Aqua-Mail

Aquaman's name has been bandied around on teh internets a lot lately--right after doing a long AquaMail segment, two F.O.A.M. members sent me some choice mentions of the Sea King they found, so here we are again!

• First, from Brandan E., this quote from an interview DC head honcho Dan Didio did (whoa! Say that three times fast) at the recently held MegaCon:

Question: At the end of Final Crisis, there is a panel with Arthur Curry, but we've also heard that Arthur Curry will be in Blackest Night. Are they the same Arthur Curry, and if so, how?

Dan Didio: They are not the same ones. One thing that Grant Morrison wanted to do was, with a big event story featuring the entire universe, some characters would be conspicuous by their absence. So the Arthur Curry used in Final Crisis is simply an alternate universe Arthur Curry who came over to help out. But the bigger story to tell is in Blackest Night. The panel in Final Crisis was simply an Easter Egg put in for the fans, but the bigger story is yet to come.

...ehh, that doesn't fill me with delight. I was really hoping Grant Morrison was simply using Final Crisis to bring Classic Aquaman back, and all someone had to do was take the ball and run with it. But...we'll see.


• F.O.A.M. member Brian Knippenberg is a veritable fountain of links--I don't know how he keeps up with all this stuff--and he recently sent me this Aqua-related bit of info concerning Brian Azzarello (from CBR):

A fan asked Brian about any future mainstream work for DC Comics, and the writer responded that Joker is his latest work, but he has stories in mind for characters such as Aquaman and Batman.

He doesn't want to commit to a long term run on any title, but he does have some stories to tell. The writer mentioned he prefers staying outside of continuity, as he wants to work with the iconic versions of the characters and not be bogged down by continuity details.

He gave the example that he has an Aquaman story in mind, but he doesn't want to deal with the water hand or hook hand or whatever the character may have going on. He wants to write comics the general public wants to read, and not just the comic reading public, and things like a water hand aren't well known".

...a Brian Azzarello Aquaman story, free of continuity? Sounds good--really good--to me. I hope DC takes him up on that.


• Here's a cool link that I discovered via Laura's Aquaman Website: Aquaman makes an appearance in a strip by James Kolchaka!


• And finally, check out F.O.A.M. member Caffeinated Joe's collection of custom-made Aquaman "A" icons. Way cool!





Thanks to Laura, Joe, Brandan E., and Brian for helping keeping the Shrine up to date with all the Aqua-News out there on the world wide web!

Brave and The Bold: "Game Over for Owlman!"

Aquaman made yet another appearance--albeit a brief one--in last Friday's episode of Brave and the Bold.

This episode picks where last week's left off--with Batman, having returned to his world, now a wanted criminal (thanks to a dimension-hopping Owlman, who has been operating as Batman).

After escaping from the GCPD, a bunch of heroes take up the search for Bats, including Aquaman:

Batman manages to elude Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, Red Tornado, and Green Arrow, but when he is cornered, it seems like this the end!

But he is saved at the last minute by an unlikely ally--The Joker!:

...I really like the show's take on the Clown Prince of Crime. He has a deeper, more mellifiulous voice, and he looks like a Dick Sprang drawing come to live. I dig it.

Batman reluctantly teams-up with the Joker, convinced that an Owlman with all of the Dark Knight Detective's resources will be impossible to defeat alone.

Like the Batman of the comics, we learn that this Batman is always, always prepared. He has scenarios gamed out on how to defeat each of the other heroes in case they go rogue:

...I would've loved to have read what Batman has written there. (I also would've loved it if Cartoon Network hadn't run a banner ad over this part!)

Eventually, Batman and Joker confront Owlman, who has teamed-up with other super-villains and is holding all the heroes in death-traps, like poor Aquaman here:

Owlman offers Joker the chance to betray the truce he had with Batman, and take him out once and for all. Of course Joker accepts, and seemingly offs Bats.

But Batman escapes, with the use of a handy wormhole-creating device. And while he was traveling, he went to other dimensions and rounded up some reinforcements:

...seems like we've got Cowboy Batman, Dark Knight Batman, Demon Batman, Azrael Batman, Pirate Batman, and Hector Hammond Batman.

