From movies to comics to literature, the octopuses of this world tend to get a pretty bad rap—but the goggled-eyed flapjack octopus shows us a sweet, cartoonish side of the cephlapod species.

Plague doctors are centuries out of fashion, but the iconic outfit still endures: the long coat, the goggled eyes, the mask with a long, birdlike beak. The costume distorts an otherwise familiar ...