Sketch Week II, Prologue: Eric Newsom - 2007

We kick off another Sketch Week with this great piece by our pal and newest F.O.A.M. member Eric Newsom, who did this as a way to say thanks for our linking to his cool-o Question site, vicsage.com. Wow, that's a man who knows how to say thanks!

I've been wanting to do another Sketch Week for a while, but just never seemed to get around to it. Now that the Wizard World Philadelphia Con is right around the corner--where I hope land some new sketches--I thought it'd be a perfect time to go through some of the ones already in the book (and as you can see, I've decided to present these images as big big big as possible!).

So starting tomorrow, we'll be seeing some more wonderful pieces by some great artists! Merciful Minnows, it'll be fun!

Aquagirl Top Trumps Card - 2006

Courtesy long-time-commenter, first-time F.O.A.M. member Brian Dixon (he of Crimson Lightning, the super-cool Flash site), comes this beauty of a game card, featuring an absolutely gorgeous(though uncredited!) painting of Lorena, aka the new Aquagirl. Its part of a series of DC Super Heroes cards for Top Trumps, a children's card game that's been popular in the UK since the early 1970s, Brian tells me.

Like all of the other card games out now, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with these things, but I don't care--it's just a beautiful piece to look at. Jeez, this should've been a comic cover at some point(its images like this that make me think DC, if they were so set on bringing out a new Aquaman, could've scrapped the whole Sword of Atlantis thing and made Lorena the new Aqua"man").

Brian generously sent a long a few more cards featuring members of the AquaFamily, which we'll see in the future. But for now let's enjoy this--and thanks again, Brian!

Brave and the Bold #114 - Sept. 1974

It's Comic Friday again, and today we take a look at one of my favorite Aquaman team-ups: the second of his three appearances with Batman in The Brave and the Bold.

First off, that's a grabber of a cover--Aquaman trying to kill Batman? I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's a violation of JLA house rules! It's a shame that DC was doing its ill-fated 100-pages-of-moldy-reprints experiment then, because I would've loved to have seen Aparo's scenario get the full cover treatment.

Anyway, the story is the very cinematically-named "Last Jet to Gotham" by Bob Haney and Aparo, who gets to draw the two characters he was most famous for. It opens with Batman and Commissioner Gordon waiting at Gotham Airport(!) for a plane carrying a big mob boss.

The plane goes down, into...you guessed it!--the ocean, and Batman heads down, costume and all. While there, he gets a message from Aquaman, who tells him that it was he who caused the plane to crash!

Batman gets knocked out by some depth charges set by the Sea King himself, and wakes up in The Double-Dolphin, Aquaman's Batmobile-esque submarine(hey! an acessory vehicle! Mego, are you paying attention?). Aquaman explains to Bats that the plane was a booby-trap(can you say that in a code-approved comic?) for Gotham--it was carrying a hydrogen bomb!

Aquaman and Batman go to retrieve the plane, and they find it's gone, its passengers having been picked up by a passing freigher. Meanwhile, another mob family decrees that the mobster in question must not be let into the Gotham PD's hands!!

A storm hits the freighter, but Aquaman and Batman manage to get aboard, apprehend the mobster and grab the innocent-looking crate containing the bomb. They hand the bomb over to some experts who "will take it out to the sea where they'll disarm it!" *Whew*!

The story ends on a soft note, where, as Aquaman swims away, Gordon describes him as "A strange being--so proud, so cold-blooded, and hard to figure! He scares me." To which Bats replies "Me, too, sometimes...but take him all in all, he's...beautiful!" Well, Bruce! Ever tell Arthur that in person?

I don't mean to mock this story at all--it's a lot of fun, full of twists and turns, and packs a lot in just twenty pages. Aparo, of course, is excellent...Aquaman looks just as dynamic and powerful here as Batman does, making for a true team-up.

(The story also features an Aquaman reprint tale from Adventure Comics, with art by Jim Mooney, so this is a particularly-Aqua-centric issue of B&B!)

DC Comics April 1978 Calendar Page

I've been waiting for a good time to post this, the Aquaman entry for DC's 1978 "Super-Spectacular Disasters" calendar, so why not now?

This is of course Jim Aparo doing the honors, with Aquaman taking on a villain that, come to think of it, you'd think would lend himself perfectly to fighting more often--the Weather Wizard. Hey, Arthur pretty much poached The Shark away from Green Lantern, I'm sure Barry wouldn't mind losing one of his Rogues Gallery--he's got some to spare!

DC Comics June 1978 Calendar Page

Yes, another calendar page! This is from the 1978 DC Comics Calendar, the theme being "Super-Spectacular Disasters." The sub-theme apparently was having DC heroes take on villains they don't normally face, as you can see here with Ocean Master taking on...The Metal Men??

This nifty piece is drawn by none other than Walt Simonson, who drew the goofiest yet scariest sharks I've ever seen. The dates page tells the story, accompanied by panels by Simonson and Jim Aparo.

This page--and lots of other stuff we'll see down the line--was submitted by newest F.O.A.M. member Chuck Dill. Thanks Chuck, and we'll see you at AquaCon 2008!*

*Held in Ocean City, NJ, of course.

Super Powers 1984 Calendar Page

This is from the 1984 Super Powers calendar, back when they released calendars tied in to toylines. This piece is of course by the maestro Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

It's worth noticing that when you have all the Super Powers characters together, the fight looks a little unfair--not only is it seven against four(it would've been even worse if they hadn't left out Robin!), but two of the villains can basically taken out with one punch. I'd say Supes and Lantern could handle this by themselves, leaving the other JLAers to stand around discussing toy risiduals.

The most specific fight pictued above is Aquaman vs. Joker, a fight I would love to see in the actual comics. Arthur would take the Joker Fish really personally.

Craig Hamilton Week, Post Script: AquaPetition

Ok, one last thing--as Craig mentioned in Thursday's interview, the 1986 Aquaman mini-series has yet to be collected in a trade paperback, which is a Crime Against Humanity on scale with the Stalinist Purges(I am only slightly exaggerating here).

So Craig suggested sending a letter to DC, asking--nay, demanding--that they rectify this four-color tragedy. So that's what I'm doing.

If you click here, you can download a form letter I have written out to DC Head Honcho Dan Didio, requesting the Aquaman TPB and giving the reasons why. If you would like to help out with this(and I know you would--why else would you be reading this?), simply print the letter out, sign it, and mail it in(too bad the stamps went up--you could've used an Aquaman stamp on the envelope!). There's also room on the top right to fill in your own name and address.

And if you really want to go the extra mile, you can click here and do the same for Anton Kawasaki, the collected editions editor at DC. That way he and Didio can see each other at lunch, and say to themselves, clutching their mail, "Gee, there's a lot of weirdo Aquaman fans out there."

