Airboy
Airboy is a fictional Golden Age aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the World War II, before ending his initial run in 1953. The hero was the costumed identity of crack pilot Davy Nelson II, and created by writers Charles Biro and Dick Wood with artist Al Camy.
The character disappeared from publications until a 1980s revival under Chuck Dixon that lasted for several years, focusing on the original Airboy's son, Davy Nelson III, and reviving much of the Hillman library of supporting characters before ending in 1989.
Since then the original Hillman creations and stories have fallen into the public domain; as a result Airboy and his supporting cast have appeared intermittently since under multiple publishers, sometimes updating his story to the present day or continuing previous adventures.
Publication history
Hillman Publications
Airboy debuted in Air Fighters Comics #2, an anthology series featuring a variety of aviator heroes; the first issue of the title had been published a year before, featuring a completely different cast of characters who were never seen again. The series was renamed Airboy Comics with the twenty-third issue, vol. 2, #11, and ran 89 issues, through vol. 10, #4.In the early issues, Biro wrote the scripts with Dave Wood and drew the covers, Al Camy was the initial story artist. He was followed by Tony DiPreta and, beginning with Air Fighters #10, Fred Kida, who would become closely associated with the series. Ernie Schroeder became the regular artist with Airboy Comics vol. 5, #11, through the end of the series' run, with Dan Barry, Maurice Del Bourgo, Carmine Infantino, and others supplying an occasional story.
One of Airboy's most frequently recurring supporting characters was the German aviator Valkyrie, who fought on the side of the Axis as one of the Airmaidens but then defected to the Allies. The cleavage-baring aviatrix was one of the most popular characters in the series, making numerous appearances. Chuck Dixon, writer of the 1980s revival, would describe Valkyrie as "a cross between a Milton Caniff siren and Veronica Lake", and declare her the "sexiest character of Golden Age comics bar none".
An unusual feature of the series was that Airboy broadly aged in real-time, starting out as a young teenager at the start of his adventures; Kida credited the idea for this development to Terry and the Pirates. Following the Allies' victory in World War II in 1945, the series re-orientated and featured Airboy battling against the new terror, Communists.
The two consecutive series also contained backup stories about other aviators, including Skywolf, Iron Ace, the Black Angel, the Bald Eagle, the Flying Dutchman and the Flying Fool, before Hillman stopped publishing comics in 1953 due to the fall-out from Fredric Wertham's infamous Seduction of the Innocent, the incoming oversight of the Comics Code Authority and a general downturn in the market. Hillman subsequently left the publishing business altogether in 1961. Two issues were reprinted in 1973 by Don Maris' Nostalgia Inc. Comic Reprints, and a trade paperback entitled Valkyrie!: From the Pages of Air Fighters and the Airboy was published in 1982 by Ken Pierce Books with five stories featuring the femme fatale.
Synopsis
Airboy was David Nelson II, the son of an expert pilot and, despite his youth, a crack flyer himself; he was also an expert mechanic and a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. His friend, inventor and Franciscan friar Brother Francis Martier, had created a highly maneuverable prototype aircraft that flew by flapping its wings, like a bird; it also had claws for grabbing opponents, twin machine guns and could be summoned by radio. However, Martier was killed while testing it, and Davy inherited both the plane and a uniform, which had apparently been in the friar's family since the French Revolution. Davy soon christened himself "Airboy", and in his seemingly sentient new plane, "Birdie", helped the Allies during World War II.Airboy confronted such weird antagonists as the mysterious Misery – whose mould-encrusted Airtomb imprisoned the souls of dead pilots – and his bad girl nemesis, Valkyrie, a whip-wielding German aviator clad in a green tunic split to her navel, jodhpurs and riding boots. She led the crack all-female flying squad the Airmaidens before defecting and becoming an ally after witnessing the cruelty of superior Herr Oberst towards her charges. Other opponents included the hideously deformed Nazi fanatic the Black Ace and immortal CroMagnon occultist Zzed. Allies included the prototypical comic book swamp monster, the Heap, a World War I German aviator transformed into a shambling creature after crashing in a bog.
The other Air Fighters were a host of colourful heroic Allied pilots – the wolf-cowled Skywolf and his unit, consisting of a Cockney known as Cocky Roche, overage Royal Air Force veteran the Judge and Morse code-communicating mute Free Pole The Turtle, who all flew combining 'semi-planes' and fought the cyborg Half-Man; the vengeful Flying Dutchman, who warred with the Deathless Brain, the cerebrum of an English-speaking Imperial Japanese Army officer that operated out of a jar equipped with tentacles; the blaze-depilated Bald Eagle and his fatalistically named 'Flying Coffin' plane; the improbably armour-suited Iron Eagle and his similarly ironclad but still flightworthy plane, who battled Nazi arson enthusiast Firebug; and English aristocrat Black Angel, who operated out of a secret hangar in her castle with partner Black Prince, with whom she fought the sadistic Baroness Blood and the son of Grigori Rasputin.
