COMIC BOOKS: Swamp Thing's Quagmire

Swamp Thing, the plantlike hero of a DC Comics series for adults, is taking an involuntary vacation. Swamp Thing had been traveling through time in recent issues, meeting personalities ranging from Adolf Hitler to King Arthur. But an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth has proved too provocative. DC's editor in chief, Jenette Kahn, canceled the June issue (No. 88), in which Swamp Thing appears at the Garden of Gethsemane bearing the Holy Grail. Said Kahn: "We believed that the story concept would be offensive to many of our readers."

Kahn's decision prompted series writer Rick Veitch to resign in protest from DC, a subsidiary of Warner Communications. He says, "I expected the same creative freedom that goes with writing a novel." The series' 50,000 fans are in an uproar. Says Stephen Kelleher, manager of Big Apple Comics in New York ; City: "Swamp Thing was only meeting Jesus. It's not like they were going to sing show tunes or perform high jinks."