They take on Owlman and the villains, and in the chaos Black Manta takes the opportunity to ramp up the power level on the doohickey currently baking Aquaman to a crisp.

Azrael Batman steps in, smashes the machine, and gets some water splashed on our hero:

...re-energized, Aquaman busts free of his manacles, steps up to the plate, and delivers one mean-looking wallop on Black Manta:

...it looks like Black Manta's helmet is cracked in two. Ouch!

Of course, all the baddies are defeated, and Joker is carted away, in a style similar to Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (his face ensconced in a cage).

Batman thinks to himself, maybe Joker can be rehabilitated (recalling his experiences with The Red Hood last episode). They even share some dialog lifted from The Killing Joke. But after Joker reiterates his commitment to killing Batman, Bats' optimism fades.


Like last episode, Aquaman never gets any actual dialog, so VOA John Di Maggio isn't heard.

But that changes next week:

...Batman, Aquaman, and Adam Strange!

Showcase #33 - Aug. 1961

Comics Weekend "Prisoners of the Aqua-Planet" by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy.

This issue's cover, the last of the Aquaman try-out issues of Showcase, was drawn by none other than Dick Dillin, very early in his tenure at DC. (Of course, Dillin would become very accustomed to drawing the Sea King, in approximately seventeen-thousand issues of Justice League of America)

But we're here to talk about Showcase, and this story opens up with a typically dire situation facing our heroes:

Aquaman and Aqualad see a huge sea creature attacking a nearby cargo ship. It has an usual-sized head, almost like a chisel, and it scoops the ship up out of the water.

Aquaman tries to distract the creature away from the ship, while Aqualad spies another similarly-odd-looking sea monster, heading for a lighthouse!

Aquaman uses some eels to distract the second creature, but after a few moments they turn to attack him and Aqualad! What next?

Well, our heroes are saved by a group of green-skinned, tentacled aliens, who pop up out of the water and call the beasts off!

Turns out these aliens are from Venus, on the run since their home planet was taken over by invaders. They are living in their spaceship on the sea floor until they can plot their next move. They brought along those sea creatures to help build their new home, and were scared into a frenzy by their new surroundings.

Shortly thereafter, Aquaman and Aqualad visit the new city built by the Venusians, when another alien ship comes by, and grabs the entire structure with a tractor beam, carrying it skyward!

Time for Chapter 2:

They are brought to Venus (on a tiny patch of land, the only land we can see on the whole planet), and the new conquerors of Venus are none too pleased to see they brought some Earthlings along for the ride:

...I love how comforting Aquaman is to Aqualad, especially in panel 2--his arm on Garth's shoulder is a nice touch, presumably added by Cardy.

Turns out some of Aquaman's finny friends got brought along for the ride, and by distracting their captors, Aquaman gets Topo to grab the aliens and free Aquaman and Aqualad.

They are chased out of the building and out of the city into a thicket of dense vegetation. Since they know the Venusians can't stay out of water for long, Aquaman and Aqualad grab some sea sponges and head for the surface, where the Venusians can't follow.

While on land, they are attacked by yet more strange creatures, and on the surface of Venus (due to the lesser gravity) they have near-Superman-level strength! They toss around the creatures easily.

But suddenly, Aquaman and Aqualad start to feel very weak. Turns out in all the ruckus, the hour that they can go without water is almost up, and the sea sponges they brought for that purpose are down the beach, which seems like miles due to the condition they're now in.

Luckily, Aquaman gets one of the creatures--who has two giant nostrils on the sides of its face--to charge at them, blowing them near the sponges. They pour the water on themselves and rejuvinate.

Now for Chapter 3:

Aquaman and Aqualad try to help rescue their displaced friends, and they run into a pack of aliens who they think are hostile, but turn out to be supporters of the old regime, but were out-armed by the hostile takeover.

Our heroes help them break into the arsenal, so they can get their hands (tentacles?) on some weapons. The two sides battle, and the small band that took control by force are easily overwhelmed. Aquaman personally put the coup's leader in the same cell he and Aqualad were stuck in.

