I haven't posted a new "issue" of Surf & Turf since December, but every so often I get the idea to put a new one together, so here we are.
I decided to change it up a bit this time--instead of Aquaman doing the teaming-up, Surf & Turf #10 would be Mera's chance to shine as a solo star. And then I figured why not team her up with another one of my favorite redheads of the DCU, Hawkwoman?
Once I got that idea, the choice of villain seemed obvious.
My rule to this point for putting these covers together is somehow finding a shot of Aquaman and the other hero, drawn by the same artist, and also not to repeat artists from cover to cover.
And even though I already tapped Jose Luis Garcia Lopez as the cover artist to Surf & Turf #6, I figured it was okay to re-use him here, since we're talking about two different characters.
I know I'm biased, but I would so buy this series.
After my last Surf & Turf cover got such a nice and enthusiastic response, I was inspired to keep going with the series.
But I wanted to try and start finding some more...unusual guest-stars, and I'd say I could have hardly done better than the Sea King teaming up with the Creature Commandos, one of DC's most insane concepts.
With the help of my pile of Who's Whos, it was easier for me to pair up Aquaman and another character, and have them be drawn by the same artist--in this case, the great Jerry Ordway.
I leave it to more imaginative people than me to come up with a plot that somehow involves Aquaman, The Creature Commandos, and Dr. Sivana!
Behold the cover to the newest issue of Aquaman's team-up title, Surf and Turf!
I started these on a lark, based on an offhand joke I made a while back, and it turned into an informal "series", where I gamed out a plot involving Aquaman and the other founding members of the Justice League, as they travel back through various eras of DC's publishing history in an effort to stop some crazy scheme by The Lord of Time.
The seven-part storyline would conclude with Aquaman rejoining the JLA, and after I had completed that issue's cover, I figured I was done with it.
But for whatever reason, the other day I had an idea for an eighth issue, the first one not tied to the original storyline, so here you go--Aquaman and Green Arrow vs. The Catman in "The Calamitous Catman Caper!"
I didn't have much plot imagined for this one, other than repeated jokes by Green Arrow about how lame Catman is. And Aquaman having to spend more time hanging with Ollie than he would normally want to.
I came up with some crazy rule that I would have to find stock pieces of both heroes drawn by the same artist, which really limits how imaginative I can get with these. But I did manage to find two suitable poses of Arthur and Ollie by the great Dick Giordano, an artist not previously represented on the earlier Surf and Turfs:
...my dream mash-up issue of Surf and Turf would be Aquaman teamed-up with Brother Power, The Geek, but where am I gonna find Aquaman drawn by Joe Simon??
I thought I'd wrap up 2007 with the last two issues of my imaginary Aquaman team-up title, Surf & Turf.
As I mentioned previously, my faux-storyline consisted of seven issues, each featuring Aquaman teaming up with a founding JLA member, concluding with him rejoining the team in the seventh issue(after that, the Sea King would be free to team-up with more unusual choices, like Sgt.Rock, Ultra the Multi Alien, and who knows maybe even Santa Claus!).
Using Jose Luis Garcia Lopez to do the Batman/Aquaman cover was a no-brainer, but finding the right JLA image was a tougher call. I had a hard time finding the kind of piece that would fit within the cover design I had already, and also have it not be by someone earlier chosen to do a cover, like Neal Adams, George Perez, and Alex Ross.
So when I realized I could repurpose a portion of Darwyn Cooke's brilliant New Frontier cover by moving some of them around and boosting Aquaman's presence a tad, I knew I had the bright, happy, ready-for-adventure cover I was looking for!
...so that wraps up 2007 as the Shrine heads into its third calendar year! I'm excited over some of the cool stuff we have in store, and if my 2008 is half as good as my 2007 was, it'll be a truly amazing year!
Be here tomorrow, when we present a team-up so titanic it will rock the worlds of two blogs!!
I haven't done new issues of Surf & Turf for awhile, so it's high time to continue the story of the Aquaman Team-Up Book That Never Was.
The cover to issue #2 was by Alex Ross, #3 by Neal Adams(I spared no expense), and I continue that tradition here, by tapping George Perez to do the cover to #4, and Jim Aparo for the Aquaman/Superman issue(no, not the Batman one!--I am so clever).
We continue our storyline involving the Lord of Time or something, and Aquaman and various original JLAers have to go to various different eras to stop him from messing with the time stream.
Oh, and I might work in Roy Raymond, TV Detective, too. Just for kicks.
My pal and frequent AquaCommenter Rick Phillips just opened a swell blog called Mail It To Team-Up all about, you guessed it, the art of team-up comics. A fine idea for a blog, since who doesn't love a good team-up?
Anyway, Rick asked if he could use my faux cover for the Aquaman Comic of My Dreams, the team-up title Surf & Turf. I said sure, and Rick put it up on the site.
That got me inspired to work on the covers of the next few issues. Back when I was putting the first one together, the imagined storyline for the book was that each of the first six issues would feature the Sea King teaming up with each original member of the JLA, culminating in the seventh issue where he officially rejoins the team.
So I continued in this vein with the covers for issues 2 and 3, in a story that could only be called "Crisis in Atlantis." Also, I came up with a retroactive explanation for why I have different DC Comics "bullet" logos in the background--in some way, the storyline involves Aquaman and the others to travel through time to different eras in DC's publishing history, graphically represented by the logos DC was using at the time. Makes sense, no?
As you can see, I spared no expense in Surf & Turf--#2's cover is by Alex Ross, #3 by Neal Adams. But I promise--no variant editions.
From the hall of Aquaman Shrine Imaginary Tales, comes...Surf and Turf!
As a lot of you know, on April 27 I took notice of Aquaman's then-sales figures (somewhere in the 200,000+ range) and tossed in a joke I thought up a long time ago, about a proposed Aquaman team-up title called Surf and Turf.
It seemed to strike quite a cord, so of course that got me a-designin', and a few short hours later I had put together the cover for the first issue. I promised Dixon that the first guest-star would be The Flash, so it was just a matter of coming up with the right, exciting image to adorn the first issue(which, of course, doesn't exist).
Mark Waid, doing such a great job on The Brave and The Bold Mk.2, would of course be the perfect choice to write the book. George Perez, not yet being able to split himself into multiple beings, obviously couldn't draw it, so I thought the team of Alan Davis and Paul Neary would be a great choice for the art. My imaginary storyline for the first few issues is that Aquaman teams up with various JLA members, culminating in Arthur's rejoining of the team in, say, the seventh or eigth issue. Then we can get to those crazy team-ups with The Creeper, Sgt.Rock, Lois Lane, etc.
Surf & Turf presents...Mera and Hawkwoman!
