So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish Jokes

When I started The Aquaman Shrine, on a random, quiet night in October 2006--11 years ago today--I thought of it as a fun way to display my then-tiny collection of Aqua-merch, a public demonstration of my adoration for DC Comics' King of the Seven Seas. I had enough stuff thatI thought I could run it for a year, at best. Little did I know, of course, that in short order the Shrine would become the main creative outlet of my life, a daily, swirling conversation between me and the hundreds, thousands, of Aquaman fans who were out there.

It didn't take long before the blog morphed from an online gallery of merch to an all-encompassing, rolling history of the character, in all forms and all media, and a meeting place for the aforementioned like-minded fans. F.O.A.M. membership certificates were issued, interviews were conducted, news was (occasionally) broken. The Shrine, being a big fish in a small pond, opened a number of doors for me, and thanks to it I ended up befriending some of the people who had professional associations with the character, whether as a writer, artist, or, sometimes, as Aquaman himself!

The whole idea that the Sea King was an unloved joke as a character served as a rallying cry for me and all of the other Aqua-Fans, and we kept flying that orange and green flag while the character was in limbo in official DC continuity.


Then, in 2011, something remarkable happened. Fan favorite Geoff Johns took the reigns of a new Aquaman book, part of DC's New 52 initiative. Backed with stellar artwork by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, and Rod Reis, this new Aquaman was undeniably cool, and all of a sudden the Sea King became one of the pillars of the revamped DCU. Aquaman became one of the company's best-selling titles, leading, briefly, to him headlining two monthly titles! Unheard of!

And while I continued along, trying to keep pace with the idea that Aquaman was suddenly everywhere (comics, cartoons, toys, TV, merchandise), my enthusiasm started to wane. I helped co-found The Fire and Water Podcast, and a few years later The Fire and Water Podcast Network, initially devoted to just talking about Aquaman but soon expanding outwards, in all directions. I got tired of writing about Aquaman, especially when it became clear that the Shrine was no longer the only game in town: lots of people liked Aquaman now, so my little effort didn't stand out the way it used to.

Mulling what to do as the Shrine approached its tenth anniversary, I put the blog on indefinite hiatus when world events made the whole thing seem like a waste of time. I had considered coming back, eventually, but now that Aquaman is a bona-fide movie star, it dawned on me that the best, most appropriate thing to do was to give this old thing one last proper send off. So that's what I'm doing here.

The Shrine's Twitter feed, expertly managed by my longtime co-conspirator Joe Slab, continues to be a hub for Aqua-fandom. I handed it over to Joe many years ago and he transformed it into what it is today. So while it feels weird to put a period on the end of this particular sentence, the time has come. The Aquaman Shrine has given me the chance to do a great many fun things and meet some amazing people, some of whom I call my friends. It's enriched my life in ways I never could have imagined when I absent-mindedly started taking pictures of my collection, but I guess that's one of the great things about life.

Thanks to all the thousands of people who ever stopped by here, drawn by their love of the King of the Seven Seas. It's been an amazing experience and I thank all of you who liked what I was doing enough to comment, contribute, or simply swim along.

Goodbye, Aquaman Shrine, and thanks for everything.

--Rob Kelly, October 2017

The Aquaman Shrine at 10

As of today, The Aquaman Shrine is ten years old. I know, I can't believe it either!

Never, in my wildest dreams, that when I absent-mindedly started taking cruddy pictures of the various orange-and-green bric-a-brac I had been accumulating I would still be doing it a decade later, and that it would grow to be one of the major decision of my life.

I'm not going to go into a long ramble about everything, and obviously I don't devote the same amount of energy to the Shrine like I used to. That's partly because A)I've been doing it for a decade, and B)Aquaman just isn't the put-upon joke he was when I started. For Neptune's Sake, he's a movie star now! That turn of events would have seemed even more unlikely that same ten years ago.

For those of you who still stop by, my sincerest thanks. I've made a lot of friends thanks to the Shrine, and my life is the better for it. Semper Aqua!

