Indie Squid Kid

The Legion of Executive Familiars ©DC Comics

This is Octus, an alien cephalopod from the oceans of Neptune that exists in eight dimensions. He (it?) is a member of the Legion of Executive Familiars, a team of super-powered, sentient animals operating in the 853rd century. (Also pictured are Phaethon, Savitar, Wormhole, and Krypto-9.) Octus’ abilities are impossible for three-dimensional beings such as ourselves to fully comprehend, but it is known that this purple space octopus can produce “limpet grenades” seemingly out of thin air. Octus first and only appearance was DC One Million 80-Page Giant (August, 1999), an anthology of eight pieces each by different creative teams. “Tales of the Legion of Executive Familiars in the Age of Solaris’ Heroic Rebirth!” was written by Mark Schultz with art by Georges Jeanty, and the story focuses on the Legion as it interviews prospective members.

DC One Million was a DC Comics crossover event from 1998-99. Basically, it presented a possible future of the DC Universe set in the 853rd century—which is when the first DC title would hit issue #1,000,000 (assuming a regular and continuous publication schedule). The core of the event was a four issue mini-series written by Grant Morrison, but just about every DC title at the time had tie-in issues. Characters from this far-flung future timeline still show up from time to time, usually in other books written by Morrison.

©Dark Horse Comics

This is a panel detail from the mini-series Abe Sapien: The Drowning (Feburary-June, 2008), written by Mike Mignola with art by Jason Shawn Alexander. (Read a plot synopsis here.)

Abe Sapien is a central character from Mignola’s Hellboy comic and its subsequent spin-off title B.P.R.D.. He was originally a Victorian scientist named Langdon Everett Caull, a member of an occult society that revered the Babylonian deity Oannes. Caull was accidentally transformed into a fish man (”icthyo sapien”) in an arcane ritual gone terribly wrong. His comatose body was placed in a tube of water and sealed up beneath a Washington D.C. hospital at the outbreak of the Civil War. He remained in a state of suspended animation until being discovered in 1979. Having no memory of his previous life or identity, he adopted the name “Abraham Sapien” and was taken in by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Abe would eventually become a top B.P.R.D. field agent and learn the secrets of his mysterious past.

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

I bet you didn’t think I’d be able to figure out a way to tie Plush Week to Wednesday Comics, but with the Internet all things are possible!

Kristin Hogan is the co-creator, writer and artist of a comic book called Dead Squirrel Girl. Squids play heavily into the story, so she came up with an idea to make squid dolls. Her squids are approximately 19″ long and made of a variety of materials in a variety of colors and patterns. “Batsquid” is made from a bed sheet featuring characters from the 1992 movie, Batman Returns. He costs $38 and there is currently only 1 in stock, so if you want it ACT FAST!

Kristin’s Etsy store has several other cool squid dolls, as well some plush nautiluses. You can even get a copy of the Dead Squirrel Girl comic!

Volume 1 ($17)

Find out more about the comic and Kristin’s art at www.deadsquirrelgirl.com!

(via BoingBoing, via The Aquaman Shrine)

There’s nary a cephalopod to be seen on this remixed cover of Aquaman #45 (June, 1969), but when I saw this online yesterday, I figured it was high time to break my silence on the Gulf Oil Spill. Not that I have much to add to the public discourse on the worst environmental disaster in American history..the magnitude of this catastrophe (58 days and counting) is almost too much for words. Of course there are some…words like, mind-boggling, brain-numbing, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking…

What can one unemployed nerd thousands of miles away do but watch in horror day after day as the environment and wildlife of the Gulf Coast (not to mention the livelihoods of everyone who depends on that environment for their very subsistence) slowly get consumed by a relentless, creeping tide of oil. All the while, the leaking riser 5,000 feet down continues to spew out clouds of black death with no end in sight. As Andrew at Southern Fried Science said, “American marine conservation will be divided into ‘before the spill’ and ‘after the spill’ for the next century.”

For the insight and analysis of real marine scientists, you should to go to Deep-Sea News. Dr. M and crew deliver the most comprehensive and thoughtful coverage of the spill you’re likely to find anywhere online. Southern Fried Science also has a page dedicated (and continuously updated) to reliable sources of information pertaining to the crisis.

Super Adventure Comic #43 (December, 1953)

K. G. Murray was an Australian publishing company that produced black and white reprints of DC Comics from 1947-1986. Super Adventure Comic, which featured stories starring Superman and Batman (and Robin), was one of several of these reprint titles. It ran for 115 issues between 1950 and 1960, and many (if not all) featured original covers by Australian artists. The cover for Super Adventure Comic #43 is by Hart Amos, and it depicts Superman and Robin (armed with a spear gun) ganging up on a terrified octopus. The Man of Steel has apparently wrenched the helpless cephalpod out of the water by the tip of one of its arms, and the Boy Wonder is jumping up and down on the poor creature’s head! Batman, grinning sadistically, looks on.

Also, is it just me or does Superman have a dastardly handlebar moustache?