The 1986 Aquaman mini-series absolutely deserves to be collected. Not to get maudlin here, but let's show our support for Craig and his artistry, and for the late Neal Pozner, who spun one of the best Aquaman tales ever told.
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Send to:
Dan Didio, Executive Editor, DC Comics, 1700 Broadway, New York NY 10019
Anton Kawasaki, Collected Editions Editor, DC Comics, 1700 Broadway, New York NY 10019

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 7: JLA Pin-Up - 1997

Our final installment proper of Craig Hamilton Week ends with his fun pin-up of the formative moments of the JLA in 1997's JLA Gallery pin-up book.

I think my favorite part of this piece is the white background--there's so much going on, what with five heroes fighting a giant starfish(funny how, to comic fans, this image is not at all strange), that the non-background helps the eye focus on the center of the piece, with Starro's tentacles pointing the same way.

I hope everyone enjoyed Craig Hamilton Week--I know I have, getting the chance to highlight Craig's excellent work, which has contributed so much to the history of Aquaman. He's an extraordinairily nice and generous guy, to boot.

And we do have one last thing for tomorrow...
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Remember: you can go to Craig's Comic Art Fans page and order a gorgeous commission piece, or go here and look up all the original comic pages Craig has for sale--some of them even from Aquaman!

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 6: Aquaman Annual #1

Craig's last(to date) official Aquaman piece was this grabber of a cover, for the then-Aquaman-series first Annual.

Unfortunately, Craig didn't do any of the art for the interior stories, so this cover--representing each of the stories therein--had to suffice. I'm not going to go into detail about the book itself, since this week is all about Craig!

As you can see, Craig's style was evolving--there's more modeling and heavier blacks than the work he did in the mini-series, and now you can see from examples like yesterday's sketch that the heavy blacks have receeded but the modeling remains, giving his work a more illustrative, classical-type style that completely makes sense, given Craig's admitted artistic influences.

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 5: Original Sketch

What, really, can I add to this? This is the gorgeous piece Craig did for my sketchbook.

When I opened up the package and saw this, I was flabbergasted. As good as this looks here, it looks even better in person--the colors are vibrant, and it has that faint smell of pastels that I remember so well. How Craig drew so far into the spine of the book is something I'll never know. He also drew some whales on the back of the left hand page, giving the thing a design-y, sequential feel.

As Craig said about it: "Since the sketchbook already had sketches by Nick Cardy, Ramona Fradon and Jim Aparo, I felt like I had to give it my best shot." And he did--this piece is so beautiful that I'm having a hard time picturing myself handing the book over to another artist at a con, I've become so protective of the thing. Now that the book has Cardy, Fradon, Aparo, and Hamilton, it's quite literally priceless.

For a bigger shot of the piece and Craig's other beautiful commission work, check out his Comic Art Fans page here!

I thank Craig so much for his fine work on the 1986 mini-series (and with it his incomparable contribution to the history of Aquaman), his taking time out for the interview, and last but not least the sketch. Hopefully our paths will cross at the next NYC Con, and if we do, the first beer's on me!
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Update! A little more research has uncovered some additional AquaItems drawn by the estimable Mr.Hamilton, so we will be able to extend our "Craig Hamilton Week" a few days more, culminating in an AquaPetition you can download, sign, and mail out to DC Comics to get them to reprint the 1986 mini-series!

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 4: Aquaman Shrine Interview

My love for the 1986 Aquaman mini-series by Neal Pozner and Craig Hamilton knows no bounds, so it was of course a huge thrill to get to talk to Craig for a phone interview. So let's get to it!

Aquaman Shrine: What comics did you read growing up?

Craig Hamilton: Oh, that's easy--anything that Mike Grell drew. I loved Mike Grell when I was a kid. And I recognized Neal Adams, but I was more into the funkier stuff that Mike Nasser was doing. I loved the "studio guys"--Kaluta, Barry Smith, Wrightson. All of the really great innovative stuff that was happening in the 70s, you know, as a kid I was lapping up. I bought the first issue of Micronauts, I had an issue of Detective Comics that Michael Golden did. Michael Golden changed everything when he showed up on the scene.

When I got into the studio guys, particularly Mike Kaluta, who pretty early on--I met him when I was nineteen--we were friends by the time I was twenty-one, and he really took me under his wing and gave me a lot of guidance. He's my guru. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, and I was just breaking in, doing Aquaman, I went on the convention circuit. And these people like Mike Kaluta and Klaus Janson--who was an integral part of me getting the Aquaman job. I met Klaus at a convention when I was eighteen or nineteen, setting my sights on breaking in, he was very friendly and nice to me.

They were looking for an artist[for Aquaman] when I met Klaus, he saw my work and said you'd be perfect for it. He promised to help me through it, and of course I had Joe Orlando, who was the colorist, who was helping me with my storytelling and was feeding me all this great Kubert to study. Which is great because its very simple and very basic, yet its got everything there--pure visual storytelling, which I needed, because I wanted to go off on a tangent and be more illustrative and all that, and if you're doing comics you need to be a storyteller.

AMS: How long did it take you to do Aquaman? When I first saw the book, I thought, "how long did it take this guy to do a page?" It was so intricate...

CH: It took eight or nine months to do all four issues. Hot on the heels of that first series, they wanted me to come back and do a second one, and two months in, I only had like four or five pages drawn. I was exhausted, I was empty. Great pages--the drawing was so much better, the storytelling was so much better--but I just couldn't pull it out, and they canned it.

AMS: I was so surprised that hey got Curt Swan to replace you on the next mini-series, since to anyone buying the book for your work was going to get whiplash from the major change in art style. And I thought, this might be something that helped kill this.

CH: Something very sharp and innovative to something very tried-and-traditional. But I'm part of the blame for that for not being able to follow through with a second series. But I was wiped out.

AMS: I know a lot of fans--like myself--tend to be very old-fashioned, but when I saw that new costume I thought, this thing's just gorgeous, and if that's what he's gonna look like from now on, fine. It seemed like the mini-series you and Neal were doing was taking the character, kind of rethinking him a little bit, we're not going to reinvent the wheel here, but, rethink it a little, make it look new, and kind propel him into the future. I remember hearing it sold very well, too.

CH: I think one of things that we did that was funny was take his biggest character flaw, or trait--which was his temper--and, you know, tempered it. And now he's back to being a hothead, so who knows how that fits into the current continuity, but they keep the other characters around, like Nuada, and some of the Atlantis mythology.

AMS: Did you design that costume?

CH: Neal Pozner did. Neal designed it, but I pride myself on being the only person who could draw it. That was one of my strong skills, and I think that's why Neal wanted me. I had very classical training, and I was taking life drawing classes at thirteen. That Aquaman costume is all tied around anatomy. Every point on it goes to a different reference point on the body, and you have to be able to draw the body moving in a natural way to naturally draw that costume.

