Twenty one years ago, my family decided to take a vacation to the Florida Keys. I had recently turned twenty one myself, and my parents said that I could bring a friend. We all know the excitement that comes along with that announcement. I had spent most of the summer working, and in the down time had started a Miniature Golf Margarita Pro Tour with my friend Ryan. We decided to take that tour straight down to Florida.
To this day, he is the only other person that I know to bear witness to the following events.
You have your fair warning to turn back now.
For here lies the tale of “Wilbur”, the sea lion.
Halfway through the vacation we went to a small Sea World style park in Islamorada, called “Theater Of The Sea”. My sisters had scheduled to swim with the dolphins and we were immediately taken into a prep area accompanied with full safety lecture. This lecture was on how to swim with not only dolphins, but sea lions too. Ryan and I listened just long enough to realize we had a solid hour to roam in the park until it was their turn.
We checked out the bird and animal exhibits and then proceeded to a small stadium area with stainless steel bleachers. The sign read “Sea Lion Show” which to our surprise was starting in about ten minutes. We found a good spot front and center with about a dozen or so others.
The show begins and the trainer entered in full Steve Irwin garb, complete with hands free headset.
“Hey everyone, say hello to Wilbur!” Here comes Wilbur down the water slide. His entry into the pool below is a great success. He is awarded a herring. More tricks ensue, more herring are awarded. Beach ball balance on nose? Herring. Make it Clap? Herring. Informative sea lion facts are also provided during this time.
The show had our complete attention and then it happened. The trainer had a herring in hand and turned somewhat inwards and towards Wilbur. The movement did not strike me as awkward or unnatural in the least, but to our shock, Wilbur bit the trainer's inside thigh.
“Call Ken and Jan! Call Ken and Jan!”
After yelling to staff to notify the park owners of the accident, the trainer told us that he was going to be okay. You could see immediately that this was more of a nasty scrape than an impalement. He walked off on his own accord and the show came to an abrupt end. My friend and I looked at each other in utter disbelief.
We immediately left the bleachers and walked back to the dolphin and sea lion swimming area. We had to hide our dismay from about a half dozen families who were just getting ready to swim with the sea lions. I will never forget that part for some reason. My family was looking at us like what just happened? They knew something was up, they could see it on our faces. We also knew we couldn't say a word because it would scare everyone and ruin their experience.
Post dolphin swim, we decided to go back to the sea lion area to see if we could find out how the trainer was. There was Wilbur in a small rectangular pool, swimming in circles. He would come up and breathe at the exact same spot every time. There was another worker there and we asked him how the trainer was doing. He reassured us that the guy was going to be fine, but the next day or two was going to be very painful. He had to go through an extensive course of antibiotic shots, two dozen or so if I recall. That is due to the fact that sea lions have a special bacteria on their teeth that they use to break down food. We left the park after that and were pretty much speechless on the way out. It has made for a story that I will never forget. I did some detective work recently and discovered that the trainer and Wilbur both went on to perform together for many years after that. How's that for a happy ending?
Okay, so now fast forward that clock about twenty years later to November 2025 and our nation's largest live original art marketplace event, CAL aka Comic Art Live! As I was digging through multiple digital booths, I stumbled across this Alex Saviuk interior from none other than CAF legend Miki A. It took me a second to process that Saviuk drew X-Files issues, but then I realized the subject matter. Holy shit! This is an Alex Saviuk dolphin attack page! This actually exists? I will never forget the Wilbur story but it made those memories come flooding back.
This page is pretty much the parallel universe of the incident, but with a much worse ending. You see these dolphins aren't just your normal run of the mill Flippers. The dolphins in issue #38 have been subjected to a PSYOPS experiment and have been programmed to kill! I also realized that this story takes place on my birthday, which is just a hilarious bonus to the subject matter.
In regards to the art, we get a great page layout with some nice vertical panels. They work extremely well with the shap<
