By 1966, both Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner were cover-featured in comic book titles. Both even had their own animated TV series.
So maybe the aquatic superhero shtick was something worth imitating?
Somebody at Harvey Comics obviously thought so.
“The Pirana debuted in Thrill-O-Rama 2 (September 1966), the first issue of which had featured reprints from the company's 1957-58 title The Man in Black,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.
“He’d started out as Oceanography Institute researcher Edward Yates, who, offering himself as a guinea pig in an experiment designed to enable humans to live under water, found himself transformed so he could only live under water. One might think this a severe limitation to most useful activities, but apparently one man’s crippling handicap is another man's super power. And so, with the help of his predatory fish friends Bara and Cuda (acquired in a text story in that issue), he went into the superhero business.”
A panel cartoon that amused me had a therapist asking Aquaman how he ever acquired the delusion that crime occurred underwater.
Still, seagoing superheroes could have their uses, I suppose — especially the next time a giant cargo ship gets stuck and blocks the Suez Canal.
Ellis Rose wrote:
ReplyDeleteI never saw this even though I did see a lot of efforts by other publishers to cash in on the resurgent 1960s comic book craze.
Michael Uslan wrote: 'Created by Joe Simon. Art by Jack Sparling."
ReplyDeleteBurns Duncan wrote:
ReplyDeleteI have this! I must have read it, but I remember almost nothing about it.