Alan Moore is my favorite comic book writer. Depending on the day, he's my favorite writer, regardless of medium. Known for his formalism, Moore has crafted groundbreaking runs of comics that upended convention and made readers and creators alike look at the medium in a new way. One of the formalistic flourishes Moore is known for is his scene transitions, and when he got the chance to write American comics, Moore came out of the gate in issue #20 of Saga of the Swamp Thing with his thoughtful approach to this aspect of comics. An aspect often overlooked by many creators.
Something that resonates with me about Moore's "Swamp Thing" run is the fact that my first few read-throughs I wasn't even aware of the connective tissue Moore was adhering to the scene transitions within a given issue. I was pulled along by the narrative, engaging with the story without seeing the work Moore and his collaborators were doing behind the scenes. Maybe it was just me (and maybe you spotted his scene transitions from the jump), but I feel like one of Moore's greatest strengths as a writer is his ability to include these formalistic attributes in his stories but make them, and the narrative as a whole, feel natural, for the reading experience to flow effortlessly without the parallelism or the symbolism or the connecting phrases and images between scenes to ever feel out of place or clunky (to use a technical term). It's this ability to craft an engaging tale while also layering it with added depth -- that isn't necessary for understanding the story but enriches the experience if you find it -- that sets Moore apart from almost anyone else who has worked in the comic medium. And that's why he's been my favorite writer for a while.
So, one of my favorite podcasts, Comic Book Couples Counseling, is starting a new book club where they will be reading and discussing Moore's "Swamp Thing" run, one issue at a time. That spurred me to reacquaint myself with the keyboard, and I plan to follow along and share my insights into this landmark series here, while Brad & Lisa inhabit your ears with their own perspective. My plan is to focus on these scene transitions in one post and possibly include a more general analysis of the issue in a second one. We'll see how it goes. But, for now, here are a collection of the scene transitions found in Moore's first issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing, issue #20, titled "Loose Ends."
Transition pp. 3-4:
At the bottom of page 3, Swamp Thing thinks, "And what...am I going to do now?"
Page 4 opens with a shadowed figure asking, "Well, General? You know where they are. What are you going to do now?"
This showcases one of Moore's transitional techniques -- utilizing parallel dialogue.
Transition pp. 5-6:
At the bottom of page 5, the General says their targets (including Swamp Thing) are "in for a rude awakening..." which continues in the caption at the top of page 6, "...a very rude awakening, indeed." This talk of 'awakening' leads into panel 1 on page 6 where Lizabeth Tremayne is yawning deeply as she wakes up from a night's sleep.
Here we see another of Moore's transitional techniques -- dialogue from one scene being paralleled by an image in the next one.
Transition pp. 7-8:
This two-page spread across pages 6 & 7 opened with the caption about Lizabeth being, "used to taking her sunlight a little more diluted." When we shift from this daylight scene back to Swamp Thing on page 8, he is thinking, "I made my way back here...to the moon," which is in reference to The New Moon Motel where some of Swampy's companions were staying for the night.
Moore uses yet another transitional technique -- that of opposites: in this case, the sun and the moon.
Transition pp. 8-9:
At the bottom of page 8, Swamp Thing thinks, "Maybe the world has run out of room...for monsters..." which continues over to the first caption on page 9, "...or maybe...[the monsters]'re just getting harder to recognize." This leads into the first panel of page 9 where a local is speaking to a soldier, saying, "[Let me] get this straight. A monster, is that what y're saying?" This local is incredulous at what he is hearing, not able to recognize that there would be a monster in the area. But the transition is doubled, since this local is looking at one of the monsters in this story, the soldier, and he is unable to recognize him for the villain he is.
Once again, Moore utilizes parallel dialogue to connect the two scenes in this transition.
Transition p. 9, panels 3-4:
On this page, Moore does something that isn't common in western comics -- and is something he praised highly when writing an introduction for a Love & Rockets series by one of the Hernandez brothers -- the transition from one scene to the next on a single page. Typically, American comics will transition scenes from one page to the next, not on the same page.
The same local mentioned in the previous transition has now accepted the soldier's explanation and is all too happy to help, asking, "Say, you need a hand with those searchlights, son?"
This transitions to Matt & Abby Cable. Abby asks, "How about a little light in here, huh?"
Again, Moore uses parallel dialogue to connect the scenes.
Transition pp. 12:
I was unable to discern any connecting aspects for the scene transition in the middle of this page. But I include the page here, in the hopes that someone might see what I was unable to.
Transition pp. 12-13:
One of the soldiers comments that the General is "...really tying up some loose ends here today, ain't he?" A second soldier agrees, and his comment continues over to the first caption of page 13, "Every damned one." The caption is set over the first panel where Liz and Dennis have returned to the motel to pick up their belongings. This caption does double duty, because not only are Liz and Dennis two of the loose ends the General is tying up, but they are also damned because of the General's coming retribution.
This is another example of dialogue from the first scene being paralleled with the imagery of the following scene.
Transition pp. 15-16:
Two saboteurs had set a bomb in Liz and Dennis's motel room, and the explosion left little remaining. But they need proof of their success, so one of them asks, "Couldn't we just count heads or something?" His companion says, "Great idea, Henry. You find 'em..." which ends page 15, while the dialogue continues over the page into the first caption of page 16, which reads, "...an' I'll count 'em." This caption is overlaid onto panel 1, where a soldier is counting down, "Zero minus fifteen. Zero minus ten. Minus five."
More parallel dialogue, though not directly so. One bit discusses the act of counting, while the second has a character actually counting.
Transition pp. 16-17:
At the bottom of page 16, the soldiers turn on a collection of flood lights, in order to find Swamp Thing, who comments, "Aren't they...going to leave any darkness..." "Are they...going to...take away everything?" His internal monologue continues over to page 17, where the first three captions say, "Everything that's...dark...and private...and silent?" These final captions are set above the first panel where Matt Cable sits in darkness, his face half in shadows.
Here Moore utilizes two techniques to connect the scenes. First, he has the dialogue lamenting the loss of the 'dark' that parallels Matt Cable sitting in darkened shadows. But Moore also has the visuals -- the forest awash in floodlights transitioning to its opposite of Matt in darkness.
Transition pp. 17-18:
The main action of this page is a military helicopter that fires a missile at Abby & Matt's home, destroying it. At the bottom of the page, the pair stand at the edge of the tree line watching their home burn. The final caption on this page is from Swamp Thing (leading into his reappearance on the next page). It says, "Nowhere is...safe any more." Swampy's inner monologue continues across the first three panels of page 18: "Nowhere. Not for...anybody. Not in the...world of nature." In these three panels, Swamp Thing emerges from the shadows behind a soldier, wraps his muck-encrusted hand around the soldier's now terrified face, and tosses him away.
Here, again, Moore connects the dialogue from Swamp Thing about nowhere being safe with the paralleled imagery in the scenes, as Matt & Abby's home was not safe from destruction while the soldier was not safe from Swamp Thing's attack. So the dialogue parallels the imagery, and just to double up, the images parallel each other without being similar.
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