Fish Police is a comic book series by American cartoonist Steve Moncuse. The plot centers on law and crime in a fictional underwater metropolis with the protagonist, Inspector Gill, trying to solve various crimes, often Mafia-related, while avoiding being seduced by the buxom Angel Jones. The comic featured several marine species as its characters, while the plots and dialogue were reminiscent of film noir.

Original Fish Police stories were published from 1985 to 1991. Sam Kieth (The Maxx) inked "a single panel and drew a 'Next Issue' pin-up".

Publication history

Fish Police started in 1985 as a self-published black-and-white title by Moncuse through his own Fishwrap Productions. After 11 issues, the title was picked up by Comico in 1987, which reprinted issues #1–4 in a trade titled Hairballs, followed by color reprints of the publication's remaining issues. The new series continued the numbering begun by Comico, but the comic reverted to black-and-white. Apple published the title until early 1991, when the run ended with number #26. In 2010, Moncuse began the work on a new Fish Police title, set 20 years after the end of the original.

Issues

  • Fish Police (Fishwrap Productions) #0-11 (June 1985 - November 1987)
  • Fish Police Special (Comico) #1 (July 1987)
  • Fish Police: Hairballs trade paperback (Comico), collecting #1-5, introduction by Harlan Ellison (October 1987)
  • Fish Police (Comico) #5-17 (April 1988 – June 1989) #5-11 are color reprints of the Fishwrap issues
  • Fish Police (Apple Comics) #18-26 (August 1989 - Spring 1991) plus issue #0 (1991)
  • Fish Police (Marvel Comics) #1-6 color reprints of the original 6 Fishwrap issues (October 1992 – March 1993)

Critical reception

Slings and Arrows Comics Guide called the characters "pleasing" and the art a "clean, open style", but criticized the writing for being "like a glossy dramatisation of a blockbuster, specially designed not to be too upsetting or too taxing". The same publication called Fish Shticks "fresh, funny, and wonderfully human". D. Aviva Rothschild, in Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics, called it "all idea and little execution", saying that "there are too many characters and too many threads of plot", although she praised Moncuse's art. lasting only six episodes over one season. The show was cancelled after only three episodes, with the remaining three episodes not airing in the United States. Fish Police had a decidedly more mature tone than most other animated Hanna-Barbera series, containing innuendo and mild language. It also featured several guest actors, including Ed Asner, John Ritter, Tim Curry, Héctor Elizondo, Buddy Hackett, Megan Mullally, Robert Guillaume, and JoBeth Williams.

References

  • Fish Police at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on July 29, 2016.