I no longer remember when or why I started reading Fish Police by Steve Moncuse, but I suspect it was around the time he made the leap from Fishwrap Production to Comico, and from black & white to color. He self-published the first 11 issues beginning in 1986, then in 1987, two not-unrelated things happened: Warner Books published the first storyline, "Hairballs", as a trade paperback, and Comico began reprinting the rest of the early issues in color. As Eclipse did when they began reprinting Marvelman/Miracleman, when Comico had reprinted all of the backlog, they began publishing new stories. To kick off the color series (which began with #5 because of the tpb), Moncuse created a prequel which comic published as a "Special." After #17, the series returned to a b&w series published by Apple Comics to finsish out its run, which was followed by #0 and Fish Shticks #1-5. Here's the run-down...
- #1-11 - Fishwrap Productions (1986)
- Special #1
- "Hairballs" TPB
- #5-17 - Comico (1987-1989)
- #18-26 - Apple Comics (1989-1990)
- #0 & Fish Shticks (1991-1992)
Fish Police became a short-lived (six episodes made, three broadcast) animated cartoon in 1992 series starring John Ritter as Inspector Gil. I remember seeing part of one of them in the breakroom at work. I have already read #0 and plan to read the Special and #1-26 in the coming days. If anyone out there has any thoughts on Fish Police I'd like to hear them.
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