White Lily And The First Fighter Plane Shot Down By A Woman

 It made the game rather dull most of the time. Just sitting there, watching TVs that had the sound turned off. Mostly commercials. People silently transformed from unhappy to happy over the course of a few seconds by the miracle work of some product or service.

So there I sat. Folding. Waiting. Bored. My mind started to wander. What was that joke my father told me when I was a kid…

"Yeah, but these Fokkers was flying Messerschmitts." That punchline had made me laugh when I was a kid. The joke was rather risqué to tell to a child, but it was tame in comparison to most of the jokes he shared with me.

I wondered what the rest of the joke was?

I looked down at my next hand. When it was my turn, I slipped it into the muck. Not much was going on, so I took out my phone and opened a browser window.

With my large fingers, I typed the punchline of the joke into a search engine, hoping to find the joke. Instead what I found changed the course of my life.

Near the top of the search results was a young woman's face and a link to a Wikipedia article. The lead in to the article was, "Restored Messerschmitt Bf-109G: The first fighter shot down…:

First fighter shot down? By a woman?

I followed the link to the article and was amazed to find a story about a female WW II fighter pilot. One who was a triple flying ace (also known as an ace fighter or fighting ace). I had no idea.

Who was this woman?

I scanned the article, "Lydia Litvyak… Born in Moscow to Polish parents of Jewish descent… worked as a flight instructor … tried to become a military aviator but was turned down for lack of experience … overstated the hours on her application to join the all-women 586th division in 1941… bested her dogfight instructor on the first try."

Wow! That was amazing. 

I looked up to see the dealer looking at me, waiting. I was so absorbed in what I'd found that I hadn't noticed he'd dealt me another hand. "Sorry," I said as I looked at my cards and folded. "I found this amazing story on the internet. Did you know the Russians used female fighter pilots in WWII?"

No one responded, so I returned to my article.

"Her father was executed as an enemy of the people during the purge in 1938."

1938! She falsified her hours to get into a military division to fight for the country that killed her father! Who does that?!?

Now I was hooked. The article continued. "Lydia's first kill was German ace Erwin Maier… captured by the Soviets and asked to see the pilot who shot him down… he was taken before Lydia and couldn't believe it was a woman. Thought he was being tricked. Only when she described every move of their combat did he believe her."

Jeez, this woman's life is a damn movie!

"Had a relationship with fellow fighter pilot Alexei Solomatin… by some accounts they were engaged to be married…tragically crashed right in front of her… in a letter to her mother she wrote that that was the moment she knew she loved him."

She lost her father and the first love of her life by the time she was 20 years old, yet brought glory to her family in aerial victory after victory.

"It's your turn sir," the dealer said crossly.

'Oh yeah, I'm still at the poker table,' I thought as I checked my hand. I stood up as I slipped it into the muck.

"Going home early, fellas. I need to do some research!"

That was the beginning of my journey to tell the world the story of the highest scoring female combat pilot in history. I lived in Los Angeles, so I figured I'd talk to one of the many screenwriters I knew and see if anyone could help me write a screenplay about it. Surely they too would see how compelling the story was.

To my amazement, no one was interested.

"Can't you see that this story has everything," I told one who didn't seem impressed.

"Well then, you write it," was his reply.

So I did. I wrote my first screenplay, and I gave it the title White Lily. I decided to tell it from the point of view of her wingman. Er, wing woman. Wingperson. Yekaterina "Katya" Budanova. The second highest scoring female combat pilot in history. She and Lilya (Lydia's nickname) would be the only two women in world history to earn the title of flying ace.

With great expectations, I brought it to some Hollywood producers that I knew.

"Where's the American?" one asked.

"A WW II story with two female leads? I don't think so," said another.

"It's so tough to do period pieces. This project is too risky. Perhaps if it had a following in some other media," said yet another.

"You mean, like a comic book?" I asked.

"Yeah. That could work."

So here I am, Kickstarting the printing of the first issue of a comic book featuring the two highest scoring female combat pilots in history. I took my White Lily screenplay and converted it into a 5 issue comic script of the same title. Then I hired a creative team and we produced the first issue last year.

We started promoting and distributing it independently in the fall, and the response from fans has been incredible.

You can check out the project and all our rewards here!

By supporting our project, you're not only supporting a new independent creator-owned comic, but a wonderful story of real women fighting under almost unimaginable conditions as they made their mark on history.

Our team begins production on White Lily #2 soon!

We hope you'll join us on this adventure!

You can also keep up with White Lily on Facebook and Instagram.

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For anyone wondering what the joke was that started me on this journey, here it is: