Dudes come in all kinds of shapes nowadays.
Walrus Men:
We first encounter the Walrus Men in Champ Comics 013 when the newly-reformed Neptina goes to them to ask for help in reclaiming the throne of Amloza from her sister Mhersa, only to discover that the friendly Prince Eon has been overthrown and that the Walrus Men are now ruled by the expansionist tyrant King Walro.
Not that Walro is unopposed in his rule, as there are still Eon loyalists willing to help Neptina and her friends in their quest.
Neptina, her friends and the loyalists rescue Eon from the hole that Walro has been keeping him in, upon which it becomes clear that, like the Fish-Man population of Amloza, the Walrus Man of Polaris are ruled by a very human-looking nobility. This isn't such a huge contrast in the Walrus Men's initial appearance, when their tusks are small and dainty, but...
From Champ Comics 014 and onward they really put the walrus in Walrus Men. So no Neptina and Eon represent an ocean-wide ruling class? Did some sub-oceanic Queen Victoria seed the thrones of the Atlantic with her grandchildren? Should Neptina and Eon's burgeoning romance be quashed for the sake of their children's genetic health?
(this issue also establishes the signature piece of Walrus Man technology: "mole ships" that travel beneath the sea floor for surprise attacks)
Finally, Prince Eon is restored to the throne of Polaris in Champ Comics 015 after fatally(? it is under water, after all) punching Walro off of a balcony.
Categorized in: Aliens (Earth), Animals (Aquatic Mammals), Generica (Men)
Fish-Men UPDATE:
Speaking of the Fish-Men of Amloza and the morphological differences between them and their ruling class, Neptina and her companions find themselves in the Kingdom of the Fishmen while fleeing from Walrus Men forces. The Fishmen, hyphenated or not, appear to be their own people who just happen to live in Amloza in significant number. Neptina's chief scientist Mogg is welcomed to the Kingdom as a citizen, which introduces some interesting questions about how the nation-states of the Atlantic work. (Champ Comics 014, 1941)
Fernomacs:
When space adventurer Spurt Hammond is appointed as Earth's ambassador to the Mercury of the year 2520 CE, he quickly finds favour with Thermod, king of the Mercurian Fernomacs, a species of leather-skinned green humanoids. By contrast, Hammond and his rising influence makes him an enemy in the eyes of the sinister Baron Burno.
Burno expresses his frustration by staging a coup and dumping Thermod and Hammond on the desolate dark side of Mercury (not how Mercury works). All seems lost until...
Grubmen:
... the Grubmen show up! These inhabitants of the dark side of Mercury don't get a tremendous amount of characterization: they love light and worship the flashlight-wielding Spurt Hammond as a god and he's happy to exploit their adulation for his own benefit. Pre-religious reformation under Hammond they appear to have been ruled by the largest member of their species but he sees the writing on the wall and joins up with Hammond without a fight.
In a bit of good luck for the Grubmen, exposure to the light and heat of the light side of the planet causes them to grow powerful and so they are able to effectively combat Burno's Fernomac forces rather than die en mass as Hammond had presumably assumed they would given the physical and technological gulf between the species initially.
King Thermod is re-installed on the throne of Ferno and as the Grubmen are of no further use to Hammond he leaves them behind as citizens. A happy ending for everyone but Baron Burno and his co-conspirators! (Planet Comics 009, 1940)
Categorized in: Aliens (Mercury), Animals (Insects), Generica (Men)
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