If you enjoyed the underwatery weirdness of our recent double-header over at THOIA HERE, well get ready to hold your breath just a little bit longer for another double with the first two appearances of Neptina, Queen of the Deep from the December 1939 issue of Champion Comics #2, and the January 1940 issue of Champion Comics #3. Featuring some really beautiful artwork (GCD says by "Harry Parkhurst?"), and loads of swirly great undersea atmospheric adventure, this is just the beginning of Neptina's nefarious plans to conquer the surface world, so let me know what you think and maybe we'll take a look at some additional entries later on this month...
When I saw the fishmen I thought this would be a comic version of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, featuring its residents underwater, then I saw the queen and I realized this was a darker version of Maureen Marine.
ReplyDeleteI like the art in these two comics. The art is early style comic art, but more stylized compared to some comic art from this time period.
Certainly fantastic art. Reminds me of the original Jules Verne woodcuts by de Neuville and Riou--at least in the underwater bits--which I imagine was an inspiration to the illustrator and the writer both. That first splash is glorious; both the draftsmanship and the coloring are top notch. The difference between the alien men and women is especially pronounced in this one, huh? Underlined, even. I spent a weird couple of moments saying things like "the hair! Any hair is completely unrealistic!" before giving up and rolling with it.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to read more of this series.
The art is killer, this was the golden age of comic art -- especially in the newspapers -- where you had all the greats working on strips creating some really stunning work.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, as a comic, it's really rudimentary ... so much repetition in the captions as if the writers didn't trust the readers.
Brad is the hero none of us deserve, sure, he knifes a shark and an eel but after that is just rushed from one situation to another, usually well outside of his control, and then, suddenly, it's the rebel base of beautiful undersea babes. The artist got bored of drawing fishmen, I see!
I love these early works. I love the quotes around the "balloons", I love the constantly unnecessary captions, very static paneling. It's like watching evolution before your very eyes.