I was influenced by Heavy Metal and some of the underground comics, and I absolutely loved the weirdness of them, and I thought how cool it would be if I could into mainstream comics and bring some of that weirdness with me. That mini-series starts out very normal looking but by issue four its got that astral battle and it starts looking off the hook. And that costume, even though it makes sense, is a little weird.

AMS: Its certainly a very atypical superhero uniform. Did you have a lot of interaction with Neal?

CH: Yeah; he had three issues written, it was a greenlight proposal at DC, as soon as he found an artist. We met socially at Klaus Janson's house, because he and Klaus were friends. He saw my portfolio and said come into the office, and there I got to meet Dick Giordano, which was just a thrill beyond measure. When I broke in I was so blessed to have people like Joe Orlando and Dick Giordano looking over my shoulder, teaching me as I worked.

AMS: Did you have any real familarity with Aquaman before you got the gig?

CH: I had two "flavors" of Underoos--Batman and Aquaman. I was already a fan. The "D" listers always appealed to me more than the "A" listers. The last round of game card illustrations I did--I did Vartox and The Outsiders. I mean how D List can you get? But I love 'em though.

AMS: What's some of the stuff you're working on now?

CH: I've talked with Don McGregor about doing another series of Detectives, Inc. You know, you asked me earlier about my influences--you can't think of 70s comics without thinking of Marshall Rogers. He's one of my top three influences--I pretty much have everything he ever drew. He was my first autograph. Even though I had met Klaus Janson, I never thought to ask him for an autograph. The first autograph I ever got was from Marshall Rogers.

I've been talking to Mike Mignola about doing a Hellboy gig, but he is so slammed right now and I'm not sure that's going to happen for a couple of years, so I'm going to go ahead and jump on Detectives, Inc. So I'm just thrilled--it's going to be my homage to Marshall Rogers.

AMS: When you mentioned Mike Mignola, it made think about how it seems that he has extraordinary amount of control over Hellboy. And one of the things I've heard over and over again about your Aquaman editor, Dick Giordano, was how he was very hands off[as an editor]. I talked to Steve Skeates, about when he wrote Aquaman, and he talked about how Giordano was very "Ok, I hired you guys to do this book, because you know what you're doing, go do it." And I get that feel from your mini-series, too. It seems to have a very specific point of view, from an artistic and writing point of view.

CH: Yeah, he was very helpful, and he helped do what we wanted to do. It's not like he was imposing anything of himself on there.

AMS: I still go on and on about the mini-series, and say it's still the finest Aquaman story of the last twenty years.

CH: You know issue three, that has the origin flashback? Yeah, Neal and I were most proud of how we did that. His origin should have this magical fairy tale quality to it--I think we nailed it. It has a very fairy tale quality to it, then it gets very humble and earth-bound, and I absolutely loved drawing those pages.

AMS: There's a moment in that I've always remembered, where you talk abut how Arthur's father never really loved his second son [Orm] as much as he loved Aquaman, because he had all these powers, and the second son had the sin of being ordinary. And you drew this panel of the mother, Aquaman's stepmother, looking down, with her hands folded, I think, and it spoke so much to the feelings of the characters. And I've always thought it was a shame that wasn't explored more, because, a lot of kids can relate to that--coming from broken homes, mixed familes...

CH: Yeah, she had that quality, of being married to a man who's in love with the sea. He could never look at her, he was always carving mermaids.


AMS: I can't believe that series has never been collected.

CH: It's one of their proposals, but they've just never gotten around to greenlighting it. I don't know if we need to do a petition, or what. Maybe once you finish "Craig Hamilton Week" you could follow up and barrage DC with letters if you want to see it collected.

I think there's a relatability, you know, with the kid market? In the summertime, going to a pool--you're Aquaman. You think about that character every time you go swimming, and he has that subliminal appeal. And I think that's one of the things we tapped into with the mini-series.

AMS: Is there anything in mainsteam comics that you still want to do, or do you feel like you've done everything that you wanted to do?

CH: Oh no, I've got a laundry list of characters they haven't let me play with yet. I'm working on a Dr.Strange commission piece that's Ditko-meets-Dali. I love Dr.Strange.

AMS: That's funny, because Marshall Rogers drew him, too. You would do a kickass Dr.Strange.

CH: Yeah, yeah, and Frank Brunner, who I've gotten to know in the past three years. That's another great thing about working in comics--to grow up admiring Frank Brunner's Dr.Strange, and then one day get to meet him. I did an art show with him once, and I'm like, "Hey, I'm showing with Frank Brunner, here!"

Later on, when Mike Kaluta was doing some covers for Aquaman, he called me a couple of times to pick my brain. And see, that's one of the great things about comics--the cycle of inspiration is two-fold. Someone who inspired you and it turns out and you've inspired them, and they take it in a whole other direction. And I don't know any other art form other than jazz music where that happens, because its such a collaborative process.

Craig was a true southern gentleman, giving me way more of his time than I could have asked for. Thanks so much Craig!

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 3: Aquaman (Vol.2) #4 - 1986

We've reached--as the cover says--the epic conclusion of the Aquaman mini-series by Neal Pozner and Craig Hamilton!

We pick up with Arthur and Nuada stuck in this weird temple-like place controlled by the now suddenly-powerful Ocean Master. Orm is using Aquaman's blind rage against him, which of course makes Arthur even madder. As Nuada explains, the role strong emotions play in releasing magic, so every confontation Orm has with Arthur only makes him more powerful.

While Orm is out trashing Atlantis, Aquaman is forced to confront who he is and what he's gone through, from his relationship with Orm, his marriage to Mera, the death of his son, his role as leader of the Justice League, until he finally breaks down and admits that he does love his brother, despite all that has happened.

This realization helps render Orm powerless, frees Arthur and Nuada, and they head for home. But this time Aquaman realizes who he is, and for the first time in long while, he's happy.

I hope from this description--what with all the psychological hugger-mugger--that I haven't made this final issue to anyone who hasn't read it sound dull. In fact, seeing Aquaman confront his main character flaw as a way to defeat Orm, instead of just pummeling him, standard-superhero-style, is thrilling, especially the way Craig Hamilton lays it out. His loose, flowing layouts wonderfully convey the idea of memories, the past events of a life, as they all move together intertwined.

The fact that some of these events are things we've read in previous Aquaman (and JLA) comics helps ground the series in the grand tradition of the character, one of DC's longest running and most famous. This final issue gives us a fresh view of Aquaman, and sets him out into the future.

This book ends with a one-page letter column, where Pozner admits this series is an attempt to "test the waters" for an ongoing series. *sigh*

While of course that never happened, at least we got this series, one of the best stories Aquaman has ever had!

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 2: Aquaman (Vol.2) #3 - 1986

Ok, welcome to Part 2 of Craig Hamilton week here at the Shrine! Today we're talking about the third issue of the 1986 mini-series by Neal Pozner and Craig.

