Indie Squid Kid

Batman #357 (March, 1983) ©DC Comics

You don’t often see the Dark Knight getting his ass handed to him by a cephalopod, let alone a giant squid named “Gertrude,” but that’s exactly what this cover by Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano is showing us.

Batman #357 (written by Gerry Conway) features the return of Clement Carp, a Gotham City crime boss known as The Squid. Carp first appeared in Detective Comics #497 (December, 1980), and this time he is set up on the Gotham waterfront with a huge tank for Gertrude, his captive giant squid. Anyone who crosses Carp gets fed to Getrude, and Batman eventually finds himself in her deadly embrace. The Caped Crusader escapes, of course, and The Squid gets shot and killed by Killer Croc, a former member if his gang. I’m not sure what fate befalls Gertrude, but I would like to think that Batman helped her escape from captivity and return to the sea.

All this took place before Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 1985 mega-event that reset continuity for the entire DC Universe. The Squid has had only one brief Post-Crisis appearance, and he (and Gertrude) may still be kicking (or swimming) around the DCU to this very day.

xkcd.com

Slam-Bang Comics #4 (June, 1940)

Slam-Bang Comics was a short-lived anthology series published by Fawcett Comics in 1940. It ran for only seven issues, and, as the title suggests, it featured two-fisted action stories with characters like: Diamond Jack (and his magic gem), War Bird, Tom Swift and the Time Retarder (the first time traveler in comics), Lee Granger, Jungle King (often with Eric, the Talking Lion), and Hurricane Hansen, Sea Adventurer.

I haven’t been able to find a whole lot of information about Hurricane Hansen online, other than that he was an American who joined the British Navy, eventually attaining the rank of Captain and given the command of a sea raider. There were Hansen stories in all seven issues of Slam-Bang, but he only got the cover of a single issue, #4. Here we see Hansen saving a diver (or is it a beekeeper?) from the clutches of an octopus that seems more like an alien from Invasion of the Saucer-Men than any actual earthly cephalopod.

©Marvel Comics

The original Marvel 1602 was a critically acclaimed eight issue mini-series from 2003 written by Neil Gaiman and penciled by Andy Kubert. It presents an alternate history (officially known as Earth-311) where characters recognizable from the modern Marvel Universe have appeared centuries earlier in the Elizabethan era. (Read a detailed synopsis here.) The success of 1602 spawned a number of sequel series: 1602: New World (2005), Marvel 1602: Fantastik Four (2006), and Spider-Man 1602 (2009-2010).

Peter Parquagh is the young apprentice of Sir Nicholas Fury, the royal spymaster of Queen Elizabeth I. He is sent to America to escort the young Virgina Dare to England, and he gets caught up in a series of intrigues involving the likes of Count Doom of Latveria and Carlos Javier and his school for “Whichbreed” (aka mutants). As you might have guessed, he eventually gets bitten by a strange arachnid, gains powers, and assumes a costumed identity as The Spider.

Spider-Man 1602 introduces Baron Victor Octavius, an Italian nobleman suffering from the plague. The Baron attempted to cure himself using octopus blood, and although this seemed to work, it also had the unforeseen side effect of changing him into a monstrous human/octopus hybrid.

Baron Octavius ©Marvel Comics

Attempting to reverse the transformation, Octavius has begun experimenting on both normal humans and Whichbreed, and he eventually sets his sights on The Spider. His plans are thwarted, however, by natrual philosopher Henri Le Pym, who was being blackmailed into helping the Baron research a cure for his mutated condition.

The fifith and final issue of Spider-Man 1602 came out this past February, and the collected story is due out in hardcover this June.

All Top #16 (March, 1949)

All Top was an anthology series published by Fox Features Syndicate between 1946 and 1949. Some featured characters, such as Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady, would eventually be acquired by DC Comics and are still around today. Others, like Rulah, Jungle Goddess, seen here fighting an octopus and wearing her signature giraffe-skin bikini, have faded into comics obscurity.

