True Swamp: Choose Your Poison collects the first storyline of this landmark series, telling the tale of Lenny the Frog – part coming-of-age story, part fantastic adventure, part gutter poetry. Unavailable for over a decade, this 20th anniversary edition features meticulously-restored art, never-reprinted material, an Introduction by Charles Hatfield (The Hand Of Fire: The Comics Art Of Jack Kirby, Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature), and a Foreword by Ed Brubaker (Criminal, Captain America, Incognito). Reprints the original True Swamp mini-comic, originally published by Wow Cool 20 years ago.
“Terrific! Lewis goes places no other cartoonists have gone.” — Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics
"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
“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 his Introduction
“True Swamp still stands as one of the most interesting and original worlds created in all of comics.” — Ed Brubaker from his 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, author of 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
"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.” No matter how strange their origin, behavior, or appearance, these are characters who fully, wholly engage us, heart and soul." -- Bill Baker, ForeWord Reviews
200 page black and white hardcover with color covers
Uncivilized Books, 2012
