Toyetic: Aquaman

Photos of Aquaman toys, from this week's random Toyetic shoot.

The Case of the Haunted Aquaman Doll

When it comes to the traffic at this site, I prefer to keep things confidential. Who you are and how you find me is really nobody's business, but I had a recent hit off some incredibly random keywords that I thought I'd share:

"Haunted Aquaman Doll."

 Yes, indeed ... someone found G33K4L1F3 while looking for something concerning a haunted toy depicting the King of Atlantis. I did a quick Google search and found nothing relevant to these key words, so I have NO idea what they were looking for.

Granted, I do have a post about an Ebay auction for a doll claimed to be haunted by a naughty spirit. I also have a few random posts mentioning Aquaman, so it's not unlikely that these different concepts could lead directly to my site. But seriously ... a haunted Aquaman doll? What's that about?

Pop Art: Aquaman (original page)

I've had the chance over the years to buy original comicbook pages, but almost always pass. Above is the only page I own because, at $5, it was simply to cheap to pass up. It's page 11 of issue 15 of the Peter David run of Aquaman. Drawn by Jim Calafiore, it shows Atlantis (well, Poseidonis) rising from the ocean floor. It also has notes from Calafiore on the colors of the various fish in the panels. Technically, Calafiore was a permanent fill-in artist on the series and backed up Marty Edgeland's work as the regular penciler. As much as I liked Edgeland, I was never disappointed by Calafiore's work.

Peter David's take on Aquaman remains my favorite and I recommend to all F.O.A.M.ers unfamiliar with it to find these back issues immediately. Start with The Atlantis Chronicles, follow with Time and Tide and the move on to the proper Aquaman series.

Blogs I Like

There aren't a lot of comic characters I follow with any great passion. I can count most of them on one hand: Daredevil, Batman and the Teen Titans come immediately to mind. As does Aquaman.

I'm not sure where the anti-Aquaman mania started. The blame sometimes gets placed at the feet of the various Super-Friends cartoons, but those shows did nobody any favors. The characters were all interchangeable and flat at construction paper, and Aquaman didn't come across any worse than Batman or Wonder Woman.

Still, the idea that Aquaman is some loser who "talks to fish" is part of the common culture today, and that kind of skit makes me want to get all Brodie up in here. Just because You fuckers think just because a guy reads comics he can't start some shit?

Anyway, Aquaman has had some great fan pages over the years. The most important is Tegan's The Aquaman Website, which has been running for more than a decade now. Right after that is Rob's The Aquaman Shrine, a site that delivers daily doses of Atlantean goodness. Whether it's the adventures of the Aquaman Hoodie or regular features on the various Aquaman-related toys over the years, TAqS is a real treat for hardcore fans.

Returning for more punishment?

There are a few comicbook characters that I'm irrational about. Kill off Batman? I'm fine with that. Captain America? I'm sure he'll be back. Hell, turn Spidey into a cannibal for all I care. Before long the ship will always right itself and the status quo (whatever that happens to mean to the current editorial staff) will return.

But there are three characters that can drive me into nerd rage faster than a flat tire in a thunderstorm. Those characters are Nightwing, Daredevil and Aquaman.

I'm willing to give change a chance. After all, if it wasn't for change we'd never have had Frank Miller's take on Daredevil (and Nightwing would still be running around as Robin.) But it seemed like DC Comics quit on Aquaman around the same time Peter David walked off the book. I stuck with it for a little while after that before I lost interest. When it was later relaunched as a quasi-Vertigo "magic" book I gave that a try, too. I stuck around for the short-lived "underwater crime fighter" angle of the series (which was fun) but all of that got flushed away for the Aquaman-in-name-only Sword of Atlantis.

For all intents and purposes, it appeared the character was dead. After being jerked around with the "reinvention of the month" strategy at DC I lost interest. I still picked up the occasional back-issue, DC Showcase book and action figures, but Aquaman's future seemed over. Part of me even hoped Blackest Night planted Aquaman firmly in the ground just so they'd stopped abusing the character.

But, true to form, I'm willing to give my abusive spouse just one more chance (because they love me!) with The Return of Aquaman, a storyline that appeared to be peppered across different titles. Rob over at the Aquaman Shrine is keeping tabs of what's happening, so check it out. His site's a worthy rival to Tegan's Aquaman fan page (which I've followed since the 1990s.)

Pop Art: From my personal stash

I've got a handful of sketches that fall into two categories: 1: I think I know who drew it, and 2: I have no idea who drew it. This is Type 1. I'm pretty sure this was drawn by Chuck Wojtkiewicz, but I'm not 100% sure of that. This was the year I didn't bring a sketch book and simply bought a bunch of 25 cent comics and used their backing boards for sketches.