Airboy
Encyclopedia
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
of an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series initially published by Hillman Periodicals
Hillman Periodicals
Hillman Periodicals, Inc. was an American magazine and comic book publishing company founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher...
during the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era time period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
. He was created by writers Charles Biro
Charles Biro
Charles Biro was an American comic book creator and cartoonist. He is today chiefly known for creating the comic book characters Airboy and Steel Sterling, and for his 16-year run on the acclaimed 1940s series Daredevil Comics for Lev Gleason Publications.-Biography:Charles Biro studied art at...
and Dick Wood and artist Al Camy.
Golden Age
Airboy debuted in Air Fighters Comics #2 (cover-date Nov. 1941), an omnibus series featuring a variety of aviator heroes. The series was renamed Airboy Comics with vol. 2, #11 (Dec. 1945), and ran 89 issues, through vol. 10, #4 (May 1953).In the early issues, Biro wrote the scripts with Dave Wood and drew the covers, Al Camy the initial story artist. He was followed by Tony DiPreta
Tony DiPreta
Anthony Lewis DiPreta , better known as Tony DiPreta, was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books...
and, beginning with Air Fighters #10 (July 1943), Fred Kida
Fred Kida
Fred Kida is an American comic book and comic strip artist best known for the characters Airboy and Valkyrie.-Early life and career:...
, who would become closely associated with the series. Ernie Schroeder
Ernie Schroeder
Ernest C. "Ernie" Schroeder was an American comic book artist and a commercial illustrator and sculptor, best known for drawing and co-writing Hillman Periodicals' influential muck-monster the Heap from 1949 to 1953....
became the regular artist with Airboy Comics #vol. 5, #11 (Dec. 1948), through the end of the series' run, with Dan Barry, Maurice Del Bourgo, Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books...
and others supplying an occasionally story. The two consecutive series contained backup stories about other aviators, including Skywolf, Iron Ace, the Black Angel, the Bald Eagle, the Flying Dutchman, the Flying Fool, and the prototypical comic book swamp monster, the Heap. Airboy's most frequently recurring supporting character was the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
aviatrix Valkyrie, who fought on the side of the Axis but then defected to the Allies.
Hillman went out of business in the 1950s. Two issues were reprinted in 1973 and a trade paperback entitled Valkyrie!: From the Pages of Air Fighters and the Airboy was published in 1982 with five stories from Air Fighters Comics vol. 2, #2 and #7 and Airboy Comics vol. 2, #12, and vol. 3 #6 and #12.
Modern era
In 1986, Eclipse ComicsEclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
published a new Airboy series, updated to the modern era, starring the son of the original character. The 50-issue comic (15 July 1986 – Oct. 1989), which ran as a half-sized (16-page) bi-weekly through issue #33 (1 Nov. 1987) and monthly thereafter, reintroduced many of the supporting characters from the old series, such as Valkyrie and a Japanese fighter pilot named Hirota, and guest-starred many of the characters who had appeared as backups in the original comics. Chuck Dixon
Chuck Dixon
Charles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, best known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.-Biography:Dixon grew up in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, reading comics of all genres...
scripted with the occasional assistance of Tim Truman
Timothy Truman
Timothy Truman is an American writer, artist and musician. He is best known for his stories and Wild West-style comic book art, and in particular, for his work on Grimjack , Scout, and the reinvention of Jonah Hex, with Joe R. Lansdale...
, with Truman, Ron Randall and Stan Woch
Stan Woch
Stan Woch is an American artist who has worked in the comics industry. His early career includes work as an assistant to Gray Morrow on the Barbara Cartland Romances and Buck Rogers comic strips...
the main illustrators. Eclipse ceased operations in the early 1990s, and its characters were acquired by Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn....
.
Spinoffs from the Eclipse series include the one-shots Airboy-Mr. Monster Special (Aug. 1987), Airboy Meets the Prowler (Dec. 1987), The Air Fighters Meet Sgt. Strike Special (Jan. 1988) Target: Airboy (March 1988), and Airboy vs. the Air Maidens (July 1988). Additional spinoffs starred related characters: Air Maidens Special (Aug. 1987), starring Black Angel, La Lupina, and Valkyrie; the miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Skywolf #1–3 (March–Oct. 1988); and two Valkyrie comics, the one-shot Valkyrie: Prisoner of the Past (Dec. 1987), drawn by Paul Gulacy
Paul Gulacy
Paul Gulacy is an American comic book illustrator best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, with writer Don McGregor.-Early life and career:Paul Gulacy began...
