olsen, he's blown up by evil forces and transformed into the Swamp Thing. The Wein/Wrightson team stayed together for the first 10 issues of Swamp Thing, long considered a classic run. A couple of years later the title was suspended but it returned in 1982 when a Swamp Thing movie was in production. A year and a half into the second run, known as Saga of the Swamp Thing, now editor Len Wein made the decision to hire a young British writer named Alan Moore who was making a name for himself in England on two features for Warrior Magazine--"Marvelman" and "V for Vendetta". Moore, teamed with the art team of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, made history by turning Saga of the Swamp Thing into the first mainstream American comic book to be considered on the level of adult literature. The team brilliantly tied together the Alex Olsen and Alec Holland versions of Swamp Thing, revealing that there was actually a long line of Earth elementals who protected "the green" throughout history. The original story from House of Secrets #92 was now officially part of DC canon. Moore wrote Swamp Thing for several incredible years and would go on to finish "Marvelman" in the U.S. as "Miracleman" and to create the historic maxi-series Watchmen.

Contemporary comic books owe a huge debt to Moore's Swamp Thing as it established the potential of the medium and inspired thousands of creators in the decades since. And it all began with Wein and Wrightson's story in House of Secrets #92.

Since the dawn of his career in the late 1960's & early 1970s, Bernie Wrightson has been considered one of the true masters of the horror genre. From his groundbreaking work on Swamp Thing, into the "Studio" era with colleagues Barry Windsor Smith, Michael Kaluta, and Jeff Jones, and onto mainstream visibility in the 1980s with projects like Cycle of the Werewolf and Creepshow, Wrightson's accomplishment and influence has been as broad as any artist emerging from the realm of comic art. His work in comics and illustration art is in a class by itself among collectors of the macabre. Mr. Wrightson is a true icon in art & will be sorely missed!

In the additional images you can see the photo reference Bernie used for the last panel of this page. Pretty amazing history here!