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Sunday, April 18, 2010

More Fun Comics #105 - Sept. 1945

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Comics Weekend "Be-Kind-To-Whales Week!" by Joe Samachson(?) and Louis Cazeneuve.

More fun with More Fun!

The oddly-domed Superboy shows just how superior he is to humans on this issue's More Fun cover, the last superhero-only cover of the series.

Aquaman's adventure this week deals with a subject near and dear to his heart--whales!:
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The two men continue to argue, and Captain Trawler is still determined to smash the professor's apparatus. The professor restates they are only trying to protect the whales.

When Captain Trawler says the whales are fine as they are, Aquaman points out that's not quite true: the gentle whales are subject to attacks by the bigger, meaner "killer whales", which is going on right in front of them!

Aquaman dives in, commanding the killer whales to back off. The killer whales don't feel like listening :
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Aquaman climbs aboard one of the killer whales and aims it at another, so they all begin to fight amongst themselves, giving other whales the chance to escape.

Trawler begins to back down, and the Professor points out with the equipment they have, they can hunt the killer whales and the swordfish to keep them away from the relatively tiny part of the ocean the other whales inhabit:
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...now that's just good advice!


While this might not be the best Aquaman story in the More Fun bunch, its one of my all-time favorites. Partly because of its ecological message, presented fairly even-handedly. Partly because it features some of the goofy humor on display in a lot of these stories.

I love this panel, when Aquaman tries to get between the two different sets of whales:
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...I just love the joie de vivre the Golden Age Aquaman has. This is a very serious situation, but he's able to talk to a giant, razor-teeth killer whale with utter confidence.

And finally, its because this story also features one of my favorite traits of the Golden Age Aquaman: his total willingness to bust heads (and more!) with extreme prejudice. Check out the way he handles the whaler at the end of the story:
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...he harpoons the guy in the stomach! The Golden Age Aquaman is the best at what he does, and he what he does ain't pretty.

4 comments:

Wings1295 said...

I think you hit on something there, Rob.

The 90s Aquaman was made to look all mean - bearded, hook-handed - so he could be seen as a bad-ass.

But way back here, the orange-and-green Aquaman WAS a freakin' bad-ass and had fun while doing it. Both are NOT mutually exclusive!

David J. Cutler said...

The only thing I don't love about these golden age yarns are the poorly referenced animal drawings. Aquaman's attitude and character are pretty perfect.

Count Drunkula said...

That panel is awesome!

@Wings - You said it. Looks don't make the bad-ass; actions do.

IADW said...

The great one-liners keep coming! Love the 'whale of a punch'. Always great looking back on these early adventures every week.

Oh for the days where a super-hero playing marbles was all it took to sell a comic book...