The second issue of Primus from Charlton Comics features another photo cover of Robert Brown, the star of the TV show on which the comic is based. The editor is Sal Gentile with Joe Gill on scripts and Joe Staton again on the art chores, though this time it seems he had some significant help in the inking.
The first story is titled "Where Killers Meet" and it begins with Carter Primus in the Ross Sea testing new heated scuba gear or the U.S. Navy and subsequently being attacked by a sperm whale. He sends a message to his partners aboard his boat Inca, Charlie Whitman and Toni, who find themselves surrounded by whaling ships. A woman diver goes to assist Primus who is suffering from a crashing sonic wave emanating from the ships. She leads him up and he meets Adam Karkel, a man intent on hunting and killing the whales for the products they will yield. Charlie and Toni escape due to a fog while Primus is imprisoned aboard the ship. His female savior, named Magda explains the plan of Karkel and his partner Ludkin, an oceanographer, which is to harvest as many of the protected sperm whales as they can. Karkel appears and Primus lures him close to the cell and knocks him out and takes the keys. He and Magda escape in scuba gear and come under fire. Meanwhile Charlie and Toni have returned, pick up Magda and then following orders leave Primus to plant small bombs on the propellers of whale killer ships. He does this despite being attacked by a herd of whales driven mad by the sonic device of Ludkin. Primus survives, disables the fleet, and gets his kiss from the grateful Magda much to Toni's chagrin.
Next we have a text story titled "Red Tide" starring The Human Fish. This time John Willmore, a man born with both gills and lungs finds his way to the Gulf of Mexico where red organisms are choking out the normal chain of life. He finds the source, a strange coral and uses flame throwers supplied by the military to destroy the the source, thus cleansing the sea.
The second and final Primus story is titled "East of Aden" and it begins with Primus fighting a crocodile in the Gulf of Aden. He wires the beast's jaws shut and goes topside to find out from Toni that the local sheik demands his presence. Primus find Shiek Al Habim, an insufferable man, aboard his yacht when there is an explosion sending it and its wealth to the bottom. Primus is contracted to retrieve the riches but encounters many others, the poor robbed of their fair share of Habim's wealth already raiding the boat. Primus is moved by their fate and assists them which ultimately leads to Habim being deposed and replaced as leader by a much fairer government. Primus spends his last panel luxuriating in a harem of grateful ladies. These are really solid stories, especially the lead one. The villain is well defined as is the threat. The second story with Primus is a bit rushed and the storytelling is clumsy in a few places but that's doubtless because so much story was crammed into very few pages. Staton's artwork here is very good, but clearly he's being inked heavily. I can't really tell who it is, though I see hints of Tony Tallarico in a few places. It's not him I think, but that's the feel it has.
More next time.
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