Doctor Calamari

Few comics have ever committed to their own absurdist premise with as much wit and style as The Fish Police, and Doctor Calamari is exactly the kind of gloriously named supporting player that makes Steve Moncuse's underwater noir world so irresistible. Debuting in 1986 from the indie publisher Fishwrap Productions, this Copper Age creation swims through the same murky waters as Inspector Gill, Angelfish, and the wonderfully named Oscar the Octopus — a rogues' gallery and cast of characters that signals just how lovingly crafted this world was. With appearances across The Fish Police, Fish Police, and Fish Shticks, Doctor Calamari is a small but flavourful piece of one of the more inventive independent comics of the era — a reminder that the late '80s small-press scene had a wonderfully strange imagination all its own.