Once upon a time there was a house. Then some idiot filled the loft so full of books, comics and vinyl LPs that the entire building collapsed into a rubble-filled crater. Luckily the idiot was out with his lurchers at the time. The idiot’s partner tried to comment, but little could be heard through her insane frothing. The dogs nodded, peed on the wreckage and wandered off…
It hasn’t quite happened yet. However, whilst delving through mounds of really dodgy seventies science fiction and fantasy novels up there, we do regularly find a lot of comics and graphic novels. Many of these have been carefully stored (to maintain their pristine condition and collectable value) by shoving them under pieces of an old bunk bed to stop the rafters giving way.
They are in surprisingly good shape, the ones that the rats and squirrels haven’t found over the years. After many hours of going “Blimey, this one’s complete pants,” and “Wow! Tomb of Dracula,” we finally excavated the Fish Police. As we’d recently asked about aquatic-style comics on Facebook, and received some great suggestions, we decided to return to our nautical weird theme. It’s…
Stranger Seas Ten
We’re actually going to show off some British comics aquatic heroes today, but the Fish Police should never be forgotten, so we will mention them. This was a great series by cartoonist Steve Moncuse. It concerned an underwater city populated entirely by talking fish (why not?) and its law enforcement problems. Inspector Gill floated round in a sort of Bogarty, noir way, facing organised crime and generally being… a fish policeman. We like a title that sticks to the point.
The original Fish Police stories were published from 1985 to 1991, and for added greydogtales amusement, we note that it was made in to a short-lived Hanna-Barbera animated show for TV in 1992. Apparently only six episodes were made, and only three were ever aired in the States. Here’s an episode you can watch:
But let’s get down to a handful of aquatic characters from dear old Britishland. Time for Aquavenger, Norstad, Fishboy and more. Only two more actually, in case you get over-excited. We’ve tried to credit sources at the end of the article, but anyone is welcome to say “This is wrong,” or “This is mine, give it back,” and we’ll happily do the necessaries. We’re comics fans, not experts.
Aquavenger is triffid, as we say here. He emerged in (and only in) Pow! Annuals, from Odhams. Pow! was one of those British comics which tried to have more mergers than editions – well, almost. After a short run in 1967 and 1968, Pow! absorbed Wham!, but was itself eaten by Smash! This was a time when every magazine was soon to be called “The Amateur Angler, incorporating Lady Bicyclist and Boy’s Own Spiffing War Adventures”.
Bob Shane, captain of a rusty little ship called the Crab, somehow rescues an old chap who he finds clinging to wreckage at sea. Much to our surprise, the old chap turns out to be Neptunius, a being who possesses “ageless powers”. In order not to be confused with anyone else, Neptunius has thoughtfully left his trident at home.
Despite the fact that he doesn’t appear to have enough power to stop himself having to cling to wreckage, he offers our Bob “unlimited power in the crusade against the powers of darkness”. As far as we can tell, Bob then goes back to limping around in his ship most of the time. Except when he yells “Aquavenger” and transforms into a superhero.
We find it particularly fine that Aquavenger’s nemesis disguises his intentions by calling himself… Admiral Nemesis. Clearly a villain with a taste for wordplay.
Creative attribution – we think Aquavenger was created by Philip Hebden, and mostly drawn by Victor Ibanez at one of the Spanish comics studios.
Norstad of the Deep, on the other hand, is a heart-warming story of a fishman with an axe. Also from Pow! Annual, Norstad was definitely not human. Or a god.
In fact, he is the deposed rule of an underwater kingdom in the Pacific, who loses his strength and courage, and as a result is doomed to be picked up by yet another interfering human ship.
We see that you can still buy some of the original 1971 artwork for Norstad, watercolour on board:
Creative attribution – Leopoldo Ortiz for the art.
From fishman to Fishboy: Denizen of the Deep. This young chap appeared in the Buster comic from 1968 onwards, ending in 1975. Buster was a more long-lived comic than Pow!, and is fondly remembered from our own youth.
In a typical story of the time, Fishboy was abandoned at an early age somewhere on a remote island. Naturally under such circumstances he learned to breathe underwater and converse with fish. How could he not? Turning aquatic, he soon had slightly webbed extremities, and possibly super-speed or something like that. We got hung up on how exactly a small Brit mutated so violently without radioactive waste or cosmic rays. And also why they keep emphasising that his hands and feet are only slightly webbed.
Creative attribution – written by Scott Goodall and drawn by John Stokes.
The Jellymen strikes out in a new direction, and their story is one of those “invasion from the deep” tales quite popular with British writers. Remember 1953’s The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham?
This strip was in The Beezer in 1960, and starred the jellymen themselves, who rose from the sea bottom to take over Britain. We have no idea why. Rationing in the UK had only ended six years earlier. Perhaps they felt some kin with the gelatine we were using in our trifles and plates of brawn, and sought to liberate wobbly food items everywhere.
Anyway, the jellymen were sort of see-through purple-grey creatures with lots of limbs and suckers, vaguely humanoid, who ‘bubbled’ on things, including people, and trapped them for later usage.
Fortunately, as so often happens, a science teacher was at hand. One “Potassium” Roberts, in this case, who mobilised his students and, with a knowledge of chemistry which somehow eclipsed that of the major academic and engineering institutes of the day, dissolved the jellymen’s plans. Our old chemistry teacher, dear “Bugsy” Blythe, would have been proud of him.
Creative attribution – all we can find is that the strip was drawn by Ken Hunter.
Almost finally, from The Hornet, which ran from 1963 to 1976, comes Dolphin Patrol, completely different again. The Hornet, as you might guess, then merged with The Hotspur, which was later incorporated into The Victor. After this they all became a wool-pattern magazine called Knitting for Boys (& Junior Taxidermy).
This one is set during World War Two, and describes the thrilling adventures of young Johnnie Dawson and his trained dolphins. Presumably refused entry by Brisbane Marineworld, Johnnie decides to spend his time fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. An odd choice which hardly seems fair on the dolphins, but that was how comics were at the time.
NOTE: Our researcher Django couldn’t find a decent-sized illo for this one. So it’s not our fault.
Creative attribution – art by Dave Sutherland and Shone.
We said almost finally because we’re going to end with another US aquatic hero whom we have only just encountered. Dolphin first appeared as far back as 1968 in DC Showcase #69. At this stage she looks sort of period-wholesome, like something from Bunty.
Later she was revamped, gained some sort of darker ‘alien experiment’ vibe, and turned into someone who seemed a lot more kick-ass. She started hanging out with the Aquaman gang, and even became Aquaman’s lover at one point. Whether this change is good or bad we leave up to you.
Creative attribution – Dolphin was conceived of by Jay Scott Pike.
####
A number of the characters featured above were suggested by the Mighty World of British Comics group on Facebook, and we duly thank them. Snippets and some illos have also been drawn from the following sites, who deserve full credit:
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk
http://mangamax-aieeee.blogspot.co.uk
http://britishcomicart.blogspot.co.uk
Next time on greydogtales – Barring unforeseen events, Bitey Face: An illustrated guide to how your lurchers are not actually killing each other, and after that – more horror!