Fish Police Volume 1

by Steve Moncue

Steve Moncuse's fondly remembered classic from the black and white explosion is collected here for the first time in more than 20 years Hugely successful, and even developed as a Saturday morning cartoon, Moncuse's opus features a wide array of memorable characters and intricate and intriguing storylines Revisit Joe Gill, a Fish Police officer, the beautiful (but deadly ) Angelfish, Dr. Calamari, and the evil organization know only as... S.Q.U.I.D

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2011

Reviews

[Jared Millet · Rating 3 out of 5]

God bless the '80s. In no other decade would publication of a comic book this batsh*t crazy have been possible. Hard-boiled crime in a world of anthropomorphic fish, starring a bitter, crusty detective named Gill who has a sneaking suspicion that thing's aren't as they should be and instead of fins he should have a pair of legs. (And asks questions like, "If we're underwater, how does my beer stay in its glass?")

The strength of Fish Police is that most of the time it plays its bizarro situation straight, as did TNMT and Cerebus the Aardvark, without veering into unfunny "funny animal" jokes a la Captain Carrot. The problem with the book is that it would have been more enjoyable had it stuck to its hard-boiled crime premise. Instead, it quickly veers off into Fu Manchu/James Bond super-villain territory. Also, there are all the lapses in narrative logic that you'd expect from the enthusiastic, yet somewhat amateur, storytelling inherent in many independent comics. Hopefully Moncuse worked out some of those kinks in later volumes.

[NePo · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story is really hard to read.
I was always asking myself: did somebody tear a page from the book?
The main good guy and the main bad guy look really similar, it's easy to mix up.
The main good guy does more evil than your average bad guy. The main bad guy does way more good things than bad things.
There is no end in the story it just ends... because runs out of pages.
We can say that there is no story, just random pictures put to the book.

[Anna Frohling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book series from the black and white boom of talking animal comics aka ninja turtles. This one put itself apart from the others by a shift in genre, being undersea, and having an ongoing mystery. this is actually a great series but every collected version only adapts the first four issues which isnt even the full story arc, so to finish the story you have to track down individual issues.
Much like Regular Show, the main character isn't really a fish but a detective who is hallucinating a fish. Also, Line is a really cute character. I wish there was more interest in this series so one day a publisher pulls out a complete collection

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a book I would site if I had to point out just how weird and unrestrained the medium of comic books can be; and how truly superior it is for storytelling.
The world Steve Moncuse creates here is as enchanting as it is absurd. The lead character pointing out the weirdness of the world he's in, and hinting at his own possible backstory, adds to the humor.
Moncuse's line art is crisp and beautiful.
Sadly it doesn't appear that there is a volume 2 collecting more of these comics forthcoming. So I guess I'm on the trail for some back issues!

[Michael Kitchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't as good as I remember it being when I read it back in 1985.

[Graham Butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inspired artstyle, incoherent everything else.

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine it's 1984, and--once again--you stayed awake until midnight so you could hit record and then listen to the Doctor Demento show in the morning. Things go wrong, you listen to Kip Adotta's "Wet Dream" on an eight hour loop.

Tormented by a mental world of dream-fish you try to purge this idea by writing, "The Fish Police." You drop out of college and get your own Saturday morning cartoon series. Maybe even inspire some TMNT clones. Life turned out pretty sweet didn't it? This comic is a bad halibut.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a B&W comic I somehow missed out on in the 80's. I was really hoping to like this, tried really hard to get into the book, but just wasn't able, maybe is was the amateurish lettering.

Sorry Steve Moncuse.