Picking up where we left off, Aquaman and his traveling companion Nuada have been kidnapped by Ocean Master, who now seems to have inherited incredible new powers. Orm has convinced a whole society of underwater dwellers that he is a god!

The centerpiece of this issue is a retelling of Aquaman's origin. Like the approach Miller and Mazzucchelli took for Batman in Year One, the creators decided not to rewrite the classic origin, but to expand it and add details to make it even more powerful.

We all knew that Orm grew up in the shadow of his older brother, jealous of his powers, but this version deepens that tremendously. We see that Arthur Sr. married again mostly out of loneliness, and could never bring himself to fully engage his new wife and new son. You actually feel sorry for Orm, who desperately craves his father's love, but never receives it. It adds a whole other level of complexity to what was a simple good brother vs. evil brother dynamic, but without rewriting what was already good to begin with. Hamilton adds lots of touches to this sequence--body language, looks on faces--that makes it work even more.

Arthur and Nuada end up at a pseudo-temple that Orm has constructed, and he continues to taunt Aquaman so he'll engage him directly. Nuada tries to show Aquaman he's falling into Orm's trap, but of course hot-headed Aquaman is having none of it--he wants to kick some funny-helmeted butt. Pozner even lets Orm talk like a pissed-off younger brother, calling Arthur by such schoolyard taunts like jerkface and sweetcheeks, which of course makes Aquaman even madder. Oh, Arthur...

There's even a two-page letters column, a rarity for a mini-series, with answers written by Pozner himself! In response to one letter, Pozner states "I've never been a great fan of the science-fiction elements in Aquaman, since they made the strip too much like Adam Strange for my taste. Now, I love Adam Strange, but I'd much rather focus on the things that make Aquaman unique." Man, Neal got it.

Be back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 1: Vs. Card Original Art

Welcome to Craig Hamilton Week here at the Aquaman Shrine!

As I'm sure you all know, Craig Hamilton was the excellent artist behind the 1986 Aquaman mini-series, which for my money remains the best Aquaman story in the last twenty years.

A few months ago, I contacted Craig and wondered if he would do a sketch in my AquaSketchbook. I told him that since I had the other great AquaArtists like Nick Cardy, Ramona Fradon, and Jim Aparo, I desperately wanted to add him to the list. Since I had never seen Craig at a con, I figured I'd have to FedEx him my book--something I'm a tad nervous about doing, of course--but for him it'd be worth it.

Luckily, Craig said yes, wanting to be part of that august list of artists. While working on the sketch, Craig agreed to an AquaInterview(ok, I'll stop) as well. Once he sent me this piece, the original, uncropped illustration he did for a Vs. game card, I knew I had the makings of a theme week.

So for the next five days, we'll be immersing ourselves in All Things Craig. We start today with Craig's gorgeous piece of Arthur on his throne. Tuesday we'll review the third issue of the mini-series, Wednesday the fourth and final issue, Thursday the interview, and culminating on Friday with the sketch itself. And it's a doozy!

Join us, won't you?

Leaf Candy Comic Album - 1981

Ask and ye shall receive!

Just last week, I did a post on the Leaf Candy Mini-Comics, and wondered about the "Collector Album" that you could mail-in for.

Well, just a few days ago, I got this scan from new F.O.A.M. member David, who said: "As you can see, Aquaman's there standing behind Green Lantern but is probably the most poorly represented super hero on the front and back cover. I sent away for this back in the day. I just remember it taking forever!"

Yes, David's right--as you can see, Aquaman is by far the smallest hero on this thing(*sigh*--what else is new?), and a lot of other, er, less impressive heroes like Red Tornado and The Elongated Man get to be in exciting action poses. Aquaman looks like he's standing in line at the DMV.

On the plus side, he is on the front of thing, and one look can tell you the bigger names in the DCU were selected for the front, so I guess we can be happy with that.

Side note #1--I didn't know that Martian Manhunter was part of this series(Paul, do you remember writing that one?). At 1980, this would be one of the very first times Manhunter got involved in merchandising, if not the very first!

Side note #2--on the upper right, it says "Series 1"--??? Did DC/Leaf hope to do more of these? Could we have been treated to origin stories of Ultraa the Multi-Alien, Lady Cop, and maybe The Phantom Stranger packaged with little pieces of candy??

Anyway, it's great to get a chance to see this. Thanks David!

Filmation Ad - 1969

I had forgotten all about this half-page ad that ran in various DC Comics at the end of 1968/beginning of 1969 until F.O.A.M. member Craig Wichman sent me a scan. Thanks Craig!

Originally, it was The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, until someone at Filmation woke up and realized, you know, maybe Batman would be more popular than Aquaman(you know how those crazy TV execs are!), so Aquaman got bumped to Sundays. But as you can see, they were still promoting it just as heavily.

We definitely have Filmation to thank for keeping Aquaman's presence in pop culture high, high enough that he got tapped just a few years later to be part of H-B's The Super Friends, which of course really cemented him in the minds of several generations of kids.

I salute Filmation with a big bowl of Saturday Morning-style sugary cereal! Thanks Filmation! *Crunch*

Adventures in the DC Universe #6 - Sept. 1997

It's Comic Friday again, and today we're talking about an obscure little book in the DC canon: Adventures in the DC Universe, starring(of course) Aquaman!

AITDCU was a good ol' fashioned anthology book, christened with the name of one of DC's longest-running titles, to boot. The book itself was written and drawn in a much more kid-friendly, cartoony style.

This issue stars Aquaman as the lead feature, in the story "Family Matters" by Steve Vance, John Delaney, and Ron Boyd. It's another tussle between Arthur and Ocean Master, with some nice fun moments thrown in, like when Aquaman talks to some sharks who can only think of food("We had some tasty Tarpon earlier!").

This is actually an ideal story for younger readers(as is the Power Girl tale, by the same team, who tries their best to, er, downplay Power Girl's main reason(s) for her enduring popularity with aging fanboys), and it's a shame this book didn't last longer than nineteen issues and one annual. I'm guessing DC didn't sell this any differently than any other comic in their line--i.e., just to comic shops--and as we know, those places aren't populated by little kids all that much, which is why you see the kids section in most comics stores--if they have one at all--is just a pile of dusty Archies with a few Cartoon Network titles alongside.

Can anyone reading this explain to me--really, since I want to understand how the business works, not just bitch on the sidelines--why it seems so hard for companies like DC and Marvel to get their kid-friendly comics into where kids would see them, like Target*, Toys R' Us, and supermarkets? Wouldn't it make sense to put the books where the audience is/might be, rather than put them somewhere they're not, and hoping you can drag them to you?


*as I've mentioned on other blogs, Marvel has started producing lines of comics just for Target and 7-11, which I think is a wonderful step in the right direction. C'mon, DC, catch up!

Bootleg Super Powers Figure - 1980s?

This toy makes me sad.

