Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: airboy, golden age, valkyrie

Valkyrie's Earliest Appearances in Air Fighters Comics, up for Auction

In her first appearances in Air Fighters Comics, Valkyrie was persuaded by Airboy to switch sides and join the Allies during WWII.

Published Fri, 12 May 2023 12:17:09 -0500

by Mark Seifert

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Valkyrie was a German fighter ace and leader of the Airmaidens squadron during WWII. First appearing in Air Fighters Comics V2#2, she was created by artist Fred Kida and an unknown writer (possibly Warren Kuhn or Ed Cronin). Swayed by the courage of Airboy, she and the Airmaidens ultimately turned against the Nazis in her September 1943 debut to fight alongside Airboy. One of the most memorable female characters of the Golden Age with an iconic cover by Kida, there are nice copies of her first two appearances in Air Fighters Comics V2#2 (Hillman Fall, 1943) CGC FN 6.0 Off-white pages an Air Fighters Comics V2#7 (Hillman Fall, 1944) CGC VG/FN 5.0 Cream to off-white pages in the 2023 May 18 The War Comics Showcase Auction #40223 at Heritage Auctions.

Air Fighters Comics V2#2 featuring Valkyrie (Hillman Fall, 1943) — Air Fighters Comics V2#2 featuring Valkyrie (Hillman, Fall, 1943)

Valkyrie's greatest desire was to face Airboy in a dogfight to prove herself. She soon had her chance as Airboy discovered the Airmaiden Squadron's base of operations. While Airboy bested Valkyrie in the subsequent battle, he ultimately lost and was captured because he couldn't bring himself to shoot a woman. Airboy was then tortured in an attempt to force him to divulge the operational secrets of his airplane, but the rest of the Airmaidens were swayed by his courage in the face of the torture and hid Airboy elsewhere on the base. Finally, with her team set to be executed for helping Airboy, Valkyrie herself was persuaded to switch sides, and she, the Airmadens, and Airboy made their escape to England, with Valkyrie declaring that they'd been brainwashed from an early age and vowing to switch sides.

Her second appearance in Air Fighters Comics V2#7 confirmed that she had joined the Allies and the Nazis wanted her dead for it. However, after the end of WWII, things again turned tense from time to time between Valkyrie and Airboy, as she became a mercenary of sorts, willing to lend her skills to anyone who would pay the price.

Fred Kida, a Japanese-American comic book and comic strip artist, is best known for his work on Airboy stories at Hillman Periodicals. His contribution to comics 1940s-1980 ran across various genres, including war, crime, horror, western, and romance comics at Marvel, Lev Gleason, and other publishers. Kida's first known comic book work was in Quality Comics' Military Comics #9 cover-dated April 1942. While Kida might be largely remembered for his work on Airboy and Valkyrie, he spent most of his career working at Marvel.

Out of the nearly 500 comic books that Kida contributed to during a nearly 40-year career, he contributed most to Marvel on a wide variety of titles, followed by Lev Gleason and Hillman. Kida contributed to nearly 220 Marvel and Marvel UK issues across 80 titles, and as those numbers suggest, he almost never had lengthy runs on a given title for the publisher. As an inker, he contributed to 30 issues of Captain Britain near the end of his career. As a penciler/inker, his most prolific contribution to a single title was on Lev Gleason romance series Lovers Lane. He also did significant work in newspaper comic strips, most notably drawing The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip from August 1981 to July 1986

Remembered today as the publisher of comic books titles such as Air Fighters Comics, Airboy, and Rocket Comics, Alex Hillman's life and business operations ranged well beyond comic book publishing. Outside of comics, Hillman's magazines included true crime and true confession titles, as well as general interest magazines like Pageant and People Today. By the late 1940s, Hillman had entered the paperback field as well. Hillman had become influential in conservative politics by the post-WWII era, and controversial senator Styles Bridges had become a member of the Hillman Periodicals board of directors by that period. Bridges sent Hillman to France in 1953 to lead an investigative team for the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding a proposed $5 billion economic aid package for that country under the Marshall Plan. Hillman would largely exit the publishing business entirely shortly after that, but he would later help publish a paperback titled Conscience of a Conservative, which was significantly influential on the conservative movement of that era. The success of the paperback and the movement helped convince its author, U.S. Senator and eventual Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Barry Goldwater, to run for President.