ID'ing Unknown 1960s DC(?) Romance/Mystery Comic

[oif-retread]

I'm hoping someone out there has a better memory than I do, as I'm trying to find this comic. It was a DC comic (I'm fairly certain it was DC, but it might have been Gold Key/Dell) from the late 1960s. As a kid I thought it was an SF/mystery title, but now I think it might have been some sort of "strange/mysterious romance" type. It was missing its cover, so I do not ever remember seeing the title.

The plot of the issue I recall concerned a sailor/deep sea diver who finds a beautiful and mysterious girl near the sea, and falls in love with her. She is apparently some sort of mutant/mermaid/hybrid, as she lives in the water and has trouble breathing on land. She could come out when it rained, and there was a scene of them kissing during a rainstorm.

Her home is on the sea bottom, in a wrecked ship (might have been submarine) that is perched near a deep chasm.

At the end he loses her when a storm causes her home to fall in the chasm.

I don't know why this comic has stayed with me after 40+ years. Maybe because I have been able to find all of my other childhood favorites, but this one has eluded me.

Thanks for any info anyone can pass along.

mike

[dan bailey]

Can't vouch for some of the details, since I haven't read it in probably 40 years or more, but that sounds strongly reminiscent of the Dolphin issue of Showcase -- #79, which would've come out around late summer of 1968.

Here's the GCD description of the story --

US Navy frogmen cut into a sunken WWII Navy ship to retrieve documents from a vault. And spot a white-haired girl(!) at the sea bottom. When she's brought aboard, she turns blue from suffocation - because she has gills. With regular dips in the ocean, she falls for Chris and learns some English. Her origin is a mystery. As a storm kicks up and the wreck teeters, Chris asks Dolphin to retrieve the documents, but the wreck slips into the abyss. Still, she surfaces smiling. With the mission complete, they'll return to land. Dolphin can't go, and dives overboard - into her world.

You can find a somewhat fuller rundown here.

I can't find any sample pages, but here's a panel --



And here's the cover (even though you never saw it, with any luck the character herself will ring a bell) --

[MWGallaher]

I haven't read the issue in a long time, either, but that synopsis jibes fairly well with the original poster's recollections: Dolphin lives in a sunken ship teetering on a chasm, falls in love with a sailor, and the ship topples into the chasm at the end of the story.

And as always, when the subject of Dolphin comes up, I must reiterate my speculation that it was originally intended as an ongoing serial for one of DC's romance comics, but rejected, and the only completed episode, which was too short to fill up a standard comic book, was run in Showcase and hyped to appeal to the superhero comics buyers, its romance origins obscured.

[dan bailey]

And as always, when the subject of Dolphin comes up, I must reiterate my speculation that it was originally intended as an ongoing serial for one of DC's romance comics, but rejected, and the only completed episode, which was too short to fill up a standard comic book, was run in Showcase and hyped to appeal to the superhero comics buyers, its romance origins obscured.

Has to be. I'm no Showcase scholar, but offhand I don't know of any other issues that were half-devoted to a reprint (that I also remember quite well, especially the bit with Aqualad's purple eyes showing that he was some sort of throwback or something & was afraid of fish; the strip was probably my only exposure to Fradon's Aquaman as a kid).

Well, #72 was all Western reprints, but that's different.

[Red Oak Kid]

That's amazing. Has this story ever been reprinted? Was that story inked by Dick Giordano?

[dan bailey]

That's amazing. Has this story ever been reprinted?

Not that I know of. If we get to a Showcase Presents Showcase vol. 3 or 4 (which reminds me that my pre-ordered vol. 1 should ship next week, I believe), I guess we'll get it, which would be cool. The original tends to be a bit pricey for me

Was that story inked by Dick Giordano?

The art appears to be Jay Scott Pike, period.

[custodes]

I never read that either. Is that the one he was looking for. I was thinking a Dark Tales of the Forbidden Mansion type of book/thingee with Jones, Kaluta or Cardy doing the missing cover. A sort of Horror/Mystery/Romance story but, maybe they were all 70s.

[prince hal]

My first thought (and really, my only one) was also Dolphin.

MW, I love your inference/hypothesis re this story.

Dan, I'm no Showcase expert, but I was a faithful reader, and this is the only issue I can think of with a shorter lead story. The Dr. No story was a "reprint" of a British comic; the GI Joe issues featured three reprints each, as did the Top Guns issue you mentioned. Phantom Stranger and I Spy (how'd they get away with that title?) featured reprints and of course the Windy and Willy issue was a redressing of Dobie Gillis, but other than those, nuttin' I can think of.

[Scott Harris]

A legitimately great cover.

As more evidence to back-up the romance reject theory, it was done (as noted) by Jay Scott Pike, who was a regular artist on DC romance books at the time but who wasn't known for any superhero type stuff.

[custodes]

A legitimately great cover.

As more evidence to back-up the romance reject theory, it was done (as noted) by Jay Scott Pike, who was a regular artist on DC romance books at the time but who wasn't known for any superhero type stuff.

No but, he did some nice Sheena type jungle lass stories at Atlas.
Jungle Girl and Jann of The Jungle etc..

[oif-retread]

[QUOTE=dan bailey;15484029]Can't vouch for some of the details, since I haven't read it in probably 40 years or more, but that sounds strongly reminiscent of the Dolphin issue of Showcase -- #79, which would've come out around late summer of 1968.

Dan,

when i saw the picture i almost fell off of my chair. you nailed it. i never knew the title because of the missing cover, but when i saw that white hair it's like i was 8 years old again.

i checked around the net, and now i realize one of the reasons i remember her so well; she was one of the most beautiful grls i ever saw in a comic: http://www.ugo.com/the-goods/dolphin

thank you so much, this puts a nagging memory to rest. dolphin and nightmaster were two comics that stayed with me for years, mostly because i read them young, and with plots left unrsolved, never saw anything more of them again. i was lucky enough to remember nightmaster's title, so years later i found the remaining issues, but i could not find anything about dolphin.

thanks again,

mike

[dan bailey]

Cool! You & I must be about the same age -- I was 8 when that one came out.

As it happens, I bought the Nightmaster issues of Showcase just a few months ago. Could've sworn I'd never set eyes on any of them before, but several of the panels from the first one rang one heck of a bell... which tells me that while I didn't buy the comic, I must have read it in the drugstore.