Indie Squid Kid

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!

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.

Batman Confidential #36 (November, 2009)

Story by Royal McGraw
Art by Marcos Marz

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

1967 Aquaman board game by Hasbro.

Sighted by Ryn (via The Idol-Head of Diablou)

The classic image of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy draped in giant tentacles, that we first saw in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2 (1994), was finally rendered in Christmas ornament form in 2002. The ornament was sculpted by the now apparently defunct Big Chief Studios and released by Dark Horse Comics.

North 40 is a mini-series published by Wildstorm (an imprint of DC Comcis) and written by Aaron Williams with art by Fiona Staples. It debuted earlier this year, and the sixth and final issue hit the comic shop shelves last week. I’ll have to admit that I haven’t read this series yet, but I am in love with Fiona Staples’ covers. I definitely intend to pick up the trade paperback once it comes out. (Although at this time no publication date for this has been announced.)

Set in fictitious Conover County, somewhere in the American Midwest, North 40 brings Lovcraftian horror to the heartland. Given that I plan to read the series eventually, I have deliberately avoided reading very many details about the story, but what little I know intrigues me—mysterious characters, terrifying monsters, and, of course, tentacles.

Aaron Williams’ official website

Fiona Staples’ official website

Sorry for the slap-dash nature of this post. I’ll fix up the formatting and add more description to each book when I have a little more time.

Anyway, because Wednesday is normally devoted to comics, let’s start our book list with a few graphic novels.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (2008, Flesk Publications)

adapted and Illustrated by Gary Gianni

In addition to the fully illustrated adaptation of Verne’s sci-fi classic, this beautiful folio-sized hardcover includes H.G. Wells’ short story “The Sea Raiders” (which features an encounter with a Giant Squid) and an introduction by Ray Bradbury.

List Price: $24.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

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Cthulhu Tales (2008-2009, BOOM! Studios)

written and illustrated by various authors/artists

List Price: $15.99 per volume

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

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Fiction

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009, Quirk Books)

by Jane Austin and Ben H. Winters

List Price: $12.99 — Buy on Amazon.com

(Covered previously on ISK)

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Mall of Cthulhu (2009, Night Shade Books)

by Seamus Cooper

List Price: $13.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

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Non-Fiction

Cephalopods: A World Guide (2000, Conch Books)

by Mark Norman

This is the oldest book in this list, and the only one that doesn’t appear to be currently in print. However, this is pretty much the definitive source book for cephalopod identification, and a must have for any serious cephalopod enthusiast.

List Price: $69.95 — Buy on DiveSeekers.com

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The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss (2007, University of Chicago Press)

by Claire Nouvian

List Price $60.00 — Buy on Amazon.com

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For Kids

The Octonauts & The Only Lonely Monster (2006, Immedium)

by Meomi

List Price: $15.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

Other titles in the series:

The Octonauts & The Sea of Shade

The Octonauts & The Frown Fish

The Octonauts & The Great Ghost Reef

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20,000Leagues Under the Sea: A Pop-Up Book (2008, Sterling)

by Sam Ita

List Price: $26.95 — Buy on Amazon.com

ISK will be taking the rest of the week off as we recover from the Fabulous Festival of Food that is the American Thanksgiving holiday. If you celebrate, I hope it’s not alone on some fishy reality show like our pal Aquaman here.

Also, an octopus wearing a bow tie…not something you see every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The year is 1939, and a Spanish fishing boat has made a strange catch—a metal man whose glass-domed head contains a floating human skull. The only identifying mark on it is the numeral 13 carved into its forehead. No sooner has this mysterious mechanoid been hauled out on the deck than the ship is attacked by a one-eyed, tentacled monster from the deep. Their new accidental passenger grabs a harpoon (and, later, an anchor) and leaps to the crew’s defense. I won’t reveal how this epic battle ends, but I will remind you that this comics isn’t called “One-Eyed Squid Monster 13.”

Who is Robot 13? Where does he come from? He doesn’t know, but he plans to find out.

R13: Colossus! is the first publication of Blacklist Studios. It is written by Thomas Hall with art by Daniel Bradford (who also did cover version B. Check out more of his work on deviantART!). Issue #1 hit the comic shelves this summer, and it looks like issue #2 just came out.

Look for it at your local comic book shop or order from www.blackliststudios.com.