I was told when I bought it that it was a bootleg Super Powers figure from Mexico, but there's nothing here to indicate where it's from--other than the Land of Broken Dreams--so I'm not prepared to say officially where it hails from.

It's funny that the art they use for the card is, in a lot of ways, better than the stock art they used on the official SP figures, since this picture features all the JLAers in a great group shot. So I guess the coolness of the tag art is in direct opposition to how bad the toy itself is. The paint is chipping off still in the bag, the proportions are weird, Arthur's left arm looks like it would fall off as soon as you played with it, and his trident looks like a stick you'd find out in the backyard.

You could take this figure, along with this one, and have a really depressing afternoon.

Kingdom Come Action Figure - 2007

I hoped that when Kingdom Come action figures started appearing that they'd go on long enough to finally get around to Aquaman, even though he only appeared in two pages out of the entire story.

It says something about Waid and Ross' storytelling chops that the fact that Aquman does not play any part in arguably the greatest DC epic ever published didn't bother me at the time, and still doesn't now. I felt they handled Aquaman so well, he was so perfectly in character, that what he did--rejecting the Surface World's request to build a meta-human prison underwater--made total sense, even though it kept him out of the rest of the story.

I mean--"You have hundreds of champions to defend a few land masses. I protect the other seventy percent of the world, and there is only one of me"--wow. Nothing underscores the heroic nobility of the King of the Seven Seas better than that line. Thanks, guys.

As for the figure itself, it's of course gorgeous--Ross designs combined with DC Direct production is a magical combination. This is a beautiful figure, more of a mini-statue really, as are the rest of the Kingdom Come line. When Trace and I eventually get a bigger house and I get to display the entire Shrine, this is the figure that'll be in charge of all the other toys.

Super Friends Autographed Script

No, I'm not lucky enough to have a genuine autographed Super Friends script. This little beauty comes from F.O.A.M. member Russell Burbage, who generously sent me a copy of it so I could post it here.

According to Russell, DC once ran the mailing address of Super Friends head writer Jeffrey Scott on the letters page to the Super Friends tie-in comic(how the heck did I miss that?), so young Russell got out his crayons and sent out a missive.

Soon after, he received an autographed SF script! How cool is that? The inscription says: "To Russell Burbage--glad you're enjoying the show! Jeffrey Scott." Below are some pages from the script--as you could guess, I picked some that show Aquaman the most prominently. You can see how influential those Alex Toth intial designs were, even though he didn't actually work on the individual episodes:
































Cool-o! Thanks, Russell!

The ComicMobile!

Publish Post
















As I mentioned yesterday, this indeed is the ComicMobile, a pilot program DC tried out where they drove a van around, stuffed with comics(DCs only), and sold them directly to people in their own neighborhoods. Apparently part of the idea was to talk to the fans directly(in the days before profanity-laden message boards) and get their feedback. I don't know about you, but the mind reels at the concept of someone driving down my street, selling comics (this photo comes from the same place as yesterday's blurb, The Amazing World of DC Comics #2).

When you hear about this thing after the fact, the whole idea of course sounds completely insane. How many issues of First Issue Special could you possibly sell to make it worth the time and effort? And yet, DC was really thinking outside the box in terms of marketing, and if I has been a kid when the ComicMobile was around I would've camped out on my doorstep, money in hand. DC's heart was firmly in the right place. The ComicMobile lasted a year or two, then DC shut it down. *sigh*

The reason I'm posting this pic is, amid the superhero logos on the van, whose is dead center? That's right, Aquaman! We can also see (from left) Supergirl, Batman and Robin, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Hawkman.

Neat-o.

Amazing World of DC Comics Blurb - 1974

In light of the current Aquaman title's apparent looming cancellation, I thought it would be nice and bitterly ironic to post this comment, clipped from The Amazing World of DC Comics #2.

In was in an article on The ComicMobile, which was a van that drove around to neighborhoods and sold comics directly, like an Ice Cream truck(I have a photo of said mobile which will show itself here tomorrow). So, a lot of people were interested in seeing Aquaman, eh? Well, where'd the f**k you all go?!?

Sorry, I'm just a little testy right now.

On a side note--I simply love the phrase "a large number of Metal Men freaks."

Amazing World of DC Comics Blurb - 1977

I've been digging through my issues of the fun-but-odd DC prozine, The Amazing World of DC Comics.

There's lots of neat stuff in there, and you get a sense of how constantly in flux the world of comics publishing is--titles are mentioned that never appeared, promises are made, gifts exchanged, etc. To wit, I found this little blurb in the "upcoming events" section of AWODCC #15.

So, bad enough that Aquaman was cancelled so abruptly in 1977, but now to find out there was an Aquaman Annual--the first one ever--planned, but that never saw the light of day?

What do you think about that, Arthur?

"Grrr!!!"

_________________________________________________________

The Absorbascon reports--from a very good source, apparently--that Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis has a good chance of being cancelled in with issue #57, unless sales pick up dramatically.

There's a movement afoot for everyone to write to DC to get them to change their mind. I'm not sure what that would accomplish--anyone who would bother to write already buys the book, and apparently there just aren't enough of them/us for DC to keep it going for too much longer. It's not guaranteed, but I think my hopes that an Aquaman title would actually get past seventy-five issues are going to be dashed.

*sigh*

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #52 - July 2007

When last we left them, Aquaman mk.2, Tempest, Lorena(aka Aquagirl), Sub Diego Mayor Cal Durham, Topo had just arrived in the underwater city only to find it's been taken over by Black Manta.

In this issue, they actually confront Manta, who is confused as to who this new guy is and why he calls himself Aquaman. They rescue their sea creature/human hybrid friend Alonzo, and then are ambushed by Manta's minions but manage to escape, not before Aquaman gets one good shot in at Manta. They drop off Alonzo for medical treatment, and then Aquaman, Lorena, and Mal continue on to find out the reasons behind some of what Manta's been doing.

As I've stated before, while there were definitely some parts of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis that I liked, I couldn't really get past that this wasn't Aquaman, or at least the one I knew. But for some reason, this issue really kicked it up a notch for me. The storyline seemed clearer, more focused, and the characterizations sharper.

One thing that helped is the artwork--since there's no inker credit for this issue, I assume artist Shawn McManus inked his own pencils this time. As much as I liked Walden Wong's inks, I think McManus inking himself is a vast improvement, at least at capturing the right tone--McManus' line is rougher, looser, less rounded edges, making the whole book look a little more rough shod, and I think that matches the storyline very well. Black Manta even wears a new suit at the end and the design looks like its right out of a Nick Cardy-drawn issue of the original Aquaman series.

Another thing that caught me off guard with this issue was the tone. This book is settling into a fun adventure, full of danger, something for us overgrown fanboys and fangirls(hey, Laura!), but yet there's nothing in here that a younger reader couldn't handle.

