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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Adventure Comics #158 - Nov. 1950

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Comics Weekend "Portrait in Peril!" by Jack Miller and John Daly.
It's Adventure Sunday!

Art imitates life this week, and Aquaman is in the middle!

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Young Renfrew has gone completely bonkers, as many artists have. Aquaman notices he's been put under glass, and begins tapping on the glass, sending out a sort of Morse Code message to his finny friends!

The fish help Aquaman escape the vacuum bell, and Aquaman starts to wonder what's going on with Renfrew. Meanwhile, the young man tries another tactic--"shaming" Aquaman into helping him:
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...and with that, so ends another adventure with Aquaman!


Wow, Aquaman is truly a badass here, deciding to scare Renfrew to death so he could turn that terror into art. And he does it with a smile!

It's interesting to me that, amid the row of Aquaman portraits, Black Jack is not shown--surely someone caught the two of them in a fight, since it seemed to occur every three days. Was this the writer's conscious choice to just forget the character?

Speaking of writing, this is the first Aquaman story by (then-)new comics scribe Jack Miller. Miller would go on to become one of Aquaman's most historically significant writers, but that's for future Adventure Sundays...

5 comments:

Joseph Brian Scott said...

College of Marine Arts? Gallon after gallon of dye poured into the ocean? Aquaman saves the day by nearly drowning the protagonist? Vacuum bell bondage? Renfrew?
Boy, chalk this one up under the Weirdzo Files(z). Though my only real complaint is that the portrait wasn't a nude.

And what was Superboy doing to that pachyderm?

Anthony said...

Yeah, this one was weird... especially the ending. :-p

Re: Superboy: The Superboy story this month: Superboy helps a young teacher win his students' approval by performing several "impossible" tasks.

Anonymous said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

A college of marine arts? Founded by Aquaman? Rob, are you sure you didn't invent this place in your dreams? I can see it now: morning classes with Prof Fradon, afternoons with Prof Cardy, Prof Aparo only teaches night class...

Captain Skull?!? Did I miss an Adventure Sunday?

James Chatterton

Russell said...

This is definitely the weirdest Adventure story so far, and that's saying something. Yeesh.

rob! said...

JBS--Though my only real complaint is that the portrait wasn't a nude.

*Shudder*

JC--I would have gone the College of Marine Arts if I could have. Go Flying Fish!

Russell and Anthony--Yep, this one's for the record books. Thank Jack Miller!