Post Script: By the way, it sure was nice of Warner Bros. to release the first official glimpse of Amber Heard as Mera. What a great anniversary present!

Aquaman #35 On Sale 10/22!

Here's the dressed cover to Aquaman #35, which hits the stands on October 22! It's the first installment of a new storyline, "Maelstrom"!



By the way, today is the Aquaman Shrine's 8th Anniversary! We're happy to report that this is the best, most exciting time the Sea King has ever had since we started, and we're looking forward to even better things by year nine!

Adventure Comics #256 - Jan. 1959

Comics Weekend "The Ordeal of Aquaman" by Jack Miller(?) and Ramona Fradon.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Man, do I love that Superboy cover! Great staging and beautifully colored.

A few pages deeper into the issue, the Golden Age Aquaman starts his final year of publication with a trek through the desert:

The crooks, watching from above, are worried Aquaman might find some more water and make it out. So they land their plane in the nearby reservoir with a plan to turn off every valve and water main going to the nearby town--so even if Aquaman makes it there, he'll find no water to drink!

The Sea King does in fact make it to town, but gets no relief. Luckily he gets an idea, asking to be carried to the town ice rink. The building's roof is rolled back, and the hot sun starts to melt the ice, saving Aquaman's life! Meanwhile, back at the reservoir:

...and so ends another adventure with Aquaman!

I thought this story was enormously fun--sure, Aquaman stranded in the desert is hardly a new story hook, but...well, actually here it was, for this was the first time the Sea King had been placed in this particular pickle (though not the last). Funny to thing that, in this whole town, there wasn't one family with a pitcher of water or a supermarket with jugs of aqua for sale? What kind of one-horse town is this?

But the art is great (of course--it's Fradon), and we do get to see Topo milk a horse, so there's that. And I like to think Aquaman left those crooks in the giant fish tank.

Today is The Aquaman Shrine's Seventh Anniversary! Every year I hope to make a big deal on October 13th, but time always gets away from me, so this little graphic will have to do. Thanks to everyone who helps keep the Shrine a thriving, fun place, and let's get going on Year Eight!

Splash Page Saturday: JLA #222

This is a deceptively simple splash page, from Justice League of America #222, by the underrated Chuck Patton, inked by Romeo Tanghal.

For those who never read it, the "Beasts" storyline was a three-part saga where the JLA faced off against a small cadre of genetically-modified animal people, led by the vile Maxmius Rex. What really made this story stand out was the level of graphic violence depicted. Sure, by horror movie standards (even of the time) it wasn't much, but to see any blood spilled, at all, in a JLA comic was pretty eye-opening, especially to the wee lad that I was when I first bought these issues.

The JLA is a little slow on the uptake in dealing with Rex, fully grasping how ruthless he is. It's with this issue--the second installment--that they start to wise up. And you can see that depicted here, with the stone-faced looks on Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman as they listen to Rex's former love, the cat-woman Reena, tell her story. I remember seeing this splash at knowing things were getting serious, and Patton's understated body language said way more than gritted teeth and clenched fists ever could.



Department of Anniversaries: Today is The Aquaman Shrine's 6th anniversary! Six straight years of uninterrupted Sea King goodness, never missing a single day. My sincerest thanks to all of you who have supported the Shrine so long and so vigorously. Onto Year Seven!

The Aquaman Shrine's 5th Anniversary!

It's the Aquaman Shrine's 5th Anniversary!

Hard to believe, but it's been half a decade since I absent-mindedly created the Shrine on a quiet night in October, thinking it would be a fun lark that might go for a couple of months. Little did I know!

Unfortunately, since I spent so much time and effort on Aquaman's 70th Birthday Celebration during the year, I really didn't have any room left in my schedule to come up with something really spectacular for the Shrine's 5th anniversary. So this year's celebration is going to be more low-key, with just a story I wanted to share--but a story that makes me enormously proud of the Shrine.

