While most of the monstrous heroes known as Swamp Thing (there are quite a few of them) have been loners in DC’s comics, Russell Weinwright, the star of Kirk Scroggs’ upcoming The Secret Spiral of Swamp Kid series, is a regular preteen who’s just trying to make his way through middle school and chronicle his life on the pages of his favourite notebook.
Described as being equal parts YA comedy and horror, The Secret Spiral of Swamp Kid is styled as Russell’s titular notebook, in which he recreates moments from his life as comics strips he writes and illustrates. Like all kids his age, Russell’s life is in a state of flux. Social dynamics at school are different, his body’s changing, and it doesn’t exactly help that he’s a walking, talking, embodiment of a pond scum with “algae for hair, a tree trunk for a right arm, and a parsnip for a thumb.”
That being said, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Scroggs insisted that The Secret Spiral of Swamp Kid is fundamentally a story about learning to love yourself for who you are, even if you’re a kid who’d rather snack on sunlight rather than Tide Pods.