Rulah was created by artist Matt Baker and an uncredited writer, and she debuted in Zoot Comics #7 (June, 1947). She was similar to Sheena, the orignal female Tarzan clone, but instead of being raised in the jungle, Jane Dodge (changed to “Joan Grayson” in a later retelling of her origin) was a thrill-seeking socialite aviatrix who crashed her plane into the uncivilized African interior. Tragically, her clothes were destroyed in the crash, as was a passing giraffe who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Clad in the giraffe’s hide, Jane saves a local tribe from an evil white jungle queen, and Rulah, Jungle Goddess was born.

I’m not sure if the cover of All Top 16 is supposed to depict some sort of African Jungle Octopus, or if Rulah’s exploits occassionally took her to the beach. (I suppose that wouldn’t be out of the question considering that she wore a bathing suit everywhere she went.) Either way, this is one handsy cephalopod!

Showcase #12 (Feb. 1958) ©DC Comics

The Challengers of the Unknown are a team of adventurers from the Silver Age of DC Comics. They were created by the legendary Jack Kirby (possibly co-created with writer Dave Wood) and debuted in Showcase #6 (Feb. 1957). The Challengers would appear three more times in that anthology series (#12, shown here, was the last) before moving on to their own title, which ran for 80 issues and was canceled in 1973. (Kirby would leave the series after 12 issues to go work for Marvel Comics, where he would help create, among other things, the Fantastic Four.)

The original team roster was made up of Ace Morgan (test pilot), Red Ryan (daredevil), Rocky Davis (prize fighter), and Prof Haley (scientist). In later issues, June Robinson (computer genius and archaeologist) would often join the team on adventures.  In their first story, all four men survive a plane crash and, because they are now “living on borrowed time,” they decide then and there to devote their life to danger, adventure, and heroism. Their escapades would pit them against both common criminals and supernatural beings. Monsters, aliens, time-travelers, and superheroes were all par for the course. Like their fellow Silver Age adventurers the Sea Devils, the Challengers of the Unknown have no super powers. And also like the Sea Devils, they would occasionally be menaced by giant cephalopods.

The “Challs” (as they are known to their fans) still show up from time to time in the modern DC Universe, and their most notable recent appearance is a story arc from the 2007 revival of The Brave and the Bold. They were also featured prominently in Darwyn Cook’s masterful mini-series DC: The New Frontier (2003-2004). DC has reprinted two volumes of the Challengers’ Silver Age stories for Showcase Presents, a line of inexpensive black and white trade paperbacks. The cover of Volume 1 (below) is a recolored version of the Kirby’s original cover of Showcase #12. Here the giant orange octopus has been given demonic glowing eyes, making its destruction of the Challs’ sporty wood-paneled motor boat seem even more malevolent!

©DC Comics (2006)

IN SQUID WE TRUST, originally uploaded by Ben Templesmith.

Ben Templesmith has one of the most distinct and evocative artistic styles in comics. His most notable works include 30 Days of Night and Fell, and he is both the artist and writer on Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (my personal favorite), Welcome to Hoxford, and Singularity 7.

This intriguing declaration appeared on his blog yesterday, and about it Mr. Templesmith says,

Future tax doge and excuse for mass murder here we come!

Alright then.

IN SQUID WE TRUST is available as an 11″ x 17″ print (for $14.99) on his CafePress store.

©DC Comics

Batman Confidential #36 (November, 2009)

Story by Royal McGraw
Art by Marcos Marz

If anyone can out-Hellboy Hellboy, it’s Batman!

A friend of mine picked up this button for me at the San Diego Comic Con a few years back. This baleful cyclops is the logo of Ancient Squid Media, an independent comics publishing collective. The Ancient Squid site hasn’t been updated in over a year, so I’m not sure if they are still active. Perhaps they got hypnotized by the horrible unblinking eye…