It involves superb artist and Friend to the Shrine Chuck Patton, who drew Justice League of America in the 1980s, and had a hand in the creation of the "Detroit era" of the team. I interviewed Chuck--who sort of disappeared from the world of comics not too long after he left JLA--in 2009, and had a great time talking to one of my all-time favorite comic book artists.

Since then, Chuck and I have remained in contact, and during the lead up to the 70th Birthday post, he kept telling me about the Aquaman sketch he was working on for me and the Shrine. In return, I told Chuck he didn't need to do a sketch for me, since I didn't have the money to pay him what a Chuck Patton original would run. But in emails he reiterated that he "owed" it to me.

I said that was absurd; if anything I owed him for doing the interview and providing answers to questions I had had for years. It was then Chuck told me his story:

"Because when you posted that interview with me--besides the lovely fan responses and attention it netted me, it also helped reconnect me with someone from my past who was very instrumental in my going into comics.

We had lost contact with each other for over twenty-five years and DC wasn't very helpful in keeping up with my whereabouts and I moved around so much in animation, that she was just about to give up when she came across the Aquaman interview and the JLA Detroit article about me.

Long story short, she found my email address, and we reconnected. And about six months after that, I re-proposed to her (trust me, another long story in that too--LOL) and she's now my fiancee.

Here's another bit of trivia about us, she was the model I used for the femme fatale in my first comic assignment for the Brave and The Bold comic with Batman and Karate Kid. Ironic, that when she contacted me, I was just starting to do storyboards on the Brave and the Bold animated series.

So there ya have it--I owe you for reuniting me with my lost love---she wanted me to make sure I told you and thru all the excitement of having her back in my life again, I plum forgot to do that!

LOL--so thank you very very much for being there, Rob."


What's to add to this? Nothing, really, so I'm just going to thank every single one of you who comes and stops by the Shrine; its all of you (and Aquaman himself, of course) who have helped make this site such a huge and special part of my life. And now I know, not just my life, either!

Onward to Year Six!



One Last Thing: Below is a map showing where all of you come from, at least in the last couple of months (click to see a bigger version):

A couple of thoughts:

1)No fans in Russia?
2)The Shrine will not rest until we've cracked Mongolia!

3)A big shout-out to our fans (plural?) on the South Seas island of St. Helena, located between South America and Africa, and is only 10x5 miles big! If we ever have an Aquaman Shrine Convention, we're having it there!

Aquaman Shrine's 4th Anniversary

It's the Aquaman Shrine's 4th Anniversary!

I had so many ideas for this year's celebration, but for one reason or the other none of them came off. I then decided to make the Con Report for the New York City Comic Con today's post, but there's one part of it I wanted to highlight all on its own, and here it is:

Behold--Dan Didio, Friend Of AquaMan!

The details of this--and the full con report--will be up in a few hours!

Aquaman Shrine's 3rd Anniversary

Today is The Aquaman Shrine's 3rd anniversary!

Last year, for our 2nd anniversary, I had a long post featuring scans of the Shrine in its early, pre-blog incarnation, then I threw the rest of the post open to the rest of you to show off your personal shrines. It was really cool and I enjoyed seeing how everyone else paid homage to the Sea King.

This year, I decided to keep it simple: for a long time, I've had a list of some of my favorite artists whom I've always wanted to get an Aquaman sketch from, but have never had the opportunity before.

But before I get into the details, let's just show off the piece--here's Aquaman by one of of all-time favorite artists, Kevin Nowlan:

(click to see a bigger version!)

...beauty, ain't it?

I've never met Mr. Nowlan in person, but he was an early fan of my TreasuryComics.com site, occasionally sending me art or writing credits that I didn't list, or correcting me when I mis-attributed something to the wrong person.

I was thrilled that someone who I'm such a fan of was paying attention to one of my sites, so at one point earlier in the year I asked Kevin about doing an Aquaman sketch for the Shrine's 3rd anniversary. I figured giving him months to work on it would increase the chances of Kevin having the time to fit it into his schedule.

