Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: airboy, alex hillman

Early Adventures of Airboy in Air Fighters Comics #6, Up for Auction

After three distinct attempts to launch its comic book line, Hillman found its footing with Airboy in the early days of Air Fighters Comics.

Best remembered today as the publisher of Airboy and other comics, Alex Hillman entered into the publishing business in the late 1920s, working for publishers including Heron Press, Inc. and a publisher of academic texts.  By the early 1930s he was working for publisher William Godwin, Inc., soon becoming president of that firm. He eventually formed a partnership called Hillman-Curl, which got into magazine-style pulps around the mid-1930s, and started his own Hillman Periodicals in 1938.  Hillman then essentially made three distinct attempts to enter the comic book publishing business from 1939 to 1941.

Hillman-Curl's late-1939 launch of Miracle Comics and Rocket Comics, under the editorship of Tony Feldman and Lionel White, was the first short-lived attempt.  Apparently free of the partnership with Sam Curl a short time later, Hillman Periodicals then launched Victory Comics and Air Fighters Comics under the editorship of former Funnies, Inc editor John H. Compton.  This attempt seems to have quickly stalled out as well, but Hillman apparently didn't want to let Air Fighters Comics die after just one issue.  Air Fighters Comics returned with sort of a soft relaunch a year later under the editorship of Ed Cronin and with a completely different line-up, including the introduction of Airboy.

Air Fighters Comics #2 introduced aviation hero Airboy and his distinctive and advanced bat-winged plane Birdie to comic books.  The character was created by Charles Biro, later of Lev Gleason Publications and Crime Does Not Pay fame, along with Dick Wood and artist Al Camy.  Biro and Wood kept that hard-hitting and sometimes brutal action going as the issues progressed, such as in this Air Fighters Comics #6 (Hillman Fall, 1943) up for auction in the 2024 May 30 Adventures in the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40261 at Heritage Auctions.

As told in Air Fighters Comics #2, Airboy was an orphan named Davy who was raised by a monk at Mission San Juan Capistrano in California. Observing the flight of bats at the mission one day, the monk, Padre Martier, recalled that renaissance genius Benvenuto Cellini had once likewise been inspired by bat wings as a possible method of human flight (and incidentally, a rather remarkable historical reference on the part of Biro and/or Wood there).  Padre Martier proceeded to design a modern bat-winged plane and then, against the wishes of his fellow monks, sought financial backing so that he could build it.  But the unscrupulous financial backer who provided the funds presumed that Martier was mad and that the plane would not fly.  He hoped to get his hands on the Mission's land when the loan could not be repaid.  When the plane did fly, the financier sabotaged it so that the plane crashed and killed Martier in the process.  Davy repaired the plane and took flight with it himself, attacking the financier's casino by bombing it from the air.  He subsequently proved Birdie's worth in aerial combat by taking on a Japanese squadron that had heard about the unique fighter and sought to steal it for themselves.

By the time of Air Fighters Comics #6, Airboy's exploits were well known in the UK and Europe.  In that issue, he joins a team of British pilots on what was considered a suicide mission against an explosives plant in Berlin.  Hillman established Airboy as one of the most memorable non-superhero characters of the Golden Age, there's an Air Fighters Comics #6 (Hillman Fall, 1943) up for auction in the 2024 May 30 Adventures in the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40261 at Heritage Auctions.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!