©Stephen Halker

Fast forward to last Wednesday and Robert Goodin’s Covered blog. Artist Stephen Halker has reimagined Super Adventure Comic #43, and this time the octopus gets its revenge! No one is safe from its righteous, squishy wrath! Not the Dynamic Duo, not the Last Son of Krypton…not even the TITLE OF THE COMIC ITSELF!!!

Famous Funnies #215 (January, 1955) ©Frank Frazetta

(via Cepalolove, via Lector Constante)

I’m a little late on this one, but legendary artist Frank Frazetta died on May 5, at the age of 82. Although he is best known for his fantasy art (for novels such as Conan and Tarzan, the occasional album cover, and lots and lots of skin), he also worked on a wide variety of comics in the 40s and 50s. Frazetta contributed to just about every comics genre: adventure (Thun’da, King of the Congo), superhero (Adventure Comics), western (White Indian, Ghost Rider), and horror (Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella). However, his run of Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies (#209-216) rank as some of his most impressive early work. Here we have the art for the cover of Famous Funnies #215, showing a life-and-death struggle at the bottom of the sea between Buck Rogers and (I assume) Wilma Deering and a giant octopus. In the background we see a vibrant ocean teeming with life, a fine example of Frazetta’s attention to detail.

But dude…a point-blank raygun shot to the mantle? HARSH.

UPDATE: limited edition prints of this and other Frazetta works are available here.

©DC Comics

This dramatic scene takes up pages 12 and 13 of Brightest Day #1. (The cover date is “Early July 2010,” but it actually came out a few weeks ago.) The size limitations of the blog don’t really do this splash page justice, but you should be able to tell that there is something not quite right about this monstrous squid, and I’m not talking about its unrealistic size. It appears to be dead, or, rather, undead. Now for some context…

Brightest Day is DC Comics’ follow-up and continuation of last year’s epic Blackest Night event. These stories spin out of the Green Lantern titles, but they pretty much span the entire DC Universe. I’m not going to try to summarize everything (if I even could), but, basically, the dead were brought back through the power of mysterious black rings. These vile Black Lanterns—superpowered zombies, essentially—wanted nothing less than the destruction of all life. Among there number was Aquaman, who had died in the pages of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #1 (the 2007 revamp of the title, which itself was the spawn of yet another big DCU event). Blackest Night ends not only with the defeat of the Black Lanterns, but with the resurrection of a select number of previously deceased characters, including Aquaman.

©DC Comics

This brings us to the Brightest Day mini-series and issue #1. Aquaman and his wife Mera are attempting to rescue a group of children from the clutches of pirates. Aquaman calls on a giant squid for assistance, but to his horror, the titanic animal that answers his summons is a rotting undead monster. In fact, all the sea life that Aquaman calls end up being zombies…which is exactly what happened back when he was a Black Lantern. So, what is wrong with the newly alive King of the Sea? Presumably this is one of the many mysteries that will be answered during the course of the series.

Brightest Day #1 is written by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi. No less than five different artists are credited, so I’m not sure if this page was penciled by Ivan Reis, Pat Gleason, Adrian Syaf, Scott Clark, or Joe Prado.

A few comments on the squid itself…Aquaman referes to it as a “giant squid,” but this leviathan is obviously no ordinary Architeuthis. Its arms are lined with hooks, not suckers, so maybe it’s actually supposed to be a Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis) instead, but still…this thing is freaking huge! I think that “Kraken” is as close to an identification that we can make. It is only a comic book after all…

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1 (Sept. 2007) ©Dark Horse Comics

The Umbrella Academy is a thoroughly delightful series written by Gerard Way with art by Gabriel Bá and published by Dark Horse Comics. Instead of a continuous on-going series, Umbrella Academy is released as separately numbered mini-series, beginning with Apocalypse Suite #1 (September, 2007).

The original Umbrella Academy was made up of seven extraordinary children, each gifted with a different ability. Together, they were an unstoppable force against evil, but they eventually disbanded under mysterious circumstances. Now all grown up, the surviving members come together after the death of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the only father the children had ever known. They realize they must now face a new looming crisis and that only a reunited Umbrella Academy can save the world.

This beautiful cover of Apocalypse Suite #1 by James Jean depicts the Eiffel Tower sprouting a number of giant tentacles. This is, of course, exceedingly cool. It also shows a person (as both a man and a boy) with a mass of tentacles emerging from his chest. This is The Horror, who is long dead when the story opens, and remains one of the most enigmatic members of the Academy. (Incidentally, the blond knife-wielding man is code-named The Kraken, but that is the extent of his cephalpod-ness.)

From the very first page of Apocalypse Suite (below), it quickly becomes obvious to the reader that anything can happen in the world of The Umbrella Academy.

And it does.

©Dark Horse Comics

Also, there are talking chimpanzees. I’m just sayin’…

Available on Amazon.com:

The Umbrella Academy (Vol 1): Apocalypse Suite
The Umbrella Academy (Vol 2): Dallas

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.

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.