Luckily, for all of us, he said yes. At first he sent me a little marker sketch, which by itself I would've been happy with! Once I drooled over that, a few weeks later the original arrived, in all its glory. Its truly a gorgeous piece, and I thought a perfect way to celebrate the Shrine's anniversary.


I thought I'd take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who stops by to see what I'm doing here. For whatever reason, the Shrine's audience has exploded fairly recently--we're now at about double the daily hits we had this time last year. I don't know where you're all coming from, folks, but I'm glad you're here!

So...tomorrow, we start The Aquaman Shrine: Year Four--stay with us, folks! There's a lot more to come!

Aquaman Shrine's 2nd Anniversary

Welcome to The Aquaman Shrine's 2nd Anniversary!

If anyone had told me, when I started this blog mostly on a whim on a quiet October night that I would still be doing it two years later I wouldn't have believed them.

At the same time, I feel like in some weird way, this blog is my life's work, to the point where I can't imagine not doing it.

Last year, I celebrated the Shrine's anniversary by finally obtaining one of my Aquaman Holy Grails--the Ben Cooper Aquaman Halloween costume.

But this year, between rough financial times (have you seen the stock market?), and there being fewer and fewer "Holy Grails" to get, I decided to do something different.

No, this year, we'll be looking back at what I call "Aquaman Shrine Pre-History" as well as how some of you choose to worship the Sea King, thanks to photos generously submitted by some of the regular Shrine readers.


When I say "Aquaman Shrine Pre-History" I mean at what the Shrine looked like before it existed as a blog.

Back around 2001, I was still messing around with the format of my pro illustration site, namtab.com, in that I had sections of it devoted to my hobbies and personal stories, as if that was appropriate.

I went so far as to have an "Aquaman Shrine" section of the site, and here's what some of those pages looked like (please don't laugh):

...poorly laid out, ugly to look at...basically a mess. And completely inappropriate to have on my professional illustration site, when I was desperately trying to establish a name for myself a reliable professional illustrator.

This point was underlined to me when I almost lost a potential job from a client when, through a third party, I was told that they wanted to hire me, but then looked at my site, and asked "What's with this Aquaman stuff?"

That question left me "Scared Straight", as it were, and within a few days I had all the Aquaman stuff pulled down, as if it was never there. I was convinced this whole Aquaman-collection-on-line thing would just never really work out.

But...I had forgotten that, even with my half-assed effort, it had, incredibly, managed to attract a fan or two.

One of those fans was Shag Matthews, who at the time sent me emails commiserating over our mutual hero worship. When Shag "re-surfaced" on the web a little while ago, he emailed me again (we hadn't talked in years), telling me how glad he was to see I repurposed the Shrine in this way.

Shag had even managed to keep some of those emails from way back in 2001(!), so here are some of my thoughts at the time about what I wanted the Shrine to eventually become:

"Speaking of, I've been lucky enough to get sketches of Aquaman in a book I have from some comics pros, including Fradon and Nick Cardy. I hear that Aparo, when does do cons, doesn't do sketches, which kills my dream of having a triumverate of the three most famous Aquaman artists in my book.

I want to expand the shrine to being all about Aquaman, not just the stuff I own--a history, lots of covers, etc, plus all my doodads. But just keeping the site fresh to try and attract potential illustration work is hard enough, let alone spending hours on those bright-orange pages. It'll have to be a gradual process."

...not only was I amazed Shag kept six-year-old emails around, but that I had the general scope of the Shrine already in mind, this early on. I just simply lacked the right format to implement it (thanks Blogger!)

Here's what I wrote the day I created the blog, and was talking about it on my very first blog, which was (and I guess still is) a hodge-podge of random thoughts:

I'm also glad that I did manage to get a sketch from the late, great Jim Aparo, as well as making friends with many of the pros whose work I grew up admiring via the Shrine. So this whole Shrine thing was a long wait, but it was worth it!


Ok, enough about the past! Let's talk about now, for Neptune's Sake--like, let's see some of the other Shrines out there!

This the Shrine of F.O.A.M. member Andy Luckett:

...nice collection, Andy!

