The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli, Volume 1 »

"Capt'n Eli is a new, mutated form of manga crossed with Jonny Quest. It's a delightful, well-written and well-realized addition to the world of comic art." ~ Roy Thomas, Legendary Marvel Editor and Writer.

Fans of classic adventure, meet Capt'n Eli! Created in the tradition of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli is the story of a boy with extraordinary scientific abilities and mysterious ties to the sea. For all ages, this book is an imaginative blend of solid comics storytelling and 3-D computer graphics. Featuring pin-ups by comics greats Steve Rude, Herb Trimpe and Howard Chaykin. Cover by Steve Rude.

KLIATT

Capt'n Eli washes up on the coast of Maine in a submarine pod as a baby; he is adopted by a kindly lighthouse keeper and his wife. Eli is not your average kid—he loves the water and has an aptitude for mechanics, building a root beer machine and a submarine when he's eight years old. Soon afterwards he—along with dog Barney and Jolly Roger, a bilingual parrot—join the crew of the Seasearchers, a group of undersea explorers. Their first adventure takes them to the Bermuda Triangle, where they must recover a yacht lost in time. The yacht-snatchers in question, The Hydrons, send thousands of mini-subs to thwart the rescue attempt and it is left to Commander X, a modern-day Captain Nemo, to save the day. The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli contains tributes to Aquaman, Superman, The Invaders, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Final Countdown (a 1980 movie about time travel). You could throw Tom Swift and The Hardy Boys into the mix, also. Capt'n Eli isn't all that well defined as a character yet, but I'm sure future volumes will further develop his personality. The art is a hybrid of cartoon drawing, 3D modeling and computer animation, with mixed results: sometimes the effect is nostalgic, resembling '70s cartoons like Scooby Doo and Space Ghost; sometimes the characters look like they've been cut and pasted into the setting. The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli contains comic book violence and is recommended for grade school graphic novel collections. Reviewer: George Galuschak