The Venusians thank Aquaman and Aqualad for their help:

...the end!


As I said above, this was Aquaman's final Showcase appearance (as a solo feature). Obviously, reader response must have been pretty solid, because less than a year later, Aquaman was headlining his own book, for the first time in his 20+ year career.

And I think these stories were even more influential than that--all four of these Showcase stories (and many subsequent issues of Aquaman) read like comic book versions of the Aquaman Filmation cartoons, which would hit the airwaves by the end of the decade. I can almost hear the Filmation voices when I read the dialog in these stories!

Showcase #32 - June 1961

Comics Weekend "The Creature King of the Sea" by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy.

Aquaman's adventures in Showcase continue, where he and Aqualad take on yet another strange creature bent on conquest (aren't they all?):

Aquaman and Aqualad are bust collecting samples of rare coral for a museum, when they run across a skin diver trapped under a rock.

The man only has a few moments of air in his tank left, so Aquaman has a nearby devil ray head to the surface, collecting a huge pocket of air in between its fins, and then heads back down, scooping up the diver, giving him enough oxygen until they can all reach the surface.

The man is named Jed Coombs and he says he was searching for treasure, which is supposed to be buried nearby. Aquaman and Aqualad generously agree to go look for it themselves, and the trail leads them to a deep, narrow chasm of coral.

While in the chasm, our heroes run into a series of death traps, like spiked tendrils of coral, giant, man-eating clams(!), and a collection of Mangrove roots which ensnare Aquaman and Aqualad!

Thankfully, one of Aquaman's finny friends is nearby:

...this whole sequence in the chasm is colored in this manner, as if barely any light made it down there. A very effective, very cool-looking sequence, thanks to Nick Cardy and an uncredited colorist.

Now with the treasure, they bring it up to the surface, where inside they see all the trunk contains is two vials of liquid. Strange!

Even more strange is Jed, who Aquaman notices in sweating under the hot sun everywhere on his body, except his face--which means he's wearing a disguise!

Jed fesses up to Aquaman that he comes from an ancient race, and one of the liquids has the power to turn people into a giant, purple-skinned creature (see cover!).

Before Aquaman can get it away from him, "Jed" takes a swig of the liquid, turning him into the giant creature, claiming he is the "New master of the seas!:

The creature dives into the water, chasing after Aquaman and Aqualad. He seems nearly unstoppable, and he swats away a veritable army of sea life as if they were nothing.

He then turns his attention towards a nearby cargo ship, carrying gold bullion. The creature smashes the hull, stealing the gold, and takes off.

After getting some whales to help keep the ship afloat, Aquaman chases after the creature, while Aqualad has some octopi grab all the stolen booty and help hide it in a nearby cave, with the help of some helpful turtles.

Aqualad heads back down into the water, where he and Aquaman are grabbed the creature!

Now it's time for Chapter Three, but before that we have some of the great ancillary content DC put in all their comics of the time, like a house ad for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and My Greatest Adventure, a one-page gag strip called "Homer Goes Skin Diving", and this fun little info strip:

...I like how both the cartoon strips (and the one-page text feature, "Explorers of the 'Liquid Sky'") are all water-related. You got a lot of content for a measly dime back in 1961.

Anyway, now for Chapter 3:

Aquaman and Aqualad, in the clutches of the creature, start to wilt from being out of the water nearly an hour.

Aqualad starts to collapse, and, to save his life, Aquaman demands he tell the creature where the gold is hidden. Aqualad points out the nearby cave, and the creature heads inside and reclaims it.

The creature leaves our heroes on the beach, about to die, as he takes off in a boat he has moored inside a cove (returning back his normal "Jed" form to be able to fit into it).

The boat takes off, but is stopped by some whales. Jed then grabs a rifle, but its knocked out of his hands by some flying fish! How...?

Its Aquaman, of course, who explains that some nearby sea gulls saved their lives:

...that's the second time in as many issues of Showcase that sea gulls provide a last-minute, third act save. Jack Miller must have really been a big fan of sea gulls.