, and the three-issue miniseries Valkyrie! (July–Sept. 1988), penciled by Brent Anderson
Brent Anderson
Brent Anderson is an American comic book artist known for his work on X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills and the comic book series Astro City.- Early life :...
. In addition, the Air Fighters co-starred in the five-issue miniseries Total Eclipse (May 1988 – April 1989), which featured most of the Eclipse stars together, and the one-shot Total Eclipse: The Seraphim Objective (Nov. 1988). Prisoner of the Past was collected as a trade paperback, as were Airboy #1–5 entitled The Return of Valkyrie. Prisoner of the Past was also published in a hardcover edition.
Starting in 1988, Eclipse also published Air Fighters Classics, a six issue bimonthly series dedicated to reprinting the original Golden Age stories of Airboy and related characters.
In 2007, Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....
announced plans to revive the World War II character in new stories written by 1980s Airboy writer Dixon. However, the revival did not see print until March 2009, when Moonstone released the one-shot Airboy – 1942: Best Of Enemies. Two issues of Airfighters, featuring Airboy, followed in 2010.
Fictional character biography
The first Airboy was David ("Davy") Nelson II, the son of an expert pilot and, despite his youth, a crack flyer himself. His friend, inventor and FranciscanFranciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monk Brother Francis Martier, had created a highly maneuverable prototype aircraft that flew by flapping its wings
Ornithopter
An ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some...
, like a bird. Martier, however, was killed while testing it, and Davy inherited both the plane and a uniform, which had apparently been in Martier's family since the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Davy soon christened himself "Airboy", and in his seemingly sentient new plane, "Birdie", helped the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Airboy confronted such weird antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s as intelligent rats, the mysterious Misery — whose Airtomb imprisoned the souls of dead pilots — and his cleavage-baring Nazi archnemesis, Valkyrie, a German aviatrix who later became his ally.
After the conclusion of World War II, David Nelson II continued to work as a freelance pilot and mercenary for a time, but he eventually retired from combat flying and stored Birdie in a barn outside his California estate. He had a son, whom he named David Nelson III, and founded an aircraft manufacturing company, through which he became very wealthy. In the mid-1980s, David Nelson II was assassinated by mercenaries from the South American nation of Bogantilla. When David Nelson III discovered that his father had been assassinated, he began to investigate the circumstances which had led up to his father's death. He soon discovered his father's mothballed plane and uniform and teamed up with a number of the surviving Air Fighters to face many of the same enemies as David Nelson II, as well as South American dictators, Soviets, pirates and corporate criminals.
Homages
The first volume in the Wild CardsWild Cards
Wild Cards is a science fiction and superhero anthology series set in a shared universe. The series was created by a group of New Mexico science fiction authors, but it is mostly pulled together and edited by best-selling author George R. R. Martin with assistance by Melinda Snodgrass, also a...
shared world series edited by George R.R. Martin includes a character called Jetboy
Jetboy
Jetboy is a fictional character from the Wild Cards book series. He appeared in the short story "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!" by Howard Waldrop, but is referenced throughout the Wild Cards series. Jetboy is based on pulp magazine and Golden Age "air ace" characters, particularly Airboy...
, an Airboy analogue created by Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop is a science fiction author who works primarily in short fiction.Waldrop's stories combine elements such as alternate history, American popular culture, the American South, old movies , classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. His style is sometimes obscure or elliptical...
who wanted to write an Airboy story.
The lead character of publisher America's Best Comics' graphic novel Top 10: The Forty-Niners
Top 10: The Forty-Niners
Top 10: The Forty-Niners, a graphic novel published by America's Best Comics in 2005, is a prequel to the ABC series Top 10, a police procedural set in the city of Neopolis, where superpowers, robots, monsters, and other comic fodder are the norm for all citizens...
is Jetlad, whom historian Jess Nevins
Jess Nevins
John J. Nevins, MA/MS, is an American author and librarian, born 30 July 1966 and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana , and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction...
calls, "an analogue of Charles Biro
Charles Biro
Charles Biro was an American comic book creator and cartoonist. He is today chiefly known for creating the comic book characters Airboy and Steel Sterling, and for his 16-year run on the acclaimed 1940s series Daredevil Comics for Lev Gleason Publications.-Biography:Charles Biro studied art at...
's teenaged aviator Airboy."