Since all my Aqua-Stuff is in storage, I get wistful when I see a whole bunch of it all together like that. Bonus points to Andy for having his F.O.A.M. certificate in there (right behind the First Appearance DC Direct figure), and I like all the framed comic covers--gives it a sort of museum feel.

Next up are photos from F.O.A.M. member Chuck "D.C." Dill:

Another well-stocked collection, so big its gone from its original home on the shelves and has started to taking over the wall (I've been there). Chuck even has some stuff I don't have--I see an Aquaman party favor (third picture) that I must have had as a kid and now I really want again!

And that custom King Arthur-ish Aquaman figure perched on the pedestal is also really sweet. Nice job, Chuck!

Next is the collection of F.O.A.M.er Joe Mello:

Framed on the wall is an page of an original art that Joe says "my wife gave me as a gift several years ago, signed by Calafiore and McKenna." Sweet!

Joe's collection also features something mine does--that limited edition Aquaman statue (next to the Mac and Cheese box) that is really nice, but I have yet to cough up the money for. Like I said, sweet! Thanks Joe!

Next up is the collection of F.O.A.M.er W.T. Raschendorfer:

Awesome collection, W.T.!

Not only is it a nice Shrine to the Sea King, its, according to W.T. "This is about half of what I have. Lots in storage still..."

I know that pain, W.T.

Next up is the amazing collection of F.O.A.M.er Cindy Healy:

This is how Cindy describes it:

"Here's photos of my humble fan setup The Library/Shrine. It resides in the fourth bedroom of our home. I keep all my comics on heavy-duty shelving in here. (Over 18,000 at last count.) Most of the books in the Healy household are also in this room. Most of my action figures are on display in the bookcase and in a display case from IKEA. Framed original art is on the walls along with commissioned art and collector plates.

I've already run out of wall space to display art; there's a bunch on top of the shelves I haven't gotten framed yet. The closet holds my t-shirt collection and some of the hard to display pieces like the Superfriends sleeping bag. So here's to many more years of blogging at The Aquaman Shrine."

Thanks, Cindy! That's an amazing collection--the glass case makes for a classy touch.


I was really thrilled to get all these photos and see how some of you out there choose to show your love of the King of the Seven Seas. As I've said before, Aquaman fans may not be as legion as Superman or Batman ones, but they are extremely devoted.

So starting tomorrow, we kick off Year Three of the Aquaman Shrine. As usual, I've got lots of fun and unusual stuff planned, and, if all the stars align, maybe even some really exciting news. We'll see.

Until then, I again thank everyone who stops by the Shrine (and there's more and more of you, if Google Analytics is right) and takes the time to check out what I'm doing here. And thanks to all the members of F.O.A.M., which now outnumbers The Legion of Super-Heroes I believe.

I also want to thank people like Paul Kupperberg, J.M. De Matteis, Shaun McLaughlin, and Tim Schlattmann, who are always willing to deal with my crazy, random emails asking for various forms of help and have been instrumental in helping me make the Shrine as cool(?) as it is.

And of course, thanks to Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, without whom this would be The Sub-Mariner Shrine.

Just kidding.
_________________________________________________________

To bring this full circle, today I'm announcing the start of another addition to what I call the Rob Kelly Family of Blogs--Rob Kelly Illustration, which will focus solely on my illustration work (er, hence the title).

My lives as an illustrator and my work as a blogger have always been very separate--I didn't plan that, it just sort of turned out that way. But starting this blogs offers me the flexibility to put up newer work faster, talk about recent art-related events, etc., that the four-times-a-year update schedule I maintain on Namtab.com kept me from.

I'll still be keeping Namtab.com of course, but now there'll be a place I can blog about art every day. So please go check it out...when you're done here, of course.

1st Anniversary Week, Part 6: Ben Cooper Halloween Costume - 1967

Welcome to Year Two of the Aquaman Shrine!

