Editorials
[TV Terrors] In the Early 1990s, “Swamp Thing” Had His Own Animated Series
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank in to obscurity.
In this installment we revisit the early ’90s animated series, “Swamp Thing”!
- Aired from 1990-1991
- Aired on FOX Network; FOX Kids
“Swamp Thing” has experienced a resurgence lately thanks to the push by DC and Warner for more mature material for their fan base, and while the upcoming DC Universe streaming series has a horror-heavy approach to it, once upon a time Swamp Thing was being groomed to become an environmental superhero for the kids. Arriving at about the same time as the live action drama, “Swamp Thing” was a very short lived animated series with big aspirations to become a multimedia powerhouse.
After presumably being turned down by CBS, “Swamp Thing” aired on FOX Kids Saturday Mornings for a short period, and eventually was reduced to syndicated airings. With “Captain Planet” popular with kids, DC Entertainment transformed Swamp Thing into a darker and more menacing, but still environmentally conscious superhero. The more subversive themes presented by the celebrated Alan Moore iteration were gone, in favor of an action oriented animated series that pit Swamp Thing against the evil Anton Arcane.
While Swamp Thing was typically a pariah who lurked alone in the swamps, the writers of the animated series paired the beast with his own diverse team of crime fighters. “Swamp Thing” is set primarily in the murky swamps where all five episodes revolve around evil scientist Anton Arcane (Don Francks) looking for a new scheme to kidnap Swamp Thing (voiced by Len Carlson). After nearly killing scientist Alec Holland, the formula he created helped him survive by merging him with the local swamp. He became Swamp Thing, a near immortal monster of the terrain who could adapt to his surroundings and use his body to combat evil-doers.
Swamp Thing is teamed with a Native American tracker named Tomahawk, and an ex-Vietnam Soldier named Bayou Jack. Anton Arcane has his own horrendous army of mutants he calls “Un-Men” including Dr. Deemo, Skinman, and Weed Killer, all suspiciously similar to “Captain Planet’s” foes. With Arcane’s transducer machine, they take the shape of vicious mutant predators like a serpent and a fangbat.
“Swamp Thing” the animated series has all the hallmarks of a classic superhero series that pits a great looking superhero against vicious monsters, and promotes healthy ideas about preserving the environment and relying on friends, along with other recurring themes of the time. It also has slimy mutants and a mutated hero, two staples of nineties pop culture that were very popular. Who can forget the delightfully cheesy theme song which remakes The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” in to “Swamp Thing” with the same rhythm, replacing “Wild” with “Swamp”?!
“Swamp Thing” is noticeably a cheaply made series with animation that can often be a bit rigid and stiff, while the episodes are mainly functioning standalones. For example, Abigail Arcane is introduced in the first episode and we never see her again. That’s probably because the series itself was produced mostly as a blatant commercial for the toy line that Kenner was producing at the time. “Swamp Thing” is in the tradition of “Transformers” and “GI Joe” where everything featured in the series is almost certainly a toy. Everything from the awesome toyetic vehicles and various physical phases that Swamp Thing uses to hide and fight are basically in the Kenner toyline.
After the five episode run which prompted many to label the attempted series a flop, the iteration was remembered primarily for its pretty excellent toy line. It’s a shame since the animated series could have gone to places the live action series never did, exploring more gruesome monsters and a larger array of cool villains; Dr. Deemo in particular is a lot of fun as he’s a monster who delights in voodoo, and inexplicably knows the inner workings of Swamp Thing. But those toys. At least we got those toys.
The series of beautifully designed figures were divided into three groups: Swamp Thing, Heroes, and Evil Un-Men Villains. The Swamp Thing figures included Camouflage Swamp Thing, Bio-Glow Swamp Thing, Snare Up Swamp Thing and Snare Arm Swamp Thing (my favorite toy of all time!) in the first wave. The second wave included Climbing Swamp Thing and Capture Swamp Thing.
The Heroes included Bayou Jack and Tomahawk. The Evil Un-Men were Anton Arcane, Dr. Deemo, Weed Killer, and Skinman. There were also two great vehicles: a Bog Rover and the Marsh Buggy, and the rare play sets “The Swamp Trap” and “Arcane’s Lab.” The toys also didn’t sell too well, being reduced to discount bins for years. As with all things pop culture, “Swamp Thing” eventually regained momentum years after it was cancelled, prompting a lot of renewed interest in the series and the toy line. I still have my Snare Arm Swamp Thing in a box hanging on my wall, thank you very much.
According to reports the toy line tested well with kids and could very well have taken off, perhaps giving the animated series a second chance. Sadly, despite the release of a ton of tie in merchandise (including an awful NES platformer), the franchise never clicked with younger crowds.
“Swamp Thing” has always been a hard character to peg down for Hollywood over the years; he’s mostly been a cult character remembered primarily for his pair of movies from the eighties. The animated series isn’t perfect, but it’s an interesting precursor to the character becoming a bigger presence in modern animated DC Movies, and next coming full circle with his highly anticipated live action series.
If you’re a “Swamp Thing” completist, the animated series is worth a go. It’s classic nineties fodder, and a pretty fun horror-tinged adaptation.
Is It On DVD/Blu-Ray? There was a VHS released that had a few episodes on it, but there apparently has never been a DVD or Blu-ray of the series, yet. However the complete five episodes are very easy to find online on most video websites, in pretty decent quality.
With DC’s streaming service picking up steam, maybe we’ll see them include the animated “Swamp Thing” series in their library. Anything is possible these days!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
You must be logged in to post a comment.