Airboy

Airboy is a fictional aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the World War II-era time period that fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books. He was created by writer Charles Biro with scripter Dick Wood and artist Al Camy.

Publication history

Golden Age

Airboy debuted in the second issue of "Air Fighters Comics". The first issue of the title, cover-dated November 1941, had been a collection of aviation adventures featuring different characters. After that first issue sold poorly, the comic was retooled, and a year later vol. 1, #2 (Nov. 1942) introduced an entirely new set of heroes, including the cover-featured Airboy.

Airboy made "Air Fighters Comics" (renamed "Airboy Comics" with vol. 2, #11, Dec. 1945) a top seller through the 1940s. In the early issues, Biro wrote the scripts with Dave Wood and drew the covers, while Dan Barry and Fred Kida worked as main illustrators. The book 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 aviatrix Valkyrie, who fought on the side of the Axis but then defected to the Allies.

Hillman went out of business in the 1950s. The first run of "Airboy Comics"' ended with vol. 10, #4 (May 1953).

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" Volume 2 #2 and #7 and "Airboy Comics" Volume 2 #12, Volume 3 #6, and Volume 3 #12.

Modern era

In 1986, Eclipse Comics published a new "Airboy" series, updated to the modern era, starring the son of the original character. The strip 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 scripted with the occasional assistance of Tim Truman, with Truman, Ron Randall and Stan Woch the main illustrators. The second Airboy series ended in 1989 after 50 issues. Eclipse ceased operations in the early 1990s, and its characters were acquired by Todd McFarlane.

Spin-offs from the Eclipse series include the one-shots "Air Fighters Meet Sgt. Strike", "Airboy-Mr. Monster Special", "Airboy Meets the Prowler", "Airboy Vs. the Airmaidens", "Airmaidens Special" (starring Black Angel, La Lupina, and Valkyrie), and "Target: Airboy" (also featuring Clint from Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters.) A three-issue miniseries was printed for Skywolf and Valkyrie starred in two: one called the "The Eternal" (with Brent Anderson) and the other "Prisoner of the Past" (with Paul Gulacy). In addition, the Airfighters co-starred in the "Total Eclipse" mini-series and Misery and Zzed were villains in its tie-in "The Seraphim Objective". "The Eternal" was collected as a trade paperback, as were "Airboy" #1-5 entitled "The Return of Valkyrie."

Starting in 1988, Eclipse also published "Air Fighters Classics" to reprint Golden Age stories of Airboy and his related cast of characters which ran bimonthly for six issues.

In 2007, Moonstone Books announced plans to revive the World War II character in new stories written by 1980s "Airboy" writer Dixon. [ [http://www.comicon.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/36/t/006341.html Comicon.com (June 6, 2007): "Moonstone Has Airboy with Dixon Scripting", by Jennifer M. Contino] ]

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 Franciscan monk Brother Francis Martier, had created a highly maneuverable prototype aircraft that flew by flapping its wings, 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. 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 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.

The second Airboy was his son, David Nelson III, who took on the costume and name after his father died. He met many of the surviving Airfighters and faced the same enemies as his father as well as South American dictators, Soviets, pirates and corporate criminals.

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.toonopedia.com/airboy.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia]
* [http://www.comics.org/ The Grand Comic-Book Database]
* [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/a/airboy.htm International Catalogue of Superheroes: Airboy]