In fact, I've found that Aquaman:SOA is managing to capture a tone I wish more mainstream superhero comics would try for--an all ages appeal, but not necessairily written just for little kids. And even though that's something I've been looking for, I initially had the opposite reaction when I saw this panel:











...I saw this, and went "aw, come on. This is so silly." And then just a few seconds after that, I caught myself and said "No--this is exactly how the DCU should read." Sure, it's an incredibly goofy image, but writer Tad Williams just throws this in and moves on, like the classic DC books used to. He doesn't distance himself from this ironically--like he, as the writer, is complimenting the readers for knowing how silly this is--rather, the approach is just unapologetically fantastic, like the world of superheroes is meant to be. This is a world where there are women with animal heads that talk like Lindsay Lohan; let's move on.

My only complaint about the book is still the same one I said last time--that the new Aquaman is still a bit indistinct amid all the other members of the cast. You can get away with that in a Batman comic, since everyone knows who Batman is and he doesn't need to say or do much to make the point. But since you're still trying to sell the audience on the concept as "Aquaman" as the main character, I think he needs to be more defined. But this is only Williams' third issue, so maybe that's down the line.

Ok, actually, I do have one more complaint, but it has nothing to do with the book itself. While reading this delightfully multi-generational-appropriate story, I came across this ad:













Great Guardians! What a hideous, violent, gory, grotesque ad. I'm no prude, but if I saw this ad in a comic book my kid was reading I'd rip the page right out of it. Five Green Lanterns, crucified, with blood splattering out of their chests?? Ugh. Ultra-violence in superhero comics doesn't make them cooler, it just makes them stupider. Where's a Hostess Cupcake ad when you need one?

Pinback Button - 1970

This fun little pinback was part of a lot of 'em I won on ebay; it was Aquaman along with four members of the BatFamily(Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Batgirl). I knew I was paying more than I normally would have just for the one, but I figured I could find someone who wanted the Batman ones.

And I was right--unbeknownst to me, F.O.A.M. member Chris Franklin was about to send me the four PSA Aquaman stickers he had, so when I found out that he wanted the buttons we worked out a trade. Easy!

They each measure about 2" in diameter and are in remarkably good, clean shape for being over thirty-five years old. They all use the classic DC stock art, except for the Batgirl one which looks like a panel grab(I wish I had a scan to go along with this. Chris?).

Leaf Candy Comic - 1980

Early readers of the Shrine may remember that I already covered this mini-comic not too long after we opened our (metaphorical) doors, but I'm posting about it again for several good reasons:

1)I didn't have the book outside it's little baggy of candy goodness that it came sold in, so I had never actually read it
2)I think my writing skills have sharpened since I first posted about it, and I'm always up for the chance to rewrite something

...but most importantly,

3)This copy was provided to me by our pal and AquaScribe Paul Kupperberg, who wrote the book in question! Paul didn't even remember what these Secret Origin mini-comics were for, and I was able to clue him in as to where these books eventually surfaced.

Anyway, this is, as advertised, The Secret Origin of Aquaman, with art by Don Heck and Vince Colletta.

The basic elements of Aquaman's origin--the lonely lighthouse keeper, the mysterious girl lost at sea, a gifted child born of two worlds--are so strong that this origin always works well, even in this very abbreviated form. Paul even manages to work in Aquaman talking to his "finny friends" (sorry, Paul--I had to mention that!). It's a dang shame that DC saw fit to completely re-work his origin, losing a lot of the Classic Myth elements in the process. Ah well, whatever--this will always be Aquaman's origin to me.

I was never a big fan of Don Heck's work when I was a kid, but over time I've grown to appreciate it more, for its grace and clear storytelling. Paul, a big fan of Don's, had some fun experiences working with him:

"Don was a very good artist. If you can locate any of his 1950s work--lots in the Atlas western, war and, I assume, other genre titles--you won't believe how good it was. Of course, I *loved* his 1960s Iron Man and Avengers work: after Daredevil (maybe nowhere near the top of the iconic importance scale, but by far the best creatively realized early Marvel Age origin/#1) my favorite Marvel origin story is Iron Man's by Heck. Don was an intuitive, natural storyteller and he sounded exactly the way I always thought Ben Grimm would've before he became the thing...and, like Grimm, had the bluster and dat Noo Yawk ac'ent, hey, whaddaYOUSElookingnat?!?, but was a sweetheart of a guy.

He once cursed me out--in a good-natured, over the top way--using every 4-letters-and-abovewords after picking up a Weird War story script that I'd written: the half-page splash called for Alexander the Great at the head of his army as it crosses the Alps, elephants and all... 'You *** writers sittin' on yer fat **** asses and it takes ya 10 seconds t'type 'Alexander the Great at the head of his ***** army as it crosses the ***** Alps, ***** elephants and all,' and then us *** artists gotta figure out how to ***** draw it, ya ****!'

And all I could do was stand there, laughing hysterically and when I told him how cool it'd been to have been cursed out by one of my favorite artists, he blushed and started stammering. (In the end, he solved the Alexander splash panel problem the same way he always did, simply, eloquently, and just right to get the job done.)"

So, with a Dick Giordano cover, Paul Kupperberg script, and Don Heck pencils, Aquaman was pretty well served in this comic. Thanks again, Paul!

One last thing--you can see there's an ad for a Super Heroes Collector Album on the back cover. Anybody ever had one of those? It's a good bet Aquaman's on there somewhere! I'd be willing to mail my $1.50 to Northbrook, Illinois tomorrow, but something tells me the offer isn't valid anymore.

Rubber Ball - ?

This is a weird little item that I almost missed on ebay, had it not been for the alertness of F.O.A.M. member Brian Heiler, who pointed the auction out to me just a few minutes before it ended.

This ball measures about 5" in diameter, and since there's no copyright info anywhere on it, it's probably unauthorized...which is strange, since if you're gonna bootleg a product, why use Aquaman, not Superman?

Oddly enough, the poses seem to be lifts from a Murphy Anderson piece of Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, which can be seen here, adorning a cartoon show ad slick. Weird!

Basketball by The ToyFactory - 2007

Here's another wonderful item, an Aquaman vs. Mongul basketball, courtesy F.O.A.M. member Charles Howell and the fine folks at The Toy Factory.

Charles wrote me a few months back, right around the time we posted his company's Aquaman Plush Doll, and said he was prepping a possible Aquaman basketball, and told me what villains might be used for it. From what I remember, he had something like The Joker, Brainiac, and Mongul to pick from, and he wanted to know if I agreed with his selection of Mongul, even though he's not an Aquaman villain, per se. I said I did, since obviously The Joker and Brainiac are so specifically tied to Batman and Superman.

So just last week, Charles sent me a photo(top) of the now-in-production basketball! And if that wasn't cool enough, he also sent me the preparation artwork for the basketball, which was first commissioned--born, if you will--on August 16, my birthday! Talk about kismet!

