SWAMP THING ANNUAL
#5
"Brothers"

Cover: John Totleben (painted, signed)
Pictured: Brother Power the Geek, Parliament of Trees in background

1:1 The "Psychedelic Shop" was a bookstore and popular hippie hangout in the heart of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.
"Leaflet prepared for exorcism held at the Pentagon" - The "exorcism" (involving psychedelic face paint & flowers stuck in barrels of guns) was held on October 21, 1967 as a demonstration by the counter-culture group known as the Diggers. Learn more at http://www.thefugs.com/history3.html in the section titled "Exorcizing the Pentagon".

1:2 Scattered on the floor we see:
"Wooden Joe's New Orleans Band" - "Wooden Joe" Nicholas was a jazz musician of the mid-1940's. A sample can be found here.
The Beatle's "Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album (lower left).Click to listen.

1:3 Abby's government checks stopped in issue #83 .
Chester's shirt: "Truckin' on down the line" Underground cartoonist Howard Crumb's big-footed characters (right) were seen on many t-shirts and bumper stickers in the early/mid-1970's.

1:4 A pasture in Woodstock, New York was the site of a counter-culture music and art festival which was one of the defining events of the 1960's. It lasted 3 days and 450,000 people attended. See video.
Frank Zappa was a satirical and experimental musician of the late 1960's. See video.

1:5 Prez Rickard was the title character of the 1973 DC comics series PREZ, about a teenage president of the United States. (Click to enlarge image at left.) It lasted for 4 issues. An alternate reality story about Prez was told in Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN #54. In 1995 a 64-page one-shot titled PREZ was published under DC's Vertigo label, written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Eric Shanower.

FACTOID FROM THE BOG According to Joe Simon: My Life in Comics (2011, Titan Books) DC comics editor Mort Weisinger cancelled BROTHER POWER, THE GEEK because he was paranoid about the hippie culture.

2:1 BROTHER POWER, THE GEEK starred in his own DC comic series for a whole two issues in Oct-Dec. 1968. Created by Joe Simon and Al Bare.

3:2 "Those Lovable Furry Freak Brothers" - Part of Ripoff Press' "Fabulous Furry Freak Bros." comic strip series.

3:4 "Godspell" - A hit musical based on the Gospel according to Matthew, premiered off-Broadway in 1971. Jesus is symbolized by a clown, perhaps bearing a resemblance to Brother Power? In the musical, the Christ-figure wears a shirt with the Superman symbol. Video sample

3:5 Posters on wall: Jimmie Hendrix and the Allman Brothers. Poster on floor: Woodstock. Objects on floor: Ankh, Peace sign

3:7 Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , founded a group called the Merry Pranksters and a band called The Warlocks which later became the Grateful Dead. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was also the title of ST #66.
Poster names: Allen Ginsberg - Beatnik poet, social activist who was harassed by the FBI for his outspoken views on privacy issues and sexual preference
Lawrence Ferlich - Batnik poet, better known as Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Gary Snyder - Beatnik poet. Jack Keruac wrote a book about him called The Dharma Bums.

3:9 TUROK SON OF STONE #32 published by Dell (and later by Gold Key) was a 1960's comic about Prehistoric Native Americans fighting dinosaurs. An updated version, TUROK, DINOSAUR HUNTER, published by Valiant (and later Acclaim) was adapted into a Nintendo video game.
Jesus Christ Superstar was a hit Broadway Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the early 1970's. Video sample. Like Godspell, it was based on the life of Christ.

4:1 Link from 3:9 "watching over us"/watching screens
Sarge Steel, who first appeared in SARGE STEEL # 1 (1964), lost his hand in wartime. He was in the U.S. Special Forces, worked as a private investigator for a time and was the first Director of Meta-Human Activities for the U.S. government.

5:1 Firestorm, who first appeared in FIRESTORM (1st series) #1 (1978), also made a cameo appearance in ST #24. In NEIL GAIMAN'S MIDNIGHT DAYS trade paperback, the author says that he orginally envisioned Firestorm's role in this story to be filled by Captain Atom. Personally, I think Firestorm works better since (at that time) he had been revealed to be an elemental, like ST. (Hence Firestorm's change from his original -and cooler- appearance.)

BRANCHING OUT: THE WEIRD TAILOR Robert Bloch (Psycho), wrote a short story about an enchanted clothes dummy in the July 1950 issue of Weird Tales pulp magazine. Titled "The Weird Tailor" (a pun on the magazine's title), it was one of the best adaptations on the 1961 TV suspense anthology "Thriller", hosted by Boris Karloff. It was adapted again as part of the 1972 anthology film "Asylum" (a.k.a. "House of Crazies"), starring Peter Cushing and Barry Morse. The original story makes some allusions to the H.P. Lovecraft mythos.

7:5 Dr. LaGrieve was the staff psychiatrist at Belle Reve prison, base of the covert government operation called the Suicide Squad.

11:1 Link from 10:5 fire/"burned"

The poster on the left is S. Clay Wilson's "Checkered Demon". We saw it and the Bosch poster on the right in this store ("The Third Eye") in ST #25.

Link from 11:6 "she'll need a lot more than that to...have the baby"/"barren woman"

Comment: Brother Power's next appearance was in the 1993 one-shot titled THE GEEK, published under DC's Vertigo label, written by Rachel Pollack and drawn by Mike Allred. Brother Power made a guest appearance in the Vertigo one-shot TOTEMS in 2000. That storied co-starred Swamp Thing and Constantine, among other mystical characters. He also co-starred in 2009's BRAVE & THE BOLD #29.

Comment: In Grant Morrison's ANIMAL MAN #25 (July, 1990), Merryman of The Inferior Five is seen along with many other characters who had not appeared in DC Comics for many years. He remarks about this issue bringing Brother Power back: "Brother Power, for God's sake! There's hope for us all." The cover of BROTHER POWER THE GEEK #1 is partially seen on the cover of ANIMAL MAN #24.

Comment: The term "shaggy dog story" refers to a long, unfocused story that wanders into many irrelevant details.

Comment: Both stories from this issue are reprinted in DC Comics' NEIL GAIMAN'S MIDNIGHT DAYS trade paperback, along with a never-before published ST story "Jack in the Green". (Cover by Dave McKean at right)