In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, based on a suggestion from longtime reader, Vinnie B., we look at when Aquaman's telepathy was first depicted with those circles coming out of his forehead.

Aquaman began talking to fish in his fourth appearance in More Fun Comics #76...

but back then it was more of a "hey, guys, thanks a lot" rather than Aquaman COMMANDING them or anything like that...

But even as it evolved into Aquaman commanding his fishy friends, it continued to be depicted with no visual cues as to the telepathy being used. This continued even when Aquaman became popular enough for his own comic. Here he is in the first issue of his solo book, from 1962...

That issue was drawn by Nick Cardy, who drew the first 39 issues of Aquaman. I would have totally bet that when Cardy changed to start drawing the circles that it was due to the 1967 Filmation Aquaman show. In fact, even if the circles appeared in the comic before the cartoon, I would have bet that it was still due to the Filmation show (as some of the comics released around the time that the cartoon came out where tied in with the cartoon, as both Aquaman writer Bob Haney and Aquaman editor George Kashdan worked on the cartoon).

Howver, the changeover happened early enough that it seems clear that it had nothing to do with the cartoon.

In late 1964's Aquaman #19, Aquaman uses his powers as he had for some time...

Then the next issue, the circles begin...

And they were there in the next issue, too...

I guess Cardy just liked the new effect, as he began using it regularly after that, including from Aquaman's forehead directly in 1965's Aquaman #23...

If it was closer to 1967, I would say that the show still influenced it, but early 1965? There's no way that that was being influenced by the show, so it was the show, instead, that was based on what the comic book looked like...

Thanks for the suggestion, Vinnie!

If anyone has a suggestion for a notable comic book first that they'd like to learn, please drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!