The concept of the underwater city, usually a futuristic deal under a glass dome, is as old as Science Fiction. John Wilkins, in Mathematicall Magick (1648) offers the idea of submarines and underwater cities. For decades novels by Jules Verne, Andre Laurie, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne and others explored the idea of a civilization under the sea. The most recent of these literary examples was A. Conan Doyle’s “The Maracot Deep” (The Strand Magazine, October 1927-February 1928). It influenced much of what the Pulps would offer in later decades.
The Pulps produced hundreds of stories set in Atlantis, featuring exiles from that city or other underwater civilizations. The Oparians are descendants of Atlanteans in The Return of Tarzan (1915). There was also “The Sunken Empire” by H. Thompson Rich (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, January 1931), Triplanetary by E. E. Smith (Amazing Stories, January-April 1934), “Emperor of Mars” by John Russell Fearn (October 1950) and The Tritonian Ring by L. Sprague de Camp (Two Complete Science-Adventure Books, Winter 1951) and many, many more.
The paperbacks of the 1950s and 1960s often borrowed from magazines like Astounding Science Fiction and Galaxy. John Wyndham got things going with The Kraken Awakes (1953), Lester Del Rey had Attack From Atlantis (1953) while Jack Williamson and Frederik Pohl penned a trilogy: Undersea Quest (1954), Undersea Fleet (195) and Undersea City (1958). SF writers moved away from the idea of a lost civilization to actual technologies for conquering the oceans like Arthur C. Clarke’s Dolphin Island (aka The People of the Sea) (1963).
Hollywood is never to be left out with L’Atlantide (1921) Atlantis (1930) Flash Gordon (1936), Undersea Kingdom (1936), Siren of Atlantis (1949) Atlantis, The Lost Continent (1961), The Underwater City (1962), War-Gods of the Deep (1965) Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969) City Beneath the Sea (1971), and Warlords of Atlantis (1978). Pretty much every decade has an Atlantis film, even after the 1970s but we’ll leave it there. The exotic locale is perfect for stunning scenes though the underwater effects vary.
Now, it isn’t much of jump from the Pulps to the comic books of the Golden Age. In fact, the first of these “Brad Hardy’ was originally drawn (and possibly written) by A. Leslie Scott, a prolific writer of Westerns.
“Brad Hardy” (More Fun Comics #21, June 1937) doesn’t offer a domed city but it takes place at the bottom of the sea.
“The Treasure of Coralla” (Fantastic Comics #3, February 1940) was written by an unknown author. This comic doesn’t have the dome either but it does have fishmen. Most of these comics have human looking Atlanteans served by a race of fishmen.
“The Submarine City” (Big 3 #1, Fall 1940) was written by an unknown author. The underwater city isn’t under a dome yet but it certainly is a city.
“The Undersea City” (Superman #14, January-February 1942) was written by Jerry Siegel. Superman will show up more than once here. That is clearly an underwater city, and the inhabitants are the fishy ones.
“The Hand From the Sea” (Thrilling Comics #26, March 1942) was written by an unknown author.
“The Green Dragon” (Dime Comics #1, 1945) was written by an unknown writer.
“The Sinking of Atlantis” (Marvel Family #10, April 1947) was written by Otto Binder.
“The City Under the Sea” (Superman #67, November-December 1950) was written by Al Schwartz. A dome at last! Not surprisingly in a Superman comic.
“Legend of Lost Atlantis” (Real Life Comics #57, July 1951) was written by an unknown author. The Atlantean filler comic becomes common now.
“The Quest For Lost Atlantis” (Rangers Comics #63, February 1952) was written by an unknown author as Hugh Fitzhugh.
“Atlantis” (Tomb of Terror #2, July 1952) was written by an unknown author.
“The Mystery of Atlantis” (Strange Adventures #24, September 1952) was written by an unknown author. Notice the dome?
“Did It Exist?” (Forbidden Worlds #17, May 1953) was written by an unknown author.
“The Sunken City” (Uncle Scrooge #5, March-May 1954) was written by Carl Barks. Carl Barks makes his undersea dwellers fishmen.
“Who Goes There?” (Marvel Tales #140, November 1955) was written by Stan Lee. Classic!
Conclusion
The Golden Age comics, like the Pulps, offered the domed underwater city as an exciting locale to tell a story, often a regime change. Whether the Atlanteans look human or like H. G. Wells’s fishmen from “The Abyss” (1896) or A. Merritt’s fish-frogs from The Moon Pool (1919) varies from comic to comic, but the concept of an underwater denizen of Atlantis is common.
The seclusion of the underwater city also has a time-freezing effect. The Atlanteans don’t often change, unless it is to acquire gills, with the upper world intruders acting as a catalyst for change. In the Silver and Bronze Age, we will see this story again but with disaster cracking those glass domes.
Next time… The Silver Age…
Many thanks for this feature! I love this theme. I’d be interested to find more written SF along these lines. (It makes me think of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’s Garden.”)