Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at my introduction to the DC Comics superhero Aquaman.
I discovered Marvel's Sub-Mariner before I read my first Aquaman story, but both introductions occurred in 1966, when I was six years old. Tales To Astonish, which co-starred Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk, was likely my intro to Marvel itself. Aquaman and Sub-Mariner were both important characters to me, and they're mentioned alongside Batman, the Beatles, Captain Action, the Monkees, Big Little Books, Playboy, and more in my 1960s autobiography Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio.
I've never really tried to write Sub-Mariner, but I put Aquaman and Batman together in a purple prose short story called "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze," and I'm stupid proud of how it came out. Crafting that story was an integral step in getting me back into trying to write fiction, and eventually selling some of the fiction I write. I don't think that happens for me without "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze."
Aquaman hasn't otherwise established a huge presence on this blog. His 1970s revival was part of my Comic Book Retroview spotlight on Joe Orlando's Adventure Comics, and my '70s letter about Aquaman to editor Orlando is part of my piece "Dear Superguys (or: I Was A Teenaged Comic Book Letterhack)." Beyond those, Aquaman's principle finprint here has been when he's appeared in editions of my 100-Page FAKES!:
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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