| Slot: |
Showcase 28 |
| Item: |
Showcase 28 Signature |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1249063009
|
Owner Comments
"The Undersea Prison!" Second appearance of the Sea Devils - and I have to be honest, I'm surprised there was a third appearance if this cover is any indication. Of the three appearances in Showcase - this has got to be the worst. And I feel bad about that, because the grey tone work on the cover is wonderful. It's just that what is there to work with is so bad. We've got all four of the Sea Devils scrunched together in a cage in their gear, being investigated by a guy in some scuba gear which is hidden by some sort of tiki mask - and using some sort of underwater torch. I'm sure there's a great reason in the story for this image, and trying to scare the Sea Devils away, like some sort of aquatic Scooby Doo episode, but I just can't see buying this comic based on that cover. Then the background is totally barren - like there's no cool fish or sharks or nothing. Very boring - not what I'm looking for in my secrets of the deep ocean reading.
Overall - I do love grey tone covers and the Sea Devils - I just can't see spending my hard earned dime on this based on the cover.
|
| Slot: |
Showcase 29 |
| Item: |
Showcase 29 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0186651003
|
Owner Comments
"The Last Dive of the Sea Devils!" - aw hell - this is possibly my favorite cover of the entire 104 issue Showcase run. Look at the tension between Poseidon & the Sea Devils - the detailing on Poseidon's chest - dude's got abs! The seahorse - such exquisite grey tone work on top of the excellent contrast with the color of the surrounding water. We've got the competing strong diagonals of the seahorse's body & the thrust/return thrust of the trident and the harpoon gun, the glorious contrast of the Sea Devils suits with the complimentary colors of the rest of the cover image. How can you not want to buy this book and see how in the name of all that is holy they managed to get in a fight with an actual Greek god? Side note - according to Greek mythology, Poseidon created the horse - so having him riding a seahorse is wonderful and amazing and cool.
And as much as I love, love, love this cover - it isn't even my favorite Sea Devils cover. But it sure stands out when compared to the drivel that most of the Showcase covers offered us.
Overall - the best.
|
| Slot: |
Sea Devils 3 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 3 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0900749007
|
Owner Comments
"Ghost from the Deep!" And once again Russ hits a homerun on a cover image to sell the mysteries of the deep to a bunch of comic readers. This cover is one of the best in the entire run of Sea Devils - and just generally a gorgeous comic cover image. While completely different than Showcase 29, it also has similarities in concept - and where it lacks the gorgeous color choice of the golden seahorse against the green sea, the sea dragon is a fair replacement; and our antagonist, this beautiful woman, as perfect. Is she keeping the dragon from attacking or asking the dragon to attack? Will she save our heroes? Although the composition is simple - it is strong, and it works wonders. I would really love to see the image without the text box. I think it is super distracting and the image would be better without it.
Overall - I'd totally spend a dime to take this from the spinner rack.
|
| Slot: |
Sea Devils 9 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 9 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0806017014
|
Owner Comments
"Secret of the Coral Creature!" Ok, the bad guy is made of coral - so I get why he's pink (yes, I know coral comes in all colors - but coral pink was so a thing in the 50s & 60s), and I even get why he's roughly formed, but he's really uninteresting. Combined with the green - like seriously really green sea - he's kind of ucky. So then we have a giant eel, which is kind of a cool yellow and grey pattern which the Sea Devils are riding(?) hanging on to(?) in order to escape the ucky coral dude; oh and we have some weird rushing water effect around the eel. The image makes sense when you parse it out to its individual pieces, but damn it's terrible in the whole. The angle of the eel/rushing water is too close to vertical to imply motion so the image is terribly static; and the weird spacing between the coral creature's head & left arm make him look like he must have a giant shoulder only on the side behind the rushing water, but not on the near side. It's just bad. Like a special kind of terrible. Maybe Russ was sick that week.
Overall - no. Just no. I can't imagine spending 10 cents on this even if I read Sea Devils with passion each issue. Oh well, if you are going to have a cover that is the best in the run, you're going to have one that is the worst. This is the worst.
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| Slot: |
Sea Devils 13 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 13 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0913807006
|
Owner Comments
"Secrets of 3 Sunken Ships!" OK, I have to fess up - the title actually sounds interesting to me. So I might have even purchased this just based on the title of the story. But lets look at this cover - damn! This is pretty nice. The use of orange for the sky, as if the sky is lit up by the Greek fire being lobbed at our intrepid heroes is pretty sweet. The diagonal is just strong enough to provide a feeling of motion. I love that a couple of fish have been included for no reason other than they belong there. The use of color is super strong on this one too. Really there's only two things on the entire cover image I could do without - the fireball on the left looks goofy under the waterline and doesn't help the composition at all & the white text box that reads "With Three Surprise Guests!". That text could just be like the black text above the story title and not be intrusive at all - but no, some editor had to put a white text box around it and completely muck up the cover image. Doofus.
Overall - yeah this one is coming home with me - even without the cover image being pretty cool, they got me with the title of the story. That doesn't happen ever.
|
| Slot: |
Sea Devils 17 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 17 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0960068003
|
Owner Comments
"The Impossible Maritime Menaces!" Not grey tone goodness by Adler - no, not cool at all. While not all of the grey tone covers are excellent, at least they are grey tone covers. This massacre by Purcell, I don't know what the hell to do with it. It's a huge letdown in composition - so static - and the "Menace" is a shapeless blob of sea biped? I don't know - but if you compare it to the Russ Heath glory on Sea Devils 3 or Showcase 29 - its horrible. I can't even dedicate the usual number of words to this cover. It's just so absolutely awful.
Overall - Yeah, I can't see me spending any money on this based on the cover. Just heinous.
|
| Slot: |
Sea Devils 28 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 28 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0915765007
|
Owner Comments
The Manosaur! Another beautiful grey tone cover, this time paired with white pages. The use of color is great, but I'm confused about the scene: What appear to be pillars are actually a door (on the right) and door jamb on the spine and they look very "man-made" but we seem to be in an sea-cliff grotto or underwater cave of some sort, so I'm guessing our underwater heroes opened Pandora's undersea door or something.
The art itself is an incredible grey toned beauty, one of many in this run, the Manosaur is impressive, the red suits of the Sea Devils are beautiful, even the dripping water is incredible...Unfortunately for the artist in me, the focus of the cover is the big, red text box and not the Manosaur or the Sea Devils partly due to its abhorrent placement and partly due to it being the only thing outside the masthead that didn't get Adler's grey tone touch.
|
| Slot: |
Sea Devils 32 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 32 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0243228001
|
|
| Slot: |
Sea Devils 34 |
| Item: |
Sea Devils 34 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1031908010
|
Owner Comments
Savannah. Holy sweet mother of God - look at that! The vibrant green sea, the gorgeous blue sky, the great golden-orange sea-dragon crushing the ship, our Sea Devils in their red/purple outfits, even a couple of sailors hanging on to the flotsam right under the beast's claw, beautifully lit from above all given the grey toned treatment. Although this is nearly the last issued - there's no letdown on this cover - I love it, every inch - even when compared with other Sea Devil covers, this one stands out. What a great cover - a beautiful grey-toned cover, with a clean composition uncluttered by any text boxes or word balloons, except above the masthead - where text boxes belong.
It is possible that I could buy this book over and over and over, just to love on the cover.
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