The fourth issue of Primus features a very colorful use of photos, specifically two different pictures of Robert Brown blended with artwork and lettering to make a rather offbeat image. This issue is again edited by Sal Gentile, with scripting by Joe Gill and Joe Staton is again on the art duties.
The first story is titled "The Curse of the Killer Reef" and it opens with a bang literally as Carter Primus and a woman named Carla are being attacked by two thugs, one of whom shoots at Primus. Police sirens drive them off and Primus and Carla get on with their dinner plans but he soon learns she's a woman needing help getting a treasure of stolen gold off the sea floor of the South American coast off the coast of Punta Del Este. She wants to retrieve it for the good of her people and keep it away from the dictator Adolfo Ruiz. Primus agrees to help. His aides Charlie Whitman and Toni aren't too sure about it, but Primus nonetheless heads off to find the gold. He dives into some dangerous waters filled with sharks and barracuda which he drives off with a spear gun. Locating the wreck he comes under attack by two divers hired by Ruiz to stop him and get the gold. He fights them off but then Ruiz shoots a machine gun into the water wounding his own men and driving the barracuda into a frenzy. Primus saves the men, and is stranded below, but Charlie and Toni show up in the nick of time and save the day.
The Human Fish text story is titled "Sea Lion Security" and it finds Professor John Wilmore, the man with both lungs and gills, called upon to solve a problem for the Navy. It seems they use sea lions to find and retrieve top secret deep sea devices designed to stop enemy subs. The sea lions cannot it seems retrieve them 100% of the time and the Navy can't find the problem. Wilmore descends and ultimately finds it's the the fault of the signal and not the sea lions, solving the Navy problem.
The second Primus story is titled "No Trouble at All" and it opens with Primus riding a motorbike across the beach dunes and coming across a beautiful blonde painting seascapes. She complains that she's being harrassed by three hoodlums (who look not unlike the gang from Easy Rider in some respects). Primus himself finds trouble with the trio who tell him to leave the area. He doesn't, instead uses his plane to locate their shack. That night inflitrates the gang's shack but is captured and it turns out his presence and that of the girl threaten a drug smuggling operation. The next day the gang shoots at Charlie Whitman and Toni and they leave the area, but then Primus escapes and Charlie and Toni return and the drug runners are captured.
It's amazing how different Joe Staton's work is from story to story. I'm assuming either he's playing with his style, still trying to find the right mix or more likely he's getting help from other Charlton artists. This issue is offers two really different styles, but both are reasonably effective. The storytelling is again suspect in the second story, but again it seems to be a function of the small page count. He really plays around effectively with some page designs in this issue.
More to come.
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