Tentacle Tuesday: Ahoy, Sea Devils!

« The tentacles are like steel vises, Dane! Can’t break their hold!

*Heh, heh* Try harder — HARDER! »

Greetings! I have just come back from a vacation, and I’m too tired to ramble on the way I usually do. Fortunately, if an image is worth a thousand words, this post is equivalent to a decent novella. Here’s what you need to know about the Sea Devils, here’s our take on the wonderful artist Russ Heath, as well as my complaint about Robert Kanigher’s scripts. Okay, we’re all set now!

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Sea Devils no. 1 (September-October 1961). Cover by Russ Heath.
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The Sea Devils vs. the Octopus Man! is scripted by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Russ Heath.

The same team returns to tentacles with Sea Devils no. 6:

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The Flame-Headed Watchman!, scripted by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Russ Heath, was published in Sea Devils no. 6 (July-August 1962).

RussHeath-SeaDevils6-2-FlameHeadedWatchman

Now we unfortunately have to leave Heath behind and walk over to the territory of Howard Purcell, whose art is not nearly as striking, but still quite serviceable.

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Sea Devils no. 17 (May-June 1964), cover by Howard Purcell.
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The Impossible Maritime Menaces is scripted by Arnold Drake, penciled by Howard Purcell and inked by Sheldon Moldoff.
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Sea Devils no. 19 (September-October 1964), cover by Howard Purcell. Is it just me or does the guy on the left look like a Ditko villain?
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The Sea-Devil Robots is penciled by Howard Purcell and inked by Sheldon Moldoff.
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Sea Devils no. 21 (January-February 1965), cover by Howard Purcell.

The Forty-Fathom Doom!, scripted by Jack Miller, penciled by Howard Purcell and inked by Sheldon Moldoff, boasts quite an assortment of tentacles:

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Everybody is almost in identical position as on the cover – but the octopus has lost his baby blues and gained a pair of poached eggs.

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And, in case you’re wondering where that quote at the top of this post comes from… The ‘heh, heh’-ing octopus is Dr. Quad.

SeaDevils21-TheFortyFathomDoom

~ ds

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