As Charles points out, like all of Toy Factory's products, they are frustratingly only available "[from] amusement type vendors only; so the best way to get these plush in your area is to ask crane operators and amusement centers to start carrying it. Tell everyone to keep an eye out at crane machines and fun centers near you." He adds: "these should be hitting crane machines later in the summer I hope. There are eight designs as follows: Aquaman, Batman, Joker, Green Arrow, Superman, Solomon Grundy, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman. The balls are rubber with the basketball grip, 5" in diameter." Cool-o!

So while I may never actually own one of these basketballs(unless I start spending a lot more time at Great Adventure), it's just neat that Aquaman's got fans out there, looking for ways to get him on more stuff. What do you think about that, Arthur?

"I heartily approve. Thanks, Charles!"

PSA Sticker - 1992

Another one of the four environmental PSA stickers DC released in 1992(click here to see the one I previously posted), courtesy F.O.A.M. member Chris Franklin (who is known in the comments section here as "Earth-2 Chris", which means he fought in WWII).

While the message is laudible, my main regret with these is that they're so negative. The message and accompanying visual are so downbeat that I'm not sure how this would inspire anyone to want to contribute to the effort--looking at these and I just get depressed.

Instead, howabout a shot of Aquaman swimming with some whales, with an, er, suddenly malfunctioning whaling ship in the background?

British Wheelie Toy - 2000

As the title indicates, this is a British wheelie toy, featuring the mid-90s version of Aquaman. I don't know for a fact it's a UK-only piece, but the seller I got it from seemed to think it was. I've never seen another one on ebay so unless I hear different...

This is the closest we'll get to an Aquaman Weeble-Wobble, since this thing is built to never fall over. And after extensive silly testing, I can confirm that it does indeed stay balanced no matter how fast you roll it. Modern technology is wonderful, eh?

Aquaman (Vol.4) #1 - Dec. 1991

It's Comic Friday again, and I've been working through the seemingly-endless parade of Aquaman #1s--this particular book being the fourth(!) solo Aquaman title re-start.

While it was nice for DC to recognize the character's longevity("Aquaman's Fiftieth Anniversary Year!"), and certainly the cover by Kevin Maguire is excellently rendered, I think we see the problem with the book--and superhero comics in general at the time--right off the bat. Aquaman looks like he's in a murderous rage(who wasn't back then?), and he isn't doing anything particularly heroic here--we can guess the guy at the end of Aquaman's knuckle sandwhich is a bad guy, but there's nothing to tell us that. Is this violent, angry cover the kind of thing that fits Aquaman? Where's the joy?

Mind you, I'm not blaming Maguire at all here--it's up to DC's editorial staff to guide where they want the character to go, so they should've requested a little more action-oriented, less-angry cover image. Maguire can draw the hell out of anything, as we'll see in other covers he did for the book later on.

Anyway, this new book is by writer Shaun McLaughlin, and artists Ken Hooper and Bob Dvorak. I'm not going to get too rough here, since I try to have respect for any group of creative people, who are almost always just trying to do their best. But this book seems to get off on the wrong foot almost instantly--Aquaman is a tortured, mopey, whiny hero. His mourning of the loss of Arthur Jr.--in a story published about fifteen years earlier--is still front and center, and you just want to shake Arthur and say "get on with it already!--dummy up and be a superhero, for Neptune's sake! You're a founding member of the Justice League!"

The art, too, leaves me cold. There's huge spots of empty, dead space page after page. Not that we need every panel crammed to the borders ala Evan Dorkin, but all these tiny figures, lost amid the panels dulls the whole effect of the book--there isn't one dynamic, grabber of an image anywhere in this first issue. Even as a die-hard Aquaman fan, I remember buying this book on the stands, reading it, and not being able to remember a single thing that happened in it afterwards. I think I even stopped buying the book, which I never thought I'd ever do for an Aquaman title.

(There is a nice, fun editorial page by editor Kevin Dooley, who does a brief rundown of the character's history, who he is, and where they plan to take him with this new book. Dooley's light-hearted tone displays a genuine affection for the character, so much so I wondered why he wasn't writing the book.)

Over the years I've picked up some of the remaining issues(this title only lasted a brief thirteen issues--how's that for bad luck?) so I'm looking forward to reading them over and seeing if they improved. Stay tuned--same AquaTime, same AquaBlog!

Surf and Turf #1 - 2008

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.

I dunno, I'd buy this.

Sunbeam JLA Sticker - 1978

Green Lantern! Superman! Hawkman! The Elongated Man! The Flash! Batman! Wonder Woman! Red Tornado!

This handsome shot of the Justice League of America adorns another Sunbeam brand sticker, part of an entire 1978 series(I posted an Aquaman solo one here). The art style is familiar, but I can't quite place it.
*
*
*
Ok, you're probably thinking "Um, great, but why are you showing me this? Aquaman's not on it."

To which I say of course he's on it! It says so right on the back of the sticker:

...and the fine folks at Sunbeam wouldn't lie, would they?


(I would also be offended if I ran something called The Green Arrow Shrine.)

A Story About "A Fish Story"

As any Aquaman fan knows, "A Fish Story" is the episode of Superman: The Animated Series that guest-starred our hero(voiced by Miguel Ferrer), making his first appearance in what is frequently called "The Timmverse" of DC characters.

The episode first aired on May 8, 1999, so I thought on the occasion of its eighth anniversary I'd tell a story I always think of when I think of that show.

As my friends and I (Sean, Chris) were attending the 1999 San Diego ComiCon, we had scoped out a number of panels we wanted to attend. We saw Kyle Baker give a talk, and he was so entertaining and interesting that Sean and I still reference it to this day. Anyway, we also saw two other panels we wanted to see--one by Gary Groth and The Comics Journal, and one by Bruce Timm all about the Batman and Superman animated shows.

The Groth one started first and overlapped Timm's, so we decided to go to that then join the Timm one later. For some reason we were feeling guilty or something about only seeing superhero-related panels, so we were purposely trying to expose ourselves to different stuff(my memory may be faulty on this; Sean if you're reading this and you remember it differently...).

Anyway, about a half hour into the Groth/TCJ panel, it degenerated into the people on the dais going on and on about how most comics suck, most creators are hacks, etc(I'm not sure what we expected from a Comics Journal panel!). Sean and I looked at each other and said to ourselves "You know, life's too short--let's go to the panel we really want to see." So we bolted and headed for the TimmLand.

As expected, Bruce Timm and the people with him were funny, interesting, and it was great to be in the room with these guys whose work we so admired. They screened an advance of the final STAS episode(Superman belts Lex!), and then another episode featuring both Superman and Batman.

During the panel, Timm and co. were taking questions, so I went up to microphone to ask them something(I don't even remember what now). When it got to be my turn, I took a moment and said "Before I start, I just wanted to thank you for that Aquaman episode. He's my all-time favorite character and I thought you guys did a great job on it."

