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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Adventure Comics #131 - Aug. 1948

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Comics Weekend "The Undersea Post Office!" by Otto Binder and John Daly.

It's Adventure Sunday!

In this week's adventure, Aquaman gives the U.S. Government a hand!
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Shark Barton sees that, despite his best efforts, Cap'N Gregg's route is being fulfilled!

Being the scallywag he is, he has his henchmen shoot at some flying fish who have been drafted into service. The fish drop their sack of mail into the ocean--but thanks to Aquaman and some helpful squid, the sack is water-sealed and recovered.

As a school of dolphin deliver the final package of mail, Aquaman makes a beeline for Shark Barton:
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...and so ends another adventure with Aquaman!


This is one of my favorite Golden Age Aquaman stories, because its so damn cheerful. Cap'n Gregg is hardworking, agreeable type, and wants only to deliver people's mail--the kind of character you just couldn't pull off in a modern story.

Aquaman, too, is at his upbeat best here: never flustered, he keeps finding ways to help out, no matter how many obstacles Shark Barton throws in his way. Plus writer Otto Binder--penning his first Aquaman story--manages to work in a whole menagerie of the Sea King's finny friends: whales, dolphins, sharks, lobsters, eels, flying fish, and swordfish, all working in concert for their pal Aquaman!

The only negative thing I can say about it is that its only six pages instead of the traditional seven. I ain't buying this book for The Shining Knight, DC!

That aside, I have to say this story is just swell.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

Now that you mention Otto Binder (which I neglected to notice at the top): This story does remind me of those Captain Marvel stories he wrote. I wonder if Cap'n Greg is really a talking tiger in disguise.

Thanks for the fun Flashpoint alternative. Let's hope Flashpoint never gets it's hands on Captain Marvel (shudder).

James Chatterton

Anthony said...

I always liked the stories where the sea creatures help out with some sort of task like seen here (or such as the Silver Age first appearance of New Venice).

Re: Superboy: In this issue, a coach (presumably at the still-unnamed-town-Superboy-lives-in's high school) tries to "make a man" out of Clark Kent through athletic training, while Superboy catches some trophy-stealing crooks. The cover shown is apparently taken from (or based on) the story's splash page.