Eclipse Comics
While editing Pierce the collection, Cat Yronwode – then editor-in-chief of Eclipse Comics – discovered that the copyright to the Air Fighters characters expired in 1986. She and Eclipse publisher Dean Mullaney planned to revive the characters, and sat on the information for four years in the hope that other publishers would not discover the lapse. As a result the Air Fighters cast became one of the few properties the company apparently owned, with the remainder being creator-owned. However, unlike properties owned by the American major publishers of the period the creative staff of Airboy would retain ownership of their work, and any additional characters created for the series.Timothy Truman was approached to write and draw the new series on the basis of his success with Scout for Eclipse; a fan of the originals, he readily agreed. However, when Truman's friend Chuck Dixon heard Airboy was being revived he was determined to be involved, and would end up writing the series. Mullaney, Yronwode, Truman and Dixon worked together on the initial idea, and opted to update the action to the present day and have Davy Nelson III, son of the original Airboy, take over his father's legacy. Supporting characters Valkyrie, Misery and Skywolf were all included, while Truman updated Hirota – a Japanese pilot who was the first 'kill' for Nelson Sr. during Air Fighters to now serve as his batman and tutor to his son. While the costumes of Airboy, Misery, the Heap and Valkyrie remained largely unchanged, Skywolf was updated to have a more modern costume – Yronwode would describe the wolf-pelt original look as "the dumbest costume ever invented" – and now piloted an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. Realising Valkyrie's plunging neckline and sultry looks were an important draw, Dixon devised a storyline where she was kept in suspended animation by the villain Misery, allowing her to remain youthful while also providing a plausible reason for David Nelson II's fall from grace. He briefly considered omitting Airboy's possibly sentient aircraft Birdie as it was too far fetched but ultimately Truman persuaded him it was part of the character's charm, likening it to the Batmobile. The update to the modern day allowed Dixon to have the Air Fighters' escapades reference the Cold War foreign policy of both the USA and the USSR, albeit through thinly veiled fictional countries.
Airboy was initially published in an innovative format of a 50c bi-weekly consisting of 16 pages, allowing Eclipse to undercut Marvel and DC. It would alternate with another bi-weekly 16-page title, The New Wave, as part of Eclipse's plan to build a connected fictional universe; the Heap was planned to be the common denominator for the two titles. Airboy launched to strong sales. As planned, after two issues Truman stepped down as artist to be replaced by Stan Woch; Truman would however remain as the series' editor. Among the cover artists were Truman, Paul Gulacy, Dave Stevens However the 50c price was deemed unsustainable, and from #9 the title was priced at $1.25, though unlike The New Wave it remained bi-weekly. The new expanded format saw Skywolf receive his own back-up feature from #9, written by Dixon. Initially this featured art from Larry Elmore before he handed over to Tom Lyle and Romeo Tanghal from #12 onwards. However, Woch felt the schedule was causing a drop in the quality of his work and left; Bo Hampton drew two issues before Ron Randall took over as regular artist. Airboy #25 spotlighted concerns about California's environment, leading to mainstream news coverage of the issue on CNN, while #28 set up crossover one-shot Airboy-Mr. Monster Special, pairing the characters with Michael T. Gilbert's Mr. Monster.
Valkyrie remained a popular attraction for both readers and creators, and in May 1987 the character received a three-issue spin-off limited series, with art by Gulacy. Capitalising on her sex appeal, each issue featured pinups from popular artists including Brian Bolland, Steve Leialoha, Brent Anderson and Bruce Jones, as well as a new piece by original Hillman artist Fred Kida.; the series was soon collected in a trade paperback, Valkyrie – Prisoner of the Past, with a new painted cover from Gulacy, and was followed by the one-shot sequel the Air Maidens Special, featuring art from Elmore. Dixon however was finding his attempts to set up 4Winds and launch new titles Strike! and Winterworld were consuming his time, and from #33 Airboy switched to a monthly schedule. This change did however mean that Woch agreed to return as artist, while Dan Spiegle took over art duties for the Skywolf back-up feature from Airboy #34.
To make up for the reduced schedule, Eclipse started the reprint series Air Fighters Classics, reprinting Hillman material. Despite the 1940s material depicting the Japanese in an offensive manner for propaganda reasons, the publisher chose not to censor the series. However, the original negatives for the material were lost, and as a result Eclipse had to strike new masters from vintage issues.
The characters also appeared in a crossover with Dixon's Strike!, the D-Day-set The Airfighters Meet Sgt. Strike Special. A further spin-off, a limited series focusing on the Heap and written by Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein, was mooted but instead appeared as a back-up in Airboy #38–40, featuring art from Carmine Infantino. Skywolf would graduate to his own Vietnam War-set three issue mini-series in 1988, written by the prolific Dixon and drawn by Lyle, while Valkyrie would also receive a second mini after the previous year's success, with Anderson joining as artist. Further spin-offs were the one-shots Target: Airboy., Airmaidens vs. Airboy. and a crossover with Truman's Prowler characters in Airboy Meets The Prowler.
By this stage Airboy was firmly established as one of Eclipse's most popular characters, and the Air Fighters would occupy major roles in Eclipse's tenth-anniversary mini-series Total Eclipse, which also saw Hillman villain Zzed revived as the antagonist. However, the output for the character would soon rapidly dwindle. While Air Fighters Classics continued to sell well but would stall for several months while Eclipse searched for a copy of Air Fighters Comics #6. A planned Airboy Graphic Album intended to bridge the gap between the Hillman and Eclipse material was instead reworked as the contents of Airboy #46–49, a storyline named "The Diary of Airboy" and featuring Ernie Colón as artist afer Woch again left
The title began to suffer delays; the double-sized Airboy #50 featured Andy Kubert on pencils, Adam Kubert on inks and a Joe Kubert cover, and appeared four months after #49. Inside it included a text piece from Yronwode taking up the letters page informing readers it would be the last issue "for the foreseeable future", listing difficulties in finding a suitable artist to replace Woch full-time as Colón had proved too slow, falling sales and alleged controversy over the book's political controversy. With Airboy "on hiatus" related titles were also halted, with Air Fighters Classics and a mooted Skywolf one-shot with art from Alberto Maldonato.
While Eclipse would issue the trade paperback The Return of Valkyrie, reprinting Airboy #1–5 with a cover from Jim Steranko, Dixon moved onto other projects including Merchants of Death and the company's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit as the publisher moved away from ongoing comics. No new material featuring Airboy or his supporting characters appeared before Eclipse went out of business in 1995.