Airboy

Airboy was a fictional aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the wartime Golden Age of comics. He was created by writer-artist Charles Biro

Airboy originated in Air Fighters Comics, first published as a November 1941 collection of airborne adventures. After that first issue sold poorly, the comic was retooled and a year later, Vol. 1, #2 (Nov. 1942) introduced the hit character Airboy.

Air Fighters Comics Vol. 2, #2 (Nov. 1943): A typically cleavage-baring Valykrie provides the "latest war thrills". Cover by Charles Biro.

He was David ("Davy") Nelson, the son of an expert pilot and a crack flyer himself despite his youth. His friend, inventor and Franciscan monk Brother Francis Martier, had created a highly manueverable 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 intelligent new plane, "Birdie", helped the Allies during World War II.

With his catchy name, striking costume, independent status in the war, and weird antagonists like intelligent rats, the cleavage-baring Nazi Valkyrie and the mysterious Misery — whose Airtomb imprisoned the souls of dead pilots — 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. Kida's issues often featured meetings with Valkyrie, a German aviatrix, who played a role with Airboy often compared to Batman's Catwoman.

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

In 1986, Eclipse Comics acquired the rights to Hillman's characters, and published a new Airboy series, updated to the modern era. Valkyrie was back as well. Chuck Dixon scripted, and Tim Truman was main illustrator. This series ended in 1989. Eclipse ceased operations in the early 1990s, and its characters acquired by Todd McFarlane.

References

• Don Markstein's Toonpedia
• The Grand Comic-Book Database
• International Catalogue of Superheroes: Airboy