Lost amidst DC Comics’ latest round of solicitations is a historic reprint collection of one of its seminal works: DC Comics Classics Library: Roots of the Swamp Thing. And it’s historic not because it represents the first hardback compilation of the material but because the story is being published in its entirety for the first time ever.
 
Upon her arrival at DC Comics in 1976, Jeanette Kahn made no secret of her disdain for the company’s sampler-style use of reprints in the years prior to her arrival. Instead, she wanted to see specific fan-favorite storylines compiled in a single volume or series. So 1977 saw the release of four key Ra’s al Ghul stories in the tabloid-sized Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-51 and the beginning of an irregularly-published set of one-shots called the Original Swamp Thing Saga (appearing in DC Special Series #2, 14, 17 and 20) that ultimately reprinted Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing #1-10 from 1972-1974.
 
The years passed and collections of specific stories grew to become the industry standard, evolving from the newsprint of these formative examples to much nicer grades of paper and from the traditional pamphlet-type package to paperbacks and hardcovers. There was a tendency, however, to favorite the art over the scripts in many of these early (and not-so-early) collections.
 
When Steve Englehart’s landmark eight-part Batman opus from Detective Comics from 1977 was reprinted (first in 1985/1986 and again in 1999), the impact of his last chapter was blunted a bit by the fact that the Len Wein-scripted Clayface III follow-up was attached by virtue of the fact that it had also been penciled by Marshall Rogers. Conversely, Wein’s own run has only ever been reprinted up to Swamp Thing #10–because that’s the point when artist Bernie Wrightson left the book. Problem is, Len continued to write Swamp Thing for another three issues, ably abetted by artist Nestor Redondo. More significantly, he carried the themes from issue #1 (and specifically the tragic creature’s relationship to his pursuers Matt Cable and Abby Arcane) to a touching, satisfying conclusion in #13.
 
Unfortunately, the fan without access to the original issues has never read it. The first ten issues (along with the prototype story from House of Secrets #92) were gathered again on much nicer paper in 1986’s Roots of the Swamp Thing #1-5 before going the trade paperback route with Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis in 1992. And most recently in the digest-sized Secret of the Swamp Thing (2005). [Meantime, the pre-series short story from House of Secrets #92 is now one of the ten most-reprinted stories in DC’s history, with–to date–ten reprintings compared to Swamp Thing #1’s five.]
 

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While we’re inundated with good, classic and fairly crappy Christmas specials, we here at ComicMix take note of what we think may be the first holiday special surrounding Three Kings Day, a.k.a Little Christmas, of the day when the three kings arrive to see the newborn baby.

Nickelodeon will air its Dora Saves Three Kings Day, on Tuesday, January 6, at 8 p.m.  We’re not sure how Dora the Explorer will accomplish this miracle but Nick wants to make sure we’re all aware of the impending event with the following planned:

•    A two-minute sneak peek at the episode and clips from a song from the show, along with additional episodes, will stream on Nick Jr. Video from Monday, December 29.  The entire episode will be available on Nickjr.com from January 7.

•    The two-minute sneak peek, song and episode clips from the episode will be available on various wireless carriers also from December 29.

•    Nickelodeon on Demand will offer a sneak peek, shorts and song clips from the episode, as well as additional Dora episodes Throughout January.
 

Garth Franklin at Dark Horizons chatted briefly with Tim Boyle, the man charged with writing the just announced The Phantom Legacy.

“First up this is a reboot ala Batman Begins and not a sequel to Simon Wincer’s 1996 feature film as has been previously reported,” Franklin wrote.

“There are two main villains in this – one from the comic, the other an original but as to which ones they can’t be disclosed for now. The Phantom himself and Diana Walker will be in it of course, ‘oh and their kids… he adds.”

"It will have some elements of the original comic, but we are making it work for the screen" Boyle said.

"Like Batman Begins, where he takes a high tech spelunking suit and turns it into the basis of his costume – we’re looking at making it a real world costume. Think of what Bryan Singer did with the blue and yellow Wolverine costume – that’s what we have to do. Make it accessible to the public without annoying the fans too much."