True Swamp

Reviews / Votes

"Lewis's achievement--illustrated with a loose but expressive line--isn't just that he has effectively grafted human personalities onto animals, but that he has mingled the actual traits of the animals onto those personalities. All the creatures, including bugs and fish, figure into the drama, creating not only tension over the dilemmas the animals face but building on themselves to make a sense of mystery surrounding whole ecosystem. Lewis has also taken great care with the swamp culture--monetary, religious, romantic--to create a believable and intricate society, and it all comes together brilliantly"--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "At its heart, True Swamp is an existential howl. [...] It certainly stands the test of time."--The Comics Journal "There are any number of clever ways of categorizing True Swamp, each of them more or less accurate; most recently, I've taken to referring to it as a profane post-punk Pogo. However, the single word that all of those descriptions must necessarily include is "brilliant."--ForeWord Magazine "True Swamp is a song of love." -- Jim Woodring "Terrific! Lewis goes places no other cartoonists have gone." -- Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics "Lewis's swamp lies somewhere a short hop from Larry Marder's life-affirming Beanworld, which preceded it, and, on the other hand, Anders Nilsen's starkly existentialist animal fable Big Questions, which came after. " -- Charles Hatfield from the Introduction "True Swamp still stands as one of the most interesting and original worlds created in all of comics." -- Ed Brubaker- from the Foreword "True Swamp is a true classic. Melancholy frogs, awkward cross-species relationships, thoughtful discussions on the meaning of life and love and the possibility of kindness, and of course the ever-present need to eat and not be eaten. Jon Lewis has created a world so rich in detail and personality that once you've dipped your toe in the warm larvae-filled water, you won't want to leave. And to tell the truth, you never will. It's been nearly twenty years since I first read these stories and still they simmer away inside my brain, like a benevolent ink-borne parasite that burrows ever deeper, exposing strange new layers of wonder and insight in that crowded fertile swamp we call life."-- Dylan Horrocks, Hicksville "Simply drawn but deeply imaginative, True Swamp swallows up all those other anthropomorphic animal comics and leaves them behind in a stinking pile..." -- Andrew Arnold, time.com