Bruce looked visibly delighted; he then cheerily said "Oh, thanks! That's great to hear, since a lot of people told us they didn't like that episode."

To which I blurted out, with all the righteousness of a motivational speaker, "Screw them!", which got a huge laugh in the hall. I didn't even really realize I had said it; I was just glad I didn't use a rougher euphemism in front of the little kids present. I then asked my question and sat down.

After the panel ended, as we walked out, a few other Aquaman fans took the time to say some encouraging words to me as we left. I felt like a superstar!

...so that's my story. Maybe a case of you had to be there, but I've always wanted to relay the time I got to strike a blow for Aquaman fans everywhere in the heart of the comic book mecca, the San Diego ComiCon.

Flash Card Game by Russell's Mfg. - 1977

I found this weird little card game last week--it's one of those things you never knew existed until you stumble across it (virtually, that is) on ebay.

First off, why a Flash card game? Since it also features other members of the JLA, why not call it a Justice League card game and help sell a few more? And why does it feature only the less famous members of the team; Flash, Aquaman, GL, GA, and Hawkman? You'd think, maybe they couldn't get the rights to use Superman or Batman--but then there's the "S" shield on the back of all the cards! And why only one Hawkman card? Who made this thing, Abra Kadabra?

Obviously, the art for the cards are all swipes--the card box is Neal Adams' classic Flash pose, the Green Lantern running and Green Arrow firing shots are part of their title logos, both by Gil Kane, I think. Aquaman swimming is his classic stock art pose, and many of the others are lifted from Dick Giordano's cover to Limited Collectors' Edition #C46, the JLA treasury. Only the #10 Aquaman pose and #2 Flash don't ring any bells.

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 7: Adventure Comics #443 by Jim Aparo - 1976

This was a tough choice--not because of the cover itself--I mean, it's Jim Aparo--but because there were so many good choices for this final installment of Cover to Cover week.

But Jim Aparo did Aquaman so well that I would've felt weird about not picking at least one his covers, so I went with this one, one of my favorites--the layout is superb, Aquaman is in a very iconic, heroic pose, yet there's stuff there referring to the story inside, as well.

It's a testament to Aparo's skill as a draftsman that even with all the volumnious cover copy, this piece doesn't feel crowded at all. In fact, with the cloudless blue sky, it feels open and expansive. Heck, you can almost smell the ocean air!

And so that ends our week-long Aquaman: Cover to Cover gallery. The most fun part at looking over all these covers (aside from just admiring the beautiful work) was the realization that there were probably at least another dozen more covers that are just as good as the ones I did pick. And everyone seemed so enthused at this idea that I could do another whole week of 'em, no problem.

And just to help DC out some more, I prepared a cover of what Aquaman: Cover to Cover might just look like...

(final art pending)

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 6: Aquaman (Vol.7) #20 by Alan Davis - 2004

Comic book artist extraordinaire Alan Davis drew a mere five covers for the current Aquaman series--#s 15-20--and all of them were superb. They were distinct throwbacks to an earlier era of comics, with giant monsters, natural disasters, even Aquaman shrunk down and stuck in a test tube! They were all so nice I had a hard time picking which one was my favorite.

I ended up going with this one because of its poster-like qualities and its palpable sense of fun and adventure--Aquaman and his new sidekick, Lorena (aka Aquagirl) rushing headlong into what is certainly a battle of life and death!

Alan Davis was the original artist picked for the 1986 Aquaman mini-series when he was taken off the book and put on Batman and the Outsiders. And while I wouldn't want to have missed replacement Craig Hamilton's work for the world, it is a shame Alan Davis--who is admittedly an Aquaman fan--didn't get his shot at the character. As you can see, he draws Aquaman really, really well.

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 5: Aquaman #45 by Nick Cardy - 1969

Another stunning Nick Cardy cover, this is a rare book from the time that doesn't feature a whole bunch of cover copy. Perhaps when editorial saw this powerful, moody piece that they realized they shouldn't muck it up with a whole bunch of text?

The colors are beautiful, the texture is perfect, and again, it makes you want to read the story. Is Aquaman really dead? Who is this mystery woman crying over him--it sure ain't Mera!

Back in 1998, when I got my Aquaman sketch by Mr. Cardy at the San Diego ComiCon, while he was drawing I asked him if he ever had any trouble from DC when he was submitting these wonderfully innovative covers. He said something to the effect of "Nah. There were so few of us willing to do comics back then they let us do what we wanted most of the time."

An era when there were more comics to be drawn then there were artists to do them? Now that was the Golden Age of comics!

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 4: Aquaman Vol.2 #1 by Craig Hamilton - 1986

As I was preparing this list, I was debating whether to include the covers to books I've already posted here on the Shrine. Then I remembered back when I would buy those The Greatest [Fill in name of hero] Stories Ever Told books DC put out in the early 90s, and they would always leave out major, classic story arcs because they were "too long to include in this book" or some such excuse. "Well then", I would think, "it's not really the Greatest Stories, is it?" So here we are.

My admiration for the Pozner/Hamilton Aquaman 1986 mini-series is well known and I won't bore you getting into it all over again. All I will say is Hamilton brought a new artistic sophistication to the look of Aquaman and his world, even without the spiffy new costume.

This cover is the best representation of that, and DC was right on the money using it a promo poster. Great design, high drama, and the use of a slightly-faded background mosaic makes the main figure *pop*, like any good--no, great--cover should.

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 3: Adventure Comics #475 by Brian Bolland - 1980

An early indication of the artistic brilliance of Brian Bolland, this was one of the very first of a long list of gorgeous covers he would do for DC Comics.

I remember seeing this on the newsstand, and it jumped out at me. Now, sure, any comic with Aquaman on it was going to do that, but this one really struck me--such a wonderfully dynamic, poster-like image, the heavy black offsetting the bright colors. Aquaman has rarely looked more heroic or exciting. Sadly, this is the only cover Bolland would do for Adventure.

I do find it funny that Plastic Man and Starman look happy Aquaman has come to Adventure Comics, even though they were about to lose their cover-star status to him.

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 2: World's Finest #203 by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano - 1971

Since I don't want my (imaginary) Aquaman: Cover to Cover book to be nothing but Nick Cardy pieces (though it could be), I'm making sure to branch out a little bit. Though I guess the inclusion of a cover by Neal Adams in a book of great ones can hardly come as a surprise choice.

To me, this is a classic, iconic example of a Superhero Comic Book Cover--mysterious bad guys, good guys in trouble, and a gripping, ballsy problem that screams I gotta buy this comic to see how it turns out. The colors, too, are unusual and the tilted axis really helps sell the confusion and panic that Supes is obviously feeling.

So even though Aquaman isn't quite doing anything heroic here, it's still a great cover and one of my all-time favorites.