Jed tries one last time to escape, tossing some grenades, but they are knocked away by Topo the octopus. The fat lady, it seems, has sung for ol' Jed:

...the end!


While this story has a lot of similarities to the previous two Aquaman adventures, its still such a fun, bright, fast-moving story that it doesn't really matter--these stories proved that Aquaman could carry a book all by himself, and that his stories didn't drag going from eight pages to book-length.

Tomorrow: Aquaman's final solo appearance in Showcase!

Who Watches The Aquamen?

Today the loooong awaited Watchmen movie comes out, a day most of us comics fans (especially those of us old enough to remember when the series first debuted) thought would never arrive.

I'll be seeing the film tomorrow, and I'm interested in seeing if A)film is any good, and B)if so, how well it does. If its a good, thoughtful treatment of a maddeningly-complex story, and it does well at the box office, then maybe Hollywood will realize you can make a superhero movie that aims to be a lot more than a popcorn movie (as if the billion-dollar grosses of The Dark Knight don't already prove that).

But what does all this have to do with Aquaman, you ask? Well...not much, since of course Watchmen exists in its own little pocket of the DC Universe.

But since this is a big day for us comics fans, I thought we'd take a look at the very brief moments when each of the geniuses behind Watchmen--Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons--crossed paths with the King of the Seven Seas.

Alan Moore was first, in Saga of the Swamp Thing #24, where the Justice League gets involved in a battle with The Floronic Man (aka Plant Master), which eventually attracts the attention of Swamp Thing.

Up in their satellite, the JLA discusses what they can do to handle this crisis:

Panel four on page 3 and panel 2 on page 9 are, as far as I know, the only time when Aquaman ever made an appearance in an Alan Moore story, let alone spoke any dialog (he doesn't even make a cameo, amid all the other heroes, in Moore's classic "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" from Superman #423 and Action Comics #583).

And given Moore's current relationship with DC, we can pretty sure there will never be another.

(Update: Originally I had just a black and white scan of page 3 from this issue, but F.O.A.M. member David Kelly stepped up to the plate and sent me color scans of both pages in which Aquaman appears. Thanks David!)


Dave Gibbons' interaction with Aquaman is equally skimpy. As far as I could find, in all the books Gibbons ever did for DC, the only time he ever got to draw him was in the 2003 one-shot World's Funnest, a fall-down-funny effort written by Evan Dorkin.

Gibbons drew the opening segment, which sees Mr.Mxyzptlk fight with Bat-Mite. When one of them accidentally immolates Batman, the entire JLA gets involved:

...Aquaman wisely gets out of town, before being brutally--yet comically--murdered by the two imps. (I particularly enjoyed Snapper Carr getting it)

But, sadly, Aquaman doesn't get away for long, when later a giant Bat-Mite stomps through Atlantis, crushing everyone under him. Oh well.


Its a shame, in many ways, that Aquaman didn't end up getting used more by either of them. Gibbons of course is master artist, and his Aquaman, as seen above, is suitably regal and heroic.

And the mind reels at what unusual perspective Alan Moore might have had on Aquaman and his underwater world. Too bad its a pretty safe bet we'll never find out.


Go see Watchmen everybody!

Stock Art by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

This is one of the last pieces from the giant pile o' stock art I received by a helpful Aqua-Fan (who must still remain anonymous), with Aquaman in a classic swimming pose, courtesy master illustrator Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

I love this pose so much that, when it came time to pick a header for the Shrine, it was a version of this one I used. And I still love it!

Crisis On Earth-Blog: Crisis Hardcover - 1998

It's time for another Crisis...on Earth-Blog!

This time, the team-up wasn't my idea, but that of Shag Matthews, he of the FirestormFan blog. Today he is writing about the mind-bogglingly detailed wraparound cover to the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover, by George Perez and Alex Ross:

Of course, with the approximately ten million characters depicted here, there's a good shot that any DC character you could think of is represented on here somewhere.

