Last time, we saw Porky and Bugs find a city of gold in Alaska in a traditional Northern. But not all Northerns were gold mines and sled dogs. A significant number are about the waters around Alaska and Northern Canada. Here is one such tale….”North to Danger” was written by an unknown author and drawn by Fred Abranz and Steve Steere for Porky Pig #71 (July-August 1960). This twelve-pager features Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam.
Elmer and Porky rent Sam’s frigate so they can secretly go to the Bering Sea near Alaska. Sam stows away to find out how the boys plan on making a load of money. Porky and Elmer are angry because Sam is such a blabbermouth. Despite this they explain their plan: they are headed for the Bering Sea, and a hypothetical treasure basin. Sam promises to keep mum.
When the boys stop at Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians for supplies, Sam bumps into two old seamen. Yosemite Sam gets off on tales of sea monsters. He tells them the sea monster has a pelt that is a foot thick. Elmer and Porky shut him up but the sailors’ curiosity is piqued. They follow Sam’s boat.
When Porky learns the sailors are after Sam’s mythological monster he devises a plan using a bearskin and a boat. They create a fake monster to lead them off on a wild goose chase.
A few hours later Porky is in diving gear, searching for his Bering Sea treasure. The boys’ dummy monster encounters a real furred sea monster. The sailors shoot the fake monster, angering the real one. The sailors hightail it back to shore. Porky laughs at them for being fooled. He goes to lasso his fake and gets the real deal.
The monster stops and looks at the boys questioningly. Porky snaps a picture. They will be rich, having the only picture of the only sea monster in the world. Sam points out that the plan was great until all the sea monsters show up and ruined it.
Two things in 1959 occurred to make this story happen. No, no one caught a hairy Loch Ness monster. But Alaska did become a state, drawing more attention to it. Also in that year, the concept of the land bridge (that Porky spend a lot of time explaining in the comic) was hypothesized. That’s pretty heavy for a kid’s comic!
Stories of hairy sea monsters are not as unusual as you might think. Legends tell of a creature named a Cadborosaurus that is supposed to exist on the West Coast of Canada up to Alaska. The comic creators may have been influenced by 1960 footage of the Loch Ness Monster known as the Dinsdale Footage. Stories about cryptids were big in the 1960s and 1970s. I am surprised but pleased to see them here.
