Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: dc, Maggie Stiefvater, Morgan Beem, swamp thing

Maggie Stiefvater and Morgan Beem Reboot Swamp Thing's Origin for New YA Graphic Novel

Published Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:30:50 -0600

DC Comics has revealed their latest foray into the lucrative YA graphic novel market, as Maggie Stiefvater and Morgan Beem revamp the origins of Swamp Thing for Swamp Thing: Twin Branches. Hitting stores in October, the ogn is aimed at teenage readers and turns the saga of Swamp Thing into "a poignant coming-of-age tale about family, friendship, and acceptance," according to the press release.

Said Stiefvater:

We live in a world of increasing connectivity and increasing disconnect. It's easier than ever to meet someone with shared interests, which makes it harder to realize that just because someone looks just like you, they may see the world in a completely different way. Nature and humanity, though, have always had this difficult and fascinating relationship, equal parts longing and logic and misunderstanding and projection, and I thought a reinvention of Swamp Thing would be an incredibly satisfying way to explore how hard complex relationships are as we learn who we are and what we need.

It was fun to see Morgan's art grow wilder and more unsettling as the story desperately dug into the dirt and reached for the sun.

And Beem:

Working with Maggie was awesome. She is such a charismatic, witty, and passionate human and writer. I am so excited about this book we have created together, along with the rest of our amazing team! For the art, I wanted to showcase something that really showed the full range of our character's feelings and struggles as a young human, and at the same time had a creepy, monstrous underbelly. I wanted our creature to be as much nightmarish monster as young person striving to find their place.

Check out the solicit and a preview below.

Swamp Thing: Twin Branches
Written by Maggie Stiefvater
Illustrated by Morgan Beem
Colored by Jeremy Lawson
Lettered by Ariana Maher
On Sale October 13, 2020
MSRP: $16.99

The #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater (the Raven Cycle series) and artist Morgan Beem unearth the primal power of memory and how it twists the bond between two brothers.

Twins Alec and Walker Holland have a reputation around town. One is quiet and the other is the life of any party, but they are inseparable. For their last summer before college, the two leave the city to live with their rural cousins, where they find that the swamp holds far darker depths than they could have imagined.

While Walker carves their names into the new social scene, Alec recedes into a summer school laboratory, because he brought something from home on their trip—it's an experiment that will soon consume him. This season, both brothers must confront truths ancient and familial, and as their lives diverge, tensions increase and dormant memories claw to the surface.

Swamp Thing: Twin Branches is a story of shadows literal and imagined—and those that take form and haunt us.