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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Adventure Comics #199 - April 1954

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Comics Weekend "The Fire-Fighter of the Seven Seas!" by George Kashdan(?) and Ramona Fradon.
It's Adventure Sunday!

Let's see if Aquaman trades his walrus for a Dalmation in this issue's adventure:


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Aquaman receives kudos for his rescuing, and meets Jim, who mentions that he used to be a fireman himself. Recognizing the name and knowing the story, Aquaman decides to help the man, starting with a tour of the various "firehouses" the Sea King has established across the seven seas.

But then, an "emergency":
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...and with that, so ends another adventure for Aquaman!

Aquaman is at his kindliest here, going out of his way to help Jim snap out of his fear-induced haze. Kind of amazing that none of Jim's pals thought to visit him in the hospital, and tell him the truth, saving him from all this mental anguish. Maybe they were all busy putting out fires.

For a guy who considered himself such a loner (never joining any of the super-teams that had formed in the 1940s), Aquaman sure is eager to be one of the gang when it came to Surface Dwellers. By this point we've learned he's best pals with members of the Navy, the police, various movie studios, several circuses, a university or two, and now firemen!

Ramona Fradon draws everything well--we all know that--but she handles all the fire-fighting stuff with aplomb. Maybe if she had been the artist, Fireman Farrell would have been a bigger hit.

6 comments:

Anthony said...

A banker, restaurant manager, a firefighter... Aquaman apparently spent the 50s doing all the functions of a typical town!

Re: Superboy: Superboy visits a subterranean kingdom, where he helps save its queen from an evil Duke via the use of her robot duplicate of Superboy.

Mike Gillis said...

That whale-fireboat on the first page may be the greatest thing I've ever seen!

Michael Holloway said...

That's why Aquaman is so amazing, he's everybody's best pal and a great guy at that. I'd be honoured to have Aquaman as a buddy.

Russell said...

What an adorable story. No wonder Aquaman survived the 50s.

"Is that the new Superboy, son?"

"Yes, Pop, but I buy it for the Aquaman stories. They're neat!"

Unknown said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

That fire-fighting whale will haunt my dreams tonight. I would loved to have seen Ramona Fradon's reaction when she opened this script up.

James Chatterton

Joseph Brian Scott said...

This story is adorable, but it's interesting to me more because it's a different, moodier type of story than what we've been seeing; a kind of psychoaquadrama. It preceded the movie by 4 years, but there's a whiff of "Vertigo" on the high seas in this one.

And look, there's another presagement of "Plop!" Ha ha, good thing that guy got a 1954 PLOP isntead of a 1973 PLOP, otherwise he wouldn't have hit the Browder net.