Selecōs N° 213 “Swamp Thing!” – May 1979

A little over a month ago, Dallis (@ozark_comics) from The Grail Keepers Podcast let me know that Selecōs N° 213 was on eBay. I about fell out of my chair with excitement. I bought it immediately, thrilled to share it with all of you wonderful people. The Portuguese book features an original Swamp Thing cover and I’ve been looking for it for a number of years. After a month of waiting by the mailbox it arrived!

I’m always thrilled to find a cover where Swamp Thing is being reinterpreted. Usually a title page is used as a cover in place of the originally published DC Swamp Thing covers. Few and far between are the completely original covers, but they usually relate to the featured Swamp Thing story within its pages. Not long ago, I was able to track down a Hindi book that featured a fantastic cover and original story. The Australian Murray books are among my favorite reinterpreted covers 1, 2. These two Swedish edition covers are great 1, 2. As well as this German cover. This is turning into a covers gallery so I’ll get on with it.

The Selecōs N° 213 cover artist appears to be named Enetto. I love Enetto’s illustration depicting the action from Swamp Thing #4 “Monster on the Moors” (May 1973). As you can guess, this book reprints the story of Swamp Thing’s misadventures on the moors. The cover appears to be a reinterpretation of one of the panels from the story. Enneto proudly defines Swamp Thing’s butt. I’ve paired the two images below. Unfortunately I was not able to find information about the artist. The book measures 16.5 cm x 23.5 cm.

Below are a few of the interior pages. I always love seeing Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in black and white. The detail is fantastic.

I tried to capture a clear image of the publishing info below. This book was published in May, 1979.

The gentleman with the pencil thin mustache on the cover of this book doesn’t appear in Swamp Thing #4. But, he is the featured character in the backup story, “Fire Ball.” I haven’t translated the story but he seems like quite the action hero. I bet he and Matt Cable would be fast friends.

Below is a photo of the back cover.