Airboy’s story is as an orphan, raised in a monastery by a Franciscan monk who also happened to design and build trick aircraft (hey, it’s a comic book, where stuff like this is easier to swallow). It was first told in
Air Fighters #2 in 1942. The character was created by Charles Biro, and was a hit. Airboy’s wing-flapping plane, Birdie, apparently never runs out of fuel, and can go just about anywhere. As we see in this story it even flies into the famous Paris sewers. (Remember, it's a comic book.)
The artwork was done by Dan Barry, who had a very slick style. Barry is one of my favorite comic artists of the period. He worked on comic strips and comic books, doing Tarzan and Flash Gordon in newspapers and working in crime comics for Charles Biro while also drawing for DC Comics. He poured a lot into his work. Whatever the page rate he got in those days, it probably wasn’t enough.
From
Airboy Volume 11, Number 4 (1948):
I really liked the serial nature of this comic. It was long, but the constant shifting of location and action made it a speedy read. Sure, I miss the evil woman falling for Airboy but this contains enough action to make up for it.
ReplyDeleteDan's artwork is really on point. It works beautifully for this story.
Brian, from what I remember about Dan Barry, he was one of DC's best artists, and his brother, Sy, was the artist whose inking became the DC house style during the era.
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