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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Adventure Comics #235 - April 1957

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Comics Weekend "The Show-Off of the Sea" by Bob Haney(?) and Ramona Fradon.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Martha Kent is gonna show us Superboy's invulnerable diapers! What a scoop!

Aquaman books yet another sweet TV gig in this month's adventure:
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Once again Aquaman is accused of ruining the show, leaving the Sea King only to sputter a lame apology. He's warned that if he tries the same shtick during the Moby Dick scene, the whole episode will be ruined.

The day of filming arrives, and Aquaman--dressed as Ahab--approaches his whale pal, who is playing the title character:
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...and so ends another adventure with Aquaman!

Not one of Aquaman's most compelling adventures, hinging as it does on the idea that Captain Wood didn't see him blink--a minor detail impossible to convey effectively in comic book form. So when it's the big reveal at the end, it seems like a real stretch.
And again with the smugglers! It's 1957 for Neptune's Sake, it's time for aliens and super-villains--smugglers seem like such a quaint notion, and this group is so lame they get defeated entirely off-panel.

In contrast to the story, Ramona Fradon pulls off one of her nicest art jobs--I love seeing Aquaman in all those different get-ups (the splash page is especially nice), and I can't be the only one that wonders why she never got a chance to tackle an issue of Classics Illustrated. Something by Herman Mellville, perhaps?


5 comments:

Anthony said...

Odd that this show's apparently being broadcast live. For one, even in the 50s, TV shows with an elaborate set-up like this would likely have been recorded on film instead of sent out live. Also, by 1957, TV programs had largely shifted toward being filmed (or even the use of early videotape systems), if at least to provide a filmed copy to rebroadcast for the west coast time zones.

Re: Superboy: After helping the govt. with an experimental gas, Superboy publicly exposes his secret identity.

jim said...

"Martha Kent is gonna show us Superboy's invulnerable diapers! What a scoop!"

And just WHAT did she do with
Superbaby's invulnerable super-poops??

Anonymous said...

And just WHAT did she do with
Superbaby's invulnerable super-poops??


Kyptonite Diaper Genie


Cindy Healy

Unknown said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

And......one of the lamest Aquaman stories yet. Hard to believe this is Bob Haney's work. Even if he was phoning it in, I'm sure he would've put in something wacky enough to make this worthy of Earth-Haney. By the way, is Toco the Earth-2 Octopus aide?

That's an excellent question, Jim. But I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for the answer. Wonder if Zack Snyder wondered the same thing?

James Chatterton

Joseph Brian Scott said...

I love those old '50s teevee shows devoted to showing famous deaths! Wonder if Aquaman was cast in the next installment of the series, showcasing the Cleveland torso murders?