Swamp Thing #1

Floris Oudshoorn's Swamp Thing arrives in 2006 from Atlas/Oog & Blik with an immediately charming cover: a wide-eyed, red-bellied cartoon crocodile in red shorts comes lumbering after a cheerful little bear cub, while a colorful bird watches from the treetop and a pipe-smoking snail lounges beside a purple flower below. The whole scene — mushrooms, sandy path, and all — radiates the kind of loose, warm humor that makes you want to flip straight to page one.