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Sunday, September 09, 2012

Adventure Comics #198 - March 1954

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Comics Weekend "The Daredevil of the Seven Seas!" by George Kashdan(?) and Ramona Fradon.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Aquaman takes on what seems like a juvenile delinquent with a superhero name, let's see what its all about:

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Aquaman shows up once again to pull Alan's fat out of the fire by commanding some whales and jellyish to tug the ship partially under water, away from the harsh winds and waves of the twister.

News of this story gets out, and several newspapers run front page(!) stories about Alan's recklessness. This leaves Alan without a job when he is approached by a shady character:
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...and with that, so ends another adventure for Aquaman!

One of my favorite stories of the past few months, "The Daredevil of the Seven Seas" features a fun twist and a nice bit of crook-baiting that would make Batman proud. Sure, the twist isn't exactly up there with Planet of the Apes or The Sixth Sense, but what do you want for a five and half page story sandwiched in between ads for Double Bubble and Wildroot Cream Oil?

Ramona Fradon's work, already solid when she took over the strip, developed by leaps and bounds over these last few months. Her characters have started to take on the physical characteristics of their personalities--the crook (whose very name is Perp!) looks like a human but with some rat DNA thrown in; while Aquaman looks like a pillar of moral rectitude, especially in the last panel. I bet the headlines about Alan the Now-Faux-Daredevil bumped
Yugoslav parliament VP Milovan Djilas criticizing Communism right off the front pages.

2 comments:

Anthony said...

Interesting ad for Wildroot---Al Capp's Dick Tracy parody, "Fearless Fosdick."

Re: Superboy: This months' plot: the Boy of Tomorrow's forced to join an interplanetary circus or see Smallville destroyed by a rock/metal eating monster.

Unknown said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

Okay, I know it's Tuesday. Call me King Tardy.

If this had been adapted as a film by Coppola or Nichols in the late 60's, it could've been called "What's Come Over Alan?". Of course, we probably would've ended up with Richard Dreyfuss as Aquaman, and Dustin Hoffman as Alan, and I'm sure Anne Bancroft would've needed a part...Hmmm, I'd actually like to see that (once, at least).

Tardy James Chatterton