Men Hate Cephalopods

[Pulp Covers]

Divers Hate Cephalopods

By Aaron McConnell. [Periscope Studio]

Art Show: Cat Women

Skorpion



By Rick Burchett. [From the graphic novel he's working on with writer Christopher Mills]

Fanciful Submarines



By Andrew George Brown. [Lots more at Etsy by way of Wondermark]

From the Depths



By Matt Wiegle. [Seriously, if you're not reading his and Sean T Collins Destructor webcomic - from which this is a page - you're missing out.]

Aquaman: King of the Seas



By Braden D Lamb.

A Naiad



By John William Waterhouse. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Princess Pantha



By Alex Schomburg. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu



By Brent Anderson. [Giant-Size Marvel]

Jungle Girl



By Red LYUBA. [More here]

Tigra



By Jason Barton.

Sexually Normal Men Hate Cephalopods

At least, that appears to be the implication of this cover.



[Pulp of the Day]

The Awesome List: Stop that Ocean-Monster!

The One Piece Restaurant



There's a theme restaurant inspired by the popular pirate manga/anime One Piece. Unfortunately, it's only in Japan. Topless Robot has the lament.

David Fincher confirmed for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea



It's old news that Disney and David Fincher have been developing a 20,000 Leagues movie together, but the update is that it's now official.

Liquid Air Diving Suit



Remember the Fluid Breathing System that Ed Harris used in The Abyss? It's real.

Super-Merman



Siskoid can tell you all about it.

Aquaman's not doing his rep any favors



Is there any wonder that Super Friends single-handedly started the Aquaman Sucks meme? [Blog into Mystery]

Other People's Art Shows



Shad's got a nice gallery of mermaid comic book covers.



Never Sea Land has one dedicated to outrigger canoes...



...and another chock full of oceany goodness from pirates to tall ships to sea life to...well, shark cars.

Art Show: Sunken Treasure

Pearl diving turns ugly...



By Jack Davis. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Namora

Custom statue by Mike Madrid. [Brother Cal]

Art Show: Ape and Human United Against Mutated (and Tentacled) Monsters

Captain May



By Grant Gould.



By Jessica Hickman. At some point I asked Grant and Jess to draw me as a pirate. I can't believe I've never shared these before.

Too Heavy to Fly



By Jeremy Vanhoozer.

After the break: giant fish, Planet of the Squid, merpirates, and DC's undersea heroines

Art Show: Monday du Mer

Sea Port



By William J Aylward. [Tons of great Aylward ship art at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.]

Demon of the Deep



By Ken Kelly. [Illustrateurs]

The Aqua Monster



By Sean Hamilton. [Art Jumble]

Wanderwine Prophets



By Alex Horley. [Illustrateurs]

Creature from the Black Lagoon



By Michele Legendre.

This Probably Won't End Well



[The Aquaman Shrine]

Namor



By "Justice."

Art Show: No jacket, Adam. You didn’t think it through did you?

Pirate Girl



By Katie Shanahan. [Art Jumble]

Undersea Agent



By Gil Kane. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

It's Valkyrie, Airboy!



By Fred Kida. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

After the break: Sandmen, Shang Chi and Friends, Wonder Woman, magic, creeps, and a space barbarian.

The Neptune Factor (1973)

The Neptune Factor is most assuredly not "the most fantastic undersea odyssey ever filmed." That wasn't even true in 1973 (not with movies like Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea predating it by 20 years). What it is is a fairly mundane, '70s disaster flick only without the all-star cast (Ernest Borgnine was the biggest name they could muster) or special effects. That's not to say that it's worthless; just very disappointing.

The plot's pretty simple. An undersea earthquake sends a submerged ocean lab into the giant crevice that it was located next to and a rescue is mounted. Tension is created not through action, but through the lack of it. The search for the missing lab is long and tedious for the workers, but the movie does a nice job of making that interesting for the audience. Since it never cuts to the lab to let us know if they're okay or not, we're invested in the hunt too. And that makes us equally frustrated by frequent setbacks like unusually strong underwater currents, aftershocks from the quake, and waiting for proper equipment.

One example of proper equipment is a mini-sub called Neptune. Before it's arrival (it's just been overhauled and hasn't been tested since it was), the primary search was conducted by a military sub that was too large to go into the crevice to look. Once Neptune arrives, things start to look up, except that her by-the-book captain isn't as emotionally invested in the search as the rest of the team - people who've worked with the missing men for a long time. So there's some interpersonal drama too as the rest of the sub crew tries to make the captain take risks against his better judgment.

How to make giant fish lame after the break.

Friday Night Art Show: The Best Pirate Crew Ever

August was Pirates Month at Sketchy Business and there's lots of cool stuff to see there. I've picked out a few of my favorites, but you should really check out the entire gallery. There's so much that I eventually had to cut myself off and leave behind - among others - pirate onions and a pirate riding a dinosaur.



By Phil Postma.


By Galit Weisberg.



By Nachshon Rubel.



By James P Brouwer.



By Ian Jeans. Pirates pilates. I wish I'd thought of that.



By Phil Postma.



By Patri Balanovsky.

The House on Cullen's Peak



By Kurt Schaffenberger.

Buck Rogers Hates Cephalopods



By Frank Frazetta. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Key Out of Time



By Ed Emshwiller. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Everglades River Chase



Artist Unknown. [The FictionMags Index]

Queen of the Danger Lands



By Alex Schomburg. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Dorothy



By Jeremy Vanhoozer.

Golden Blood



By J Allen St John. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

He's got Cat Class and he's got Cat Style



Artist Unknown [Brother Cal]

Hans My Hedgehog



By Eleanor Davis.

The Monsters of Juntonheim



By Osborne. [American Pulps and Magazines]