The Kraken's Arena

INCEPTION: The Lusca is a name given to a sea monster reported from the Caribbean. It has been suggested by cryptozoologists that the Lusca is a gigantic octopus, far larger than the known giant octopuses of the genus Enteroctopus. Many reports of the creature are from the blue holes, off Andros, an island in the Bahamas.

With the initial sketch being started on a puddle-jumper return flight from Wiesbaden, West Germany to Paris, I missed my connecting flight to Los Angeles via Houston, Texas and would be stuck at Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle for six or seven hours until Air France could assure me a seat. So I as an active duty marine in my Class A uniform settled in at what is now in 2021 to be the La Brasserie du Terroir. The damned uniform was full of itchy, pinchy wool, and polyester.

All I had on-hand were a collection of pens and inks, with no pencils (Packed in my luggage) and so I completed most of this illustration with markers. Days later I would re-ink it and pencil it on my parents' kitchen table in Monarch Bay Terrace.

Normally, while in uniform I would be traveling with several other Marines, but having escorted my father on a 96 hour leave and we had separated as his permissions to travel on to Saint Petersburg in the USSR were approved. So I was to immediately report back to my squadron at El Toro back home in California.

I had had my brass & cedar art box with me and I had been going to town with my markers while eating a Chateaubriand steak with brandy and Guatemalan Dark Roast Whole Bean coffee when two flight hôtesse de l'air "Stewardesses" from Air France rolled in and asked if we could share a table. My art is what drew them in. That was the easiest seven-going-on-eight hours ever. I even got to let them know where to rent in Southern California for long layovers i.e. down in Dana Point by me.

I was pretty embarrassed to be traveling in uniform but my squadron required me to follow the regulations for Marines traveling commercial air in Europe and across the US. Neither Sylvie nor Inès seemed to mind. And as I found out, we'd go on to continue knowing each other until my future marriage in 1996.

The Lusca is said to grow over 75 ft (23 m) long, or even 200 ft (60 m) long, however there are no proven cases of other octopus species growing up to even half these lengths. To attack properly on the surface, the octopus would have to have one tentacle on the sea floor to balance itself; this would mean that such accounts, if real, would have to take place in relatively shallow water. Other descriptions also mention that it can change color, a characteristic commonly found in smaller octopuses.

The supposed habitat is rugged underwater terrain, large undersea caves, the edge of the continental shelf, or other areas where large crustaceans are found, which is supposedly what they feed on. Although the general identification of the lusca is with the colossal octopus, it has also been described as either a multi-headed monster, a dragon-like creature, or some kind of evil spirit.

The giant Pacific octopus is considered the largest octopus species in the world and inhabits the northern Pacific Ocean off the United States up to Alaska and around Japan. The largest individual on record weighed an impressive 600 pounds and measured 30 feet across in length.