Mooney's Mermaid 1936

Artist: Jim Mooney (All)

2 Comments - 61 Views - 0 Like

Artwork Details

Title:	Mooney's Mermaid 1936
Artist:	Jim Mooney (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Interior Page
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	61
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	5/16/2025
Comic Art Archive:

Description

My newest favorite. The name sticker on the top left corner reminds me of something somebody would do to put it in the filing cabinet, possibly for J Ackerman. Mooney drew the first cover for the fanzine imagination in 1937. This piece is dated 1936 so the Artist would�ve been 17 years old. Signed twice in the bottom right corner. The left corner indicates the title of the work �the divine depth dweller.� this one reminds me of a page out of a 1940's Planet Comics who Mooney actually worked for fiction house for a short period. About 11x13 on the back of a large pin-up photograph. I have always known of the Mooney name in comics, but thought of him as an inkier more than a trailblazer in the genre, apparently his his good friend, a Weird Tales author, Henry Kuttner who encouraged him to get into it, he must have seen this one because it predates even his first Imagination illustrations published in 1937, in fact the bottom left quarter was re-drawn as one of it's covers. *note the Merman King holding a shotgun talking to the sea turtle with another Mermaid and what appears to be a human treasure seeker in a dive suit(and those are the air hoses to the surface, possibly a confrontation ensued and he was ordered to drop his weapon.) I feel like this should be in a museum.

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About the Owner

	Stephen Cassinelli
Joined:	December 2024
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 5/16/2025

Great fantastical imagination. A sci-fi space and underwater pin up with lots of background storytelling. So early that you can't tell it's Mooney by the art style yet. That plastic embossed label was a 70's thing and it's surprising that it hasn't fallen off yet.

Stephen Cassinelli
Member Since 2024

1 - Posted on 5/16/2025

Marcus Wai wrote:

Great fantastical imagination.� A�sci-fi space and underwater pin up with lots of background storytelling.� So early that you can't tell it's Mooney by the art style yet.� That plastic embossed label was a 70's thing and it's surprising that it hasn't fallen off yet.�

I was just figuring out Namor is the son of a Sea Captain and a Mermaid, I wonder if these aren't his parents. The mermaid seems interested in the diver and he is looking her way. lol Fish grow fast! I have far more respect and interest in Jim Mooney knowing about this early period I wonder what else is out there from this time.

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