Back in December, I listed this item as one of my Holy Grails of Aquaman Collecting: "This is the Aquaman-Halloween costume by manufacturer Ben Cooper from the late 60s/early 70s. It comes with one of those masks that made you gasp for breath as a kid. And since of course a mask of just a blonde-haired guy isn't too exciting, they added a little orange domino mask just to make it completely baffling as to who you might be dressed up as.

I've seen this surface this a few times on ebay, and one time I almost had it, except I was outbid at the last moment. I had dial-up at the time, and now that I have high-speed, I will make sure that doesn't happen again."

...and that's exactly what happened--er, didn't. When I saw this come up for sale on ebay about a month ago I knew A)I had to have it, and B)it would make the perfect post for the second-year kick-off to the Shrine. A few tense moments and excessive bidding later, it was mine.

I guess the domino mask makes sense, but since Aquaman is depicted right there on the tunic, I don't really think it was necessary. But hey, I'm just glad Aquaman made it as halloween costume, a true indicator of mass pop-culture appeal.

The box only features one DC character, and that's Wonder Woman on the side. Was Thor ever really a Halloween costume? It makes me smile, watching the big stars of the Marvel Universe introduce Aquaman like that.


...and that concludes our 1st anniversary week. I thank every single person who checks this blog out, links to it, and especially those who contribute. Knowing other people are enjoying my mad obsession pleases me to no end.

Back when I started this, I wasn't sure how long I could keep the Shrine going, but just when I think I see a definite end of stuff to post, I find a whole bunch of new things--I knew Aquaman had made deep inroads into the culture, but I had no idea how deep and I've learned quite a bit about my hero.

And even though I've already gone through a lot of great stuff, I do have some other surprises in store and I'm hoping this second year will be even better!

Your humble blogger.

1st Anniversary Week, Part 4: JLA #223 - 1984

This is probably the single most bad-ass, "I'm Aquaman, bitch" moment in the Sea King's career.

This is part three of the "Beasts" storyline by Gerry Conway, Chuck Patton, and Romeo Tanghal. A group of failing, crooked, soon-to-be-busted businessmen subject themselves to a bizarre series of experiments, turning themselves into beast-men and then performing horrific acts in bloodsports for money.

One of them, a woman-turned-cat-girl named Reena, escapes their clutches and goes to the JLA for help(there's a lot more to it than that, trust me). During the first two issues, various members of the JLA are picked off(Hawkman is stung by a giant scorpion, Flash is gored by a rhino!), leading to this final issue where the JLA strikes back.

The main thing that struck me with this storyline was how brutally violent it was--the beast-men, led by a lion-man named Maxiumus Rex, perform savage acts of brutality, torture, and murder, and there's an astounding amount of blood spilled for a Justice League story. I had never seen the JLA take on anyone so mean.

To that end, the JLA is depicted as being a little more brutal in turn, and during their final assault on the beast-men, we get to see Aquaman use his mental powers to basically turn this whale guy into a drooling, absent-minded vegetable. Think Aquaman has lame powers? Read this and say that. If I'm a bad guy, I'd rather take on Batman--he'll beat the crap out of me, sure, but at least he doesn't have the ability to make me sit in a corner thinking I'm a twelve-year-old girl for the rest of my life. (and yes, Aquaman had the ability to go back and undo what he did, but any takers he bothered? More likely this guy was eventually the main course at an all-shark buffet)

If I want to over-analyze this(why stop now?), I look at this story as one of the first steps into the darker, more violent world superheroes would start to inhabit just a few short years from now. The next storyline(issues 225-227) would feature only the "B" team(no Batman, Superman, WW, GL, or Flash), and then there was one final JLA/JSA team-up before Justice League Detroit was founded. So in a lot of ways, this three-part tale was the last "classic JLA" storyline, and even though its a gripping, gutsy tale, the JLA does seem a bit...ill-equipped to face this new, darker world of superhero comics.

One last thing--wondering why some of the panels have such sloppy, vibrant color? An accident at the Flexographic printers? No, that was an intrepid-yet-stupid Bob Kelly, age thirteen, trying his hand at coloring comics. Cripes, why didn't I just a buy a frigging coloring book?