Shag thought it'd be fun for each of us (Speedforce, My Greatest Adventure, Idol-Head of Diabolu, Dispatches From The Arrowcave, Being Carter Hall, Plastic Man Platitudes, Mail It To Team-Up, Justice League Detroit, and my own I Am The Phantom Stranger) to all pick the part(s) of the cover/poster that interest us the most and post about them on the same day. So here's where we can find Aquaman:

...if you're going to have temporarily float in space due to some giant disaster, then floating with Mera and Dolphin is the way to do it!

Tula, aka Aquagirl, is hanging around, too:

I wonder why she isn't in the same vicinity as Arthur, Mera, and Dolphin. Is it because she died in the Crisis, and George Perez (who did the layout and the pencils for this piece) was trying to symbolically portray that by having her separated from the rest of her AquaFamily?

I'm reading too much into this, aren't I?

Anyway, where's Aqualad? He must be around here somewhere. Oh, there he is, looking very sad:

...considering the loss of Tula hit him the hardest, its a nice touch for Perez and Ross to have Garth looking like he's in mourning.

This cover/poster is truly the work of madmen--if there was one person in comics with the same interest in insane levels of detail the way George Perez had, its Alex Ross. Putting them together on one image was a stroke of obsessive-compulsive genius.


Thanks to Shag Matthews for including me in this multi-blog team-up!

Our Way Catalog, Part 2

Superdumps!

This is another awwwwwesome ad from the catalog of Our Way Studios, who produced oodles of stationary and stickers emblazoned with DC and Marvel Comics' stars in the 1970s.

On the left is a DC Super-Stickers set that features Aquaman prominently. And as you can see, little Dick and Jane have already ruined Mom's kitchen table by covering it in garish, hard-to-peel-off superhero stickers. That must be a young Meryl Streep, since that girl is doing a great job pretending she's interested in superheroes.

On the right are those way cool, almost-life-size "Jointed Heroes" figures. Sadly, it was pretty much current or former TV stars only, so no Aquaman.


Like the previous one we saw last week, this ad is courtesy F.O.A.M.er Brian Heiler, who did a whole post on the Our Way Studios catalog over on his blog Plaid Stallions. Thanks Brian!

Brave and The Bold: "Deep Cover for Batman!"

Aquaman made a third appearance--sort of--on last Friday's episode of Brave and the Bold!

In "Deep Cover for Batman!", Bats gets caught up in a fight taking place on a whole 'nother alternate Earth--this one where the heroes we know are villains, and the people we know as villains are the heroes!

Through most of the episode, Batman has to pretend he is his evil doppelganger, Owl Man, and he teams up on the sly with The Red Hood, who is a hero on this Earth.

Eventually, though, their plans are discovered by Silver Cyclone, the evil version of Red Tornado, as well as other bad guys, including a certain Sea King!:

All the various heroes and villains have it out, but of course the protagonists are flipped. In this case, we're actually rooting for Aquaman to lose to Black Manta!:

...hey, this Black Manta looks a lot like Mirror Master.

Anyway, this Aquaman doesn't get to say much (actually anything), and the next time we see him he's imprisoned, when the evil Green Arrow, The Blue Bowman, is thrown in with him:

The other bad guys find out, to their chagrin, that Silver Cyclone was playing both ends against the middle, and his big ultimate weapon thingy is going to wipe out all organic life on one of the Earths, leaving him to swoop in and become ultimate ruler.

Batman and the rest are concerned, of course:

...that's all we get to see of Aquaman, or Black Manta, and the episode ends with Silver Cyclone being defeated by The Red Hood, and Batman being transported home.

Except that, when he arrives, something's very wrong: Batman is wanted by the police! To be continued!


I may have missed it, but I don't believe the evil Aquaman is named, so I'm not sure what he's called. Since he never speaks in the episode, voice of Aquaman John Di Maggio isn't listed in the credits.

I'm really happy that Aquaman is showing up so much on this show--I figure this level of exposure can only help his chances of getting a regular book again (although Blue Beetle is on the show a lot too, and DC just cancelled his book, so maybe it doesn't make a damn bit of difference). At the very least, young kids will get to become familiar with the character, like many of us did via Super Friends.

