Shades of the Dread Pirate Roberts!
Tom Moore, shanghaied onto the Black Narcissus, a deadly modern ship disguised as a sailing ship -- a modern day pirate ship preying on ocean liners and leaving no survivors. The Black Narcissus is captained by the murderous Captain Death, assisted by his first mate Black-Jack. Tom, sickened by the deprivations of Captain Death and his pirate crew, tries to fight back but is hit from behind by Captain Death's belaying pin. The captain decides to make an example of Tom, keel hawling him. Before Tom is ripped apart by the screws, however, he is rescued by his friend Redbeard. The two form a mutiny and capture Captain Death and his pirate crew. Unable to return to port lest they be prosecuted as mutineers, Tom and Redbeard set Captain Death afloat near a deserted island and -- with the few crewmen who were loyal to them -- vow to sail the seas determined to "rid the sea of crime and corruption" with Tom captaining the Black Narcissus -- renamed the Mutineer -- as the newly born Captain Mutiny!
Mutiny and Captain Mutiny lasted just three issues. It was published by Stanley Morgan's Key Publications under his Aragon imprint. In an industry dotted with questionable characters, Stanley Morgan stands out. A Wikipedia entry quotes Lawrence Watt-Evans on the subject of Stanley Morgan: "His titles often changed publishers from one issue to the next ashe dodged creditors or changed partners, and would sometimes have cover art taken from a story from a different issue if a deadline were missed. If he came up a story short, he would simply reprint something. If he couldn't get an artist for a particular slot, he'd have his editor cut and rearrange the art from an old story to make a new one." Morse has also been quoted as saying, "I don't know what the hell I published. I never knew. I never read the things. I never cared."
Despite this attitude, Mutiny was a pretty good comic book with better than average art. In this issue, the artwork was most likely by Eugene E. Hughes. The stories, including the origin tale, pit Captain Mutiny and his crew against the head of an international crime cartel while in the Orient and then against a modern-day slave ship.
It's all good fun, especially for people like me who feel the world needs more pirate stories.
Enjoy, matey!
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=21308
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