] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Adventure Comics #148 - Jan. 1950

sg
Comics Weekend "Cowboy of the Coral Seas!" by Joe Samachson and John Daly.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Eyes front, Superboy!

Previously, Aquaman has faced various types of people on the high seas: pirates, bank robbers, Nazis, even private detectives. And now...a cowboy?!?
sg
sg
sg
sg
Aquaman ends up unconscious, and Black Jack grabs him, with a plot that will eliminate him, once and for all--surely, this time, its gonna work!

Black Jack's plan involves putting a tied-up Aquaman in a motorboat, where he cranks the engine so it heads straight for a nearby coral reef. It takes Aquaman about five seconds to steer the boat through a small opening in the reef, and then moments later he calls some sea horses over to chew through the ropes, freeing him!
sg
...and with that, so ends another adventure with Aquaman!


After a decent (both in terms of length and quality) run of stories, writer Otto Binder is replaced here by Joe Samachson, who had written Aquaman previously, both in More Fun Comics and Adventure. It seemed no matter who the writer, Black Jack was just too compelling a bad guy not to use, over and over and over. He's even more hapless here than usual, and that's saying something.

You know, "To the ocean, where the whale and jellyfish roam" just might be a good catchphrase for the Shrine...

5 comments:

Anthony said...

Ah, another Black Jack story... so aggressive, yet so dim-witted. ;-)

Re: Superboy: The plot this month: Superboy thwarts the plans of "The Mummer," a vaudevillian who turned to crime. (Yes, vaudeville...)

Anonymous said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

I miss Binder's loopy touch, but Samachson...well, I'm not sure if his oars touched water much, either. The bit where Aquaman tows Black Jack underwater is priceless. It seems so obvious too. Why didn't he do it years ago (say back in '42)?

I would think that Aquaman might have had some moral issues with sea ranching. I wonder if our hero started wondering why anyone would herd seals on his back to the Aquacave.

James Chatterton

Russell said...

What exactly is Superboy doing on that cover?

Richard said...

Don't tell Skeates/Aparo, but Samachson/Daly might just be my idea of an Aquaman dream team!

Russell: he appears to be making a human bridge so those people can flee across the crevasse and escape the fire by walking over his back...because simply flying them across would have been too fast and convenient.

Joseph Brian Scott said...

"Eyes front, Superboy!" You crack me up, rob!

I admire Charlie's patience, which is what you need plenty of when you're herding sea cows; they move like 2 miles/hour.

Was this the first appearance of giganticized seahorses in the Aquaman mythos, I wonder?