Note to Mattel: You could make an action figure of this Aquaman really easily--just a quick repaint, and you're done!
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Shameless Plug Department: A few days ago, I started my newest blogging venture, titled After M*A*S*H, all about my all-time favorite TV show.

This has been an idea I've wanted to get to for a long time, and after many delays (basically finding a few extra minutes in my day that weren't already spent blogging) I decided to kick the blog off on Saturday, February 28th, the 26th anniversary of the show's (still!) record-breaking final episode.

Since this is my first non-comic book related blog, I have absolutely no idea what--if any--audience spillover there'll be from my other blogs, so all I can hope is that those of you out there, who love the show like I do, will take a few moments of each day and stop by to check out what I'm doing.

Showcase #31 - April 1961

Comics Weekend "The Sea Beasts from One Billion B.C." by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy.

Ramona Fradon has been replaced on Aquaman's Showcase run by Nick Cardy, who as we'll see acquits himself quite well:

The beasts in question are the result from your typical well-meaning but horrendously naive scientist, who has built an "Evolution Ray."

Even though the title star is Aquaman, this story is more from Aqualad's point of view--we get to read what young Garth is thinking, while Aquaman's plans to combat the now-giant sea creatures are as unknown to us as they are to Aqualad.

The scientist in question--a Professor Richards (brother of Reed)--has had his Evolution Ray stolen by his assistant, John Cook, at gun point, who plans to test the ray himself, and then sell it to the highest bidder.

Aquaman and Aqualad have to fight off scores of bizarre sea creatures, including some of Aquaman's own finny friends:

Before we get to Chapter 2, this issue takes time out for a one-page "Soapy The Skin Diver" strip, an ad for Rip Hunter Time Master, and a PSA titled "Don't Sell Nature Short." Man, comics use to be so awesome...

Okay, let's get back to the story:

Aquaman and Aqualad manage to escape their finny friends, leaving them in a cloud of sea dust, and without harming them.

On the surface, Cook is blasting everything in sight with the Evolution Ray, and then turning the creatures on a nearby cargo vessel.

Aquaman manages to help the ship's crew escape (with the help of some whales and giant turtles), and Aqualad returns with good news--Professor Richards has perfected a controller that reverses the Evolution Ray's effects!

Aquaman and Aqualad find Cook, in the middle of stealing the ship's cargo, and when he blasts nearby fish with the Evolution Ray, Aquaman blasts them right back with the reverse controller--but it jams(!), turning the fish into "future fish"! Great Neptune, now we've got this to worry about!

The future fish all head for the surface, and, since they can now breath air as well, make their way towards an island.

Some of the other fish start attacking nearby boats, and that keeps our heroes busy, just rescuing the passengers and saving them from drowning.

On the mainland, the fish are causing havoc! But Aquaman gets an idea:

...its panels like the one above that remind just how good Nick Cardy's work on Aquaman was--there's something about this panel, its so perfectly composed that it could be taken off the page and presented as Fine Art, Roy Lichtenstein-style.

Anyway, The gulls lift Aquaman into the air, and he uses himself as bait for the future fish. He lures them all out to sea.

A Navy ship prepares to fire on the fish, but Aquaman creates a huge wave, ruining their aim. Why is he doing this?

The fish get closer to the ship, and they and Aqualad can see that the future fish are devolving again:

...the ever-lovin' end!

I like this ending, where the aforementioned Professor Richards seems to have learned nothing from all the trouble he caused and wonders aloud on how to improve his Evolution Ray! Here were go again! A very Filmation cartoon-style ending.


Another very fun adventure, Aquaman was batting .1000 so far in these Showcase stories!

But before we end this, I must mention--take a look at the first splash page of today's post. If you look at it--and yesterday's--you'll see the name of F.O.A.M. member Russell Burbage.

Last year sometime, when I needed these issues of Showcase for a project I was helping out with, I happened to mention to him that I didn't already own them. A few days later, Russell generously sent me his copies--the ones he had as a kid, hence the graffiti--so I wouldn't have to spend the $$$ to get them on my own. What a pal!