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Re: Dani el Aviador 01

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topic icon Author Topic: Re: Dani el Aviador 01  (Read 255 times)

crashryan

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Re: Dani el Aviador 01
« on: February 12, 2021, 08:30:02 PM »

I am curious about the story behind these stories. As I mentioned in the description, the comics were published in the mid 1940s. However everything in the book is rooted firmly in the late 1930s. The aircraft (several labelled for easy identification) are all pre-WWII. There are lots of biplanes and an early-30s autogiro. The cars resemble 1938-1940 models. There is no mention of the War, which had been going on for several years.

So far I've been unable to find any information about the writer-artist except that Hispano Americana printed other work by him during this period. As an artist del Villar draws machinery beautifully and figures not so well. His fantasy aircraft are strongly influenced (if not outright lifted) from Frank Tinsley's designs for the Bill Barnes, Air Adventurer pulp magazine (1934-1935). I'd like to know more about him and about this character.

Link to the book: Dani el Aviador 01
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Captain Audio

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Re: Dani el Aviador 01
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2021, 12:03:15 AM »

the comics were published in the mid 1940s. However everything in the book is rooted firmly in the late 1930s. The aircraft (several labelled for easy identification) are all pre-WWII. There are lots of biplanes and an early-30s autogiro. The cars resemble 1938-1940 models.


Nothing at all unusual in that. Most civilian automobile product was halted during the war years. The manufacturers were too busy building bombers and other war materials. Also very few people upgraded to a new car every year. Even the wealthy preferred to spend a few bucks to keep their favorites in top running condition for decades.
The DC3 was designed in the thirties and is still in use as a cargo and passenger liner in many parts of the world.
Biplanes are still fairly common as agricultural aircraft and prized for their STOL abilities in rough terrain.
Besides dedicated warplanes builders of civilian sport planes found they could tweak the designs slightly to produce excellent observation craft. The L5 Stinson is an example.
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crashryan

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Re: Dani el Aviador 01
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2021, 01:56:40 AM »

Of course, all these items are true and I was aware of them. My point is that comic artists who are hardware fans, as R. del Villar seems to be, tend to draw the latest and hottest machinery. The Bill Barnes planes appeared in pulp magazines around 1934-1935. While it's quite possible del Villar kept copies in his swipe file for a decade, it's more likely that he was working from copies just a couple of years old. Consider the Seversky P-35. It was a big deal in 1937 when the Air Corps got their first shipment, but by 1940 the plane had faded from the scene (except in Sweden, which ordered P-35s as late as 1940). Similarly the DC-4E airliner, which makes an appearance in issue #2, was a prototype aircraft that flew in 1938-1939. It proved impractical and wasn't developed further. By 1944 it was largely forgotten. The DeHavilland DH89 in the same issue lasted a long time--some are still flying--but its big news years were 1934-1938.

Another point worth considering is that between 1940 and 1944, when these books were published, a whole generation of new aircraft had appeared. The fighters and bombers that fought WWII fired the public imagination for years, but there's nary a hint of them in these stories.

As for cars, by 1940 almost all American car makers had switched to integrated front fenders with built-in headlamps. The previous formula, with separate fenders and headlamps mounted to the radiator housing on stalks, was still the dominant design in 1938. The big changeover began with the 1939 models. Most of del Villar's cars follow the 1938-and-earlier designs.

Any one of these points by itself doesn't prove much, but taken together they build a strong case that the Dani/Daniel the Aviator stories were produced sometime during the period 1937-1939. Yes, it's speculation. But it's not impossible.
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