Number 1648: Sea Devils, alien abductees!

Sea Devils, written by editor Robert Kanigher and drawn by Russ Heath, was popular in the early sixties. Maybe it was that combination of the exotic, the deep sea diving and giant aliens and monsters they came up against that made them stand out.

Besides giants, DC Comics never shied away from big concepts, either. In this case a fleet of flying saucers steal our planet’s water. Of course our heroes, despite being no bigger than the aliens’ fingers, are able to return the seas and their contents. It amazes me what Kanigher could accomplish in so few pages. And of course, Russ Heath’s dramatic drawings are superb.

From Sea Devils #5 (1961):

I showed another Sea Devil saga just over a year ago. (Correction: two years. See the comments below.) Click on the thumbnail.

Number 1570: Sea Devils — the devil’s in the details

Despite dropping almost all my DC Comics purchases in '61-'62 after Marvel introduced The Fantastic Four and the rest of their early hero lineup (a fickle fan, wasn’t I?), an exception was DC’s Sea Devils. I bought it because of Russ Heath’s artwork. It’s telling that I stopped buying the book after issue #10 when other artists took over. It wasn’t that they were bad artists, just that I was buying the book because of Heath.

Looking at #1 after 50+ years makes me wonder if I just looked at the artwork without reading the stories, because I don’t remember them. Like this first story from issue #1, about a movie with a robot Octopus Man who roams the ocean floor walking a huge octopus on a leash. Then a real Octopus Man shows up. Next to this The Fantastic Four seems almost non-fiction. But there is that Russ Heath artwork, and that makes up for the implausibilities and overall silliness of editor Robert Kanigher’s scripts.

From Sea Devils #1 (1961).

Number 1238: Sea Devils sing-a-long with Circe

I was disappointed when artist Russ Heath left Sea Devils after issue #10. He and editor/writer Robert Kanigher had created the characters for Showcase, and after a brief tryout the regular series began in 1961. Heath, one of my favorite artists of all time, was the reason I bought and read the comic book.

This story, from Sea Devils #3 (1962), is one that sticks out in my mind from my original reading. In my adolescent eyes Circe was pretty hot, Comics Code or not. Wouldn’t you love to own the original art for the splash page or cover?

Something I like about Kanigher’s comics is that girls and women figure in, not just as eye candy but significant characters. Judy is a strong and resourceful woman, and of course the jocks she swims around with don’t appreciate her enough.

Number 690

Russ Heath and the Monster of Moog

Here's the 4th installment for Pappy's Science Fiction Week.

Russ Heath, born in 1926, is a comic art great whose career extended for decades. He did Westerns, horror, science fiction and in the '60s many war stories. Like Joe Kubert, who also worked for editor/writer Robert Kanigher at DC, Heath's artwork never faded in quality over a long career.

"Monster of Moog" (a planet, and not a synthesizer), and "The Strange Car" both appeared in Atlas Comics' Journey Into Unknown Worlds #36 (actually #1) in 1950.

A decade later Heath would work with Kanigher on Sea Devils, a comic book I really enjoyed. (Someday I may indulge myself and show you a story featuring the Sea Devils and Pappy the trained seal.) The covers, three of which I've included here, were exceptionally dramatic. Heath did the artwork and DC's chief production man, Jack Adler, did the gray tones, giving the covers a modeled effect.

Some great Russ Heath art from a 1962 DC war comic is here.