Story title: "Shark"
Cover Date: November 1937
By: Norman Daniels and Fred Guardineer
We now finish this back and forth between numbers 2 and 3 with number 3s comic, so let's go!
Hmmm... I wonder what this story is about... I wanna say pirates...
Anyway, Dave and Shorty are out there making some "easy" money out of shark fishing.
Surprisingly enough, this isn't comic-book bullshit. That IS how you knock a shark out.
The fishing is going well, but their day is unknowingly ruined when they spot another ship, and by the dialogue of its passengers, it seems to be down to some fishy (pun absolutely intended) business. And Dave seems to think so too.
Sure, Shory, because rich people are NEVER evil.
Then the fishy "fishers" start bossing Dave around.
Hell yeah, stick it to the man Dave. Although, if you want to be taken seriously, I would mention a different body part... Something more... down south.
The intruders eventually go back to their ship, but they start shooting at Dave and Shorty as soon as they get on it.
The unarmed sailors are forced to run away.
Sure, but I mean, it doesn't exactly take a sage to realize you should probably try to avoid being shot.
Dave and Shorty realize its smugglers they're dealing with, and, at night, they sneak up on them.
Also, as Shorty points out, this story is actually about human "sharks".
That... Is actually a decent twist.
Then, the smugglers pull out a bigger gun, and also, the paneling continues to be weird. Dave and Shorty are given a choice between being shot or getting eaten by sharks, and since they know they pretty much already captured every shark in the area, they choose the latter.
They manage to get back to their boat.
"ThEm ShArKs WeRe ClOsE!" WHEN? We haven't seen a single shark since the opening sequence!
Dave sabotages the engine of the yacht and then they call the Coast Guard to inform them of the stranded smugglers, who are brought to justice.
Okay but replace "Sharks only eat when they're hungry" with "We killed ALL of the sharks hurr hurr hurr" for an immediate improvement to this ending.
There you go!
You can read this story here.
Let's see the ratings:
Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5
Very uninteresting story. I would've much rathered seen Dave duke it out against some big-ass shark than this. At least there's some subversion of expectations with the title. But you know, unless we're talking about comedy "subversion of expectations" can easily turn into "disappointment" if the expectation is more interesting than reality.
Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5
That is it for now! Only two more Dave Dean entries, and then we're going back to DC. They're two parts of a text story, so it'll probably take a while for me to get to them... Anyway, thanks for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!
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