| Comments |
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| Good read. The art work is wonderful, and the Heros are great, and they are not super Heros. |
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| In the “Airboy” story, he flies off to intercept a group of “bombers” headed for a destroyer and, although the artwork on the Zeros is nice for the media of this era, it is my understanding that Zeros were not used as bombers until later in the war than it is possible for Airboy’s mission to be taking place. The bit with Japanese General Kato requires plenty of suspension of disbelief, but what are comics for? If they were too realistic, they’d just be “news” or “biography.”
Sky Wolf: As hilarious as Hitler’s discomfiture was when confronted by the witch and the realization of Genghis Khan’s return from the dead, this story “jumped the shark” for me, even more than the semi-planes did when I first saw them. And what about those “rocs?” I don’t remember giant birds associated with Khan’s conquests. Ah, fantasy! I guess I just enjoy bizarre stories and this one was indeed that!
Skinny McGinty: They are comic books, right? So, it seems like even in the wartime war story books, there always had to be a comedic story. Instead of the racist Chinese character in the first issues, this one had a try-out in this issue. It’s pretty goofy, but I’m sure the kids loved it. I could live without these and stick to the adventure stories, but I laughed at the human fly paper idea.
Iron Ace: Unless the armor worn by the Iron Ace is supposed to be the same as the miracle armor on the plane (and it wasn’t originally because it was originally historical armor), it makes no sense at all for the armor to be bulletproof. Still, these are entertaining stories. Even though they are in color, I get the feeling of some of the old black and white serials as I’m reading these stories.
The text story, Air Convoy, was imaginative and interesting. I don’t think things work quite like the authors thought they worked, but they did a marvelous service during the war years by setting up a scenario that pointed out how valuable each little delivery of oil was to the war effort. And, the authors were quite right that a lot of ships that normally wouldn’t have been considered seaworthy were pressed into duty, even if they were sticking close in coastal waters.
Black Angel: The story changes to the Pacific Theater without really explaining how the Black Angel got there. It doesn’t matter, though. The story contains both a deus ex natura and deus ex machina to assist with the Black Angel’s escapes. The fight sequences seemed better illustrated than most of the stories I’ve seen in this title, but in the interests of expedience, most of the planes are shown in shadow. The anti-Japanese epithets seem consistent with what one would have expected in WWII. These stories are worth reading just to remind us of how things were.
Bald Eagle: There is plenty of action in this tale, but it demonstrates that the fantastic elements of the stories are outweighing the realistic aspects of the stories in most of the features. This story mostly takes place on the ground with mechanics involving a Japanese gas that temporarily shrinks and freezes Japanese soldiers long enough to infiltrate them into toy shops so they can be carried into the private homes of the U.S. In the story, our bald protagonist fortuitously visits the home of a commanding officer whose son collects toy soldiers. That’s where the real action of the story begins, ending with the obligatory dogfight with the outnumbered Bald Eagle against a mass of armed but undermaneuvering fighter-bombers.
The Flying Dutchman: The idea of a duel with an enemy disfigured from a previous encounter is a nice high concept for a story. It seemed like there was an unnecessary reconstructive surgery that didn’t really fulfill any plot necessity, but there are some nice action panels in this story and I don’t think regular readers would be dissatisfied. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | January 1943 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: Monthly |
| Notes | Artist revision from Al Camy ? to Biro by Craig Delich 2012-12-19. |
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| Featuring | Airboy |
| Credits | Pencils: Charles Biro | Inks: Charles Biro |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: Airboy [David Nelson II]; Iron Ace [Captain Robert Britain] (inset); Black Angel [Sylvia Manners] (inset); Sky Wolf [Larry Wolfe] (inset) |
| Notes | Artist revision from Al Camy ? to Biro by Craig Delich 2012-12-19. |
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| Comic Story | Secrets of the Bird-Plane (13 pages) |
| Featuring | Airboy |
| Credits | Script: Charles Biro; Dick Wood | Pencils: Al Camy | Inks: Al Camy |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: Airboy [David Nelson II]; President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; General Kato (introduction); Kritzel |
| Notes | The story is continued from last issue. Some sources state that Tony DiPreta began to illustrate Airboy stories for a while from the 2nd story on, and that Al Camy only drew the first story. |
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| Comic Story | The Return of Genghis Khan (12 pages) |
| Featuring | SkyWolf |
| Credits | Pencils: Mort Leav | Inks: Mort Leav |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: SkyWolf [Larry Wolfe]; Cocky Roche; The Judge; The Turtle; the Dog-Boys (introduction); General T.R. Shaw (introduction); Adolf Hitler (villain); Genghis Khan (villain) |
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| Comic Story | Origin (?) of Skinny McGinty (5 pages) |
| Featuring | Skinny McGinty |
| Credits | Pencils: Tony DiPreta | Inks: Tony DiPreta |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Skinny McGinty (introduction, origin) |
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| Comic Story | Suspected of Treason (9 pages) |
| Featuring | Iron Ace |
| Credits | Pencils: Fred Kida | Inks: Fred Kida |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: Iron Ace [Captain Robert Britain]; Spencer (introduction); Lord Marley (introduction); Kless (villain, introduction); the Nazis (villains) |
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| Text Story | Air Convoy (2 pages) |
| Credits | Script: Nathaniel Nitkin | Letters: typeset |
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| Comic Story | The Menace of Madam Claw (8 pages) |
| Featuring | The Black Angel |
| Credits | Pencils: John Cassone | Inks: John Cassone |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: The Black Angel [Sylvia Manners]; Mia Kah (introduction, death); Madame Claw (introduction, death); Emperor Hirohito (villain) |
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| Comic Story | The Miniature Invaders (7 pages) |
| Featuring | Bald Eagle |
| Credits | Pencils: Harry Sahle | Inks: Harry Sahle |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: Bald Eagle; Colonel Armstrong (introduction); Bobbie Armstrong (introduction); Japanese army |
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| Comic Story | The Man With the Mechanical Face (8 pages) |
| Featuring | Flying Dutchman |
| Credits | Pencils: Bob Fujitani | Inks: Bob Fujitani |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: Flying Dutchman; Dutch patriots [Helena]; Nazis; Major Franz Hamm (introduction) |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
