“Rite of Spring” is one of our top ten favorite comic books of all time, easily. Psychedelic love in the swamp, baby! Yes! Where do we sign up?!

Abigail “Abby” Arcane and Swamp Thing declare their love for each other and find a unique way to consumate that love on the transcendent, spiritual level. This story also has some historical significance. It often receives credit for “launching the entire Vertigo line” at DC by boldly going off the Comics Code Authority label.

Collector’s Guide:

These black and white scans come from Essential Swamp Thing #15, which reprints the Saga of the Swamp Thing #34. The full-color version was reprinted in the Swamp Thing TPB #2.

We wanted to share this one with you for a long time, so we picked up that reprint for less than $2. Then, we pulled out the staples to capture every last line of the artwork, and lovingly reconstructed the two page spreads for you. Finally, the reprint seemed printed in black ink for the first half of the issue, and then a kind of off-black for the second half. We ran it through our Awesomizer to make the whole thing pure black and white. While we love Tatjana Wood’s coloring of the story, this reprint really highlights the masterful teamwork between Steve Bissette and John Totleben. It’s the next best thing to owning the original artwork!