Captain Goodvibes, a.k.a. the Pig of Steel, is the creation of Australian cartoonist Tony Edwards and an icon of Australian surfing culture from the 1970s. In 1992 Captain Goodvibes was named by Australia's Surfing Life magazine as one of "Australia's 50 Most Influential Surfers." The character was inspired by American cartoonist Gilbert Shelton's underground comix character, Wonder Wart-Hog, a.k.a. the "Hog of Steel."

Fictional character biography

Captain Goodvibes started life as a pork chop, mutated by a chance nuclear plant explosion. According to The Encyclopedia of Surfing, Goodvibes is a "hard-drinking, drug-taking, straight-talking pig with a tunnel-shaped snout.

Origin and publication history

The Goodvibes cartoons were first published in Australian surfing magazine Tracks in May 1973 and appeared regularly until July 1981. Their popularity led to the publication of several Goodvibes comic books, including the Whole Earth Pigalogue (Tracks Publishing Company, 1975), Captain Goodvibes Strange Tales (Tracks Publishing Company, 1975) and Captain Goodvibes Porkarama (Soundtracts Publishing, 1980). In 2011 an anthology of the comic strip, Captain Goodvibes — My Life As A Pork Chop, 1973-1981, was published by Flying Pineapple Media.

In other media

Captain Goodvibes' popularity led to publication in calendars, a short film — Hot to Trot (1977), co-written by Ian Watson and Tony Barrell — and a maxi-single record, Mutants of Modern Disco, in 1978. Captain Goodvibes also had a cinematic cameo in the 1973 surfing documentary, Crystal Voyager, appearing in a brief animated sequence during the film. Goodvibes starred in a radio series on Sydney radio station Double J (now Triple J) voiced by Tony Edwards and Tony Barrell.