The Swamp Thing’s Saga Continues With New DVD

Since his debut in 1971, Swamp Thing has remained the king of the hill when it comes to comics’ heroic muck-monsters. Granted, there hasn’t been too much competition in that category, but there’s something to be said for the fact that DC’s sad story of a scientist-turned-swamp creature has spawned not one, but two feature films, as well as a relatively successful television series. On January 22, Shout! Factory will release Swamp Thing: the Series on DVD, collecting all three seasons of the Swamp Thing television series that aired on USA Network from 1990-1993, with the episodes organized in the order they were intended to be viewed.

Comics2Film has a discussion with Dick Durock, the actor who donned the Swamp Thing costume for all three live-action iterations of the character, providing some explanation of how he got roped into wearing the monster suit and why he stuck around for more… much more, in fact.

"The costume of course was zip-on and zip-off, but all the appliances and the makeup had to stay on. In the first feature it took close to four hours. In the second feature it took close to two hours. By the time we did the series, which ironically was by far the best makeup and costume, we had it down to about 45 minutes," the actor said.

"But it was still tough. At the end of the day you’re wearing eighty pounds of wet latex, plus all the chemicals on your face. It sure isn’t sunglasses and autographs, I’ll tell ya."

Also of note is the late-paragraph mention of a new Swamp Thing film in the works, with a script by the character’s creator, Len Wein.

Heck, it can’t be any worse than Man-Thing, Marvel’s 2005 quest to bring their swamp monster to the big screen, right?