And remember, the next time someone tells you Aquaman is lame, think of this:

T-th-th-that's all, folks!

1st Anniversary Week, Part 3: JLA #200 - 1982

More than any other single image, this is what pops into my head when I think of Aquaman--this wonderfully cheery group shot of the original Justice League, from page three of Justice League of America #200, the single greatest piece of literature ever produced by Western Civilization.

The art is by George Perez and Brett Breeding; the wonderfully timeless, Arthurian-Legends-ish text("Lo, these many years gone...") is by Gerry Conway.

I bought this comic off the stands in December 1981, and it instantly lodged its way into my brain and has never left. The first three pages of the seventy-two(!) page comic re-tells the JLA's origin, and ends with this image before kicking into the main story, which involves the original seven members being mind-controlled and fighting all the newer members.

There was something about this shot that just captivated me--as a kid, I always much more a DC kid than a Marvel one; mostly because the Marvel heroes were so tortured and the world they inhabited seemed so rough. In contrast, most DC heroes were happy, upbeat people, and enjoyed palling around with each other. I mean, who wouldn't want to hang out at the JLA satellite?

My childhood love of both the JLA and of Aquaman are of course intertwined; Aquaman has the JLA to thank for keeping him visible during his down times between solo features. So its impossible for me to separate the two--and this image, to me, is the perfect distillation of both.

(By the way, I still have the original copy of JLA #200 I bought twenty-six years ago--its beat to hell, but still together!)

1st Anniversary Week, Part 2: Liberty & Justice Page - 2003

This is my all-time favorite Aquaman shot, and it's the second page of my all-time favorite Aquaman sequence(click here to see a super-big version).

The first couple pages of Alex Ross and Paul Dini's wonderful JLA: Liberty and Justice treasury comic are devoted to introductory sequences of some of the JLAers, showcasing their powers.

Page six features Aquaman stopping a whaling ship from sinking a harpoon into one his finny friends, by catching it one-handed out of the air, which is cool enough; but then we get this masterful, breathtaking full-page shot.

To me, Aquaman has never looked more imposing, more majesterial, more awesome. "Those who use force will find it returned in kind--and killing is never tolerated." Yes, yes, and again yes.

One time I went searching on Ross' official site, since I had heard he was selling some of these original pages. I saw this one, and heart leapt--it was for sale! Then I saw the price--fifteen grand. My heart sank.

Not that it's not worth it(oh, it is), but obviously I don't--and, let's be honest, probably never will--have that kind of cash lying around, so it's remote at best that I'd ever own it.

*Pause.*

...I just went back and checked, and those two pages are still for sale.

Good.

1st Anniversary Week, Part 1: JLA Pin-Up - 1976

Welcome to our 1st Anniversary Week here at the Aquaman Shrine!

I started this humble little blog on a quiet Friday night, October 13, 2006. Little I did I guess that it would become so popular, with readers all over the world, get mentioned in Entertainment Weekly, and be the catalyst to me meeting some wonderful people, both in and out of the comics biz. The Shrine has come to mean so much to me that it seems like I've always been doing it; I guess in my head, I have.

Anyway, if you will indulge me(I mean, even more), all this week I will presenting Aqua-related things that I love--little bits here and there that have come to symbolize the character to me over the years. It will culminate on Saturday, October 13, with an AquaItem that was, up until last week, on my list of Holy Grails. Yes, I have it now, and oh, it will be sweet.

For today, I wanted to find something celebratory, so I pulled out this fun pin-up of the JLA getting together in their satellite(click here to see a super-big version) from Limited Collectors' Edition #C46, art by Terry Austin and Dick Giordano.

I can't tell if the JLA is having a party, exactly, but everybody looks pretty happy, and there few non-members attenting(Adam Strange, Metamorpho, Zatanna, who was still a few years away from joining), and I don't think they usually served refreshments at world-shattering mission meetings. (Although the paper Aquaman, Black Canary, and Batman are looking at is labeled "Top Secret"...though we all know how Bruce is)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy our 1st Anniversary week, I know I will!