The Aquaman Chronicles

My friend John Schwirian has produced yet another amazing issue of The Aquaman Chronicles, one of the best fanzines out there right now. This fanzine has gotten to lucky issue #13. For a character that people claim is lame, that's a pretty impressive accomplishment. And this is not a single person effort, either... contributors include a great many fans with differing opinions on just about everything - as well as more than a few professionals lending a little knowledge. John has created an incredible legacy, far superior to my own Aquaman website. And the fanzine sometimes even manages to surprise me, with a notable in this latest issue being the news of an animated Aqualad action figure (from the Teen Titans cartoon).

My own contribution to this issue is the return of "Tegan's Tidbits" after an absence of several issues. In my essay "Aquaman: Magic or Science?" I attempt to explore the way Aquaman has been portrayed over the years as both a science fiction and a fantasy character. In addition to my two-pager, if you get this issue you'll get some "Aquatic Ramblings" from Russell Burbage, an essay on "Aquaman: Icon of Character" by D.C.Dill, a couple of great Aquaman pin-ups by Anthony Burns and Don Churby, a review by Chris Khalaf, a great article covering recent and future Aquaman appearances by Richard Duncan (and Richard's second installment of "Who Wants to Be An Atlantean Heir"), an essay by John Schwirian on Aquaman's lack of respect called "The Curse of the Super Friends", and more... that's right. MORE. This book rings in at 56 pages including covers, and it's full to the gills with great stuff. And an additional extra that came with this issue was a complete index to the first ten issues. I'm telling you, this book has to be seen to be believed. It's a fanzine, yes, but it's a great fanzine.

My contribution to this fanzine has been tiny. Mainly a handful of articles and a truckload of moral support. It's extremely heartening to me to see another Aquaman fan as rabid, or moreso, than I am out there working to be heard.

Now, as a special blog-only sneak preview, I'm going to post the beginning of my article for The Aquaman Chronicles #14. I don't know when it will come out, since John works on the fanzine in his spare time, but I'm actually ahead of deadline for the first time ever, so I'm going to share it. The actual article will be a bit longer and hopefully will have some images to illustrate ideas.

The Aquaman Movie: It's All Wet

There's been a lot of talk recently on-line about a proposed Aquaman movie. I've weighed in a couple of places on my opinion, but maybe it's time to make my stance a little more formal. That's what this article is about.

First off, there are a LOT of movie ideas in Hollywood every year. I don't know for sure what percentage of them actually get made, but I suspect that at least 99% of them don't go anywhere. Probably more. That includes ones that hit the rumor mill, even ones with producer/writer/director names attached. So the odds are very firmly against an Aquaman movie being made, even though a rumor of one has surfaced. That's why I'm not getting all excited about it. It's just not likely to happen.

Now don't get me wrong, here. I don't mean to be a spoilsport or something. I know it's fun to speculate on the nature of a movie like this. Who will star? What will they do with the character? Is it possible that they'd make it into a comedy? Speculation will only die when the last fan is dead and buried... and even then I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow managed to continue. But that doesn't change the odds. The movie is still really unlikely to be made.

Regarding the idea that an Aquaman movie would work as a comedy... guys, there just aren't enough jokes. You cannot base a whole movie around a single joke and have it be worth watching. And comedy, REAL comedy, is a heckuva lot harder than drama. No matter what you think of Aquaman as a character, I really don't see a comedy with him working. You run out of genuinely funny material way too quickly. Don't you think we already have enough lame comedies around? Please.

Moving on, there's an unwritten understanding that this rumored Aquaman movie would be live-action. I don't think that would work. Aquaman is very much a water-based character... he spends most of his time underwater. Now it's true that if you go back to the Golden Age Aquaman stories, he spends a lot of time on the surface dealing with more mundane crooks and such, but if you want to give the character any depth at all, he needs to be underwater a lot. Despite the advances in film technology there is still no way to put an actor underwater and have him give a speech without it being contrived or unconvincing.

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There's more, but this is a peak, not a revelation. If you want to read the rest... well, there's a great fanzine that will be printing it in a few months.