Comics - a bit of history
Who invented the comic? Hard to say. Did it start with the drawings found in caves like the ones found in France? Could the hieroglyphics from Egypt be defined as an early comic? I think the real predecessor to the comic was the cartoon. Back in the 16th century Annibale and Agosthino Carraci earned themselves a reputation by drawing cartoons dedicated to famous celebrities. These cartoons got so popular other artists like Pier Leone Ghezzi, Giovanni Bracelli and Gian Llorenzo Bernini tried their luck on cartoons. By gaining popularity, other countries in Europe became aware of this phenomenon and had their own famous cartoonists as well. Not to eveybody’s liking: when famous cartoonist Honore Daumier drew king Louis-Philippe the king wasn’t amused. So in 1831 Doumier spent half a year in prison. Popularity, however, was only growing, so during the 19th century several periodicals were introduced specialising in cartoons. In 1841 “The London Charivari” was launched. Changing its name into “Punch” it still is world-famous and other periodicals followed suit. In 1844 “Fliegende Blatter”; in 1846 ” Yankee Doodle”; in 1851 “The Lantern”. Initially, the humour was centered in single drawings. Hoewever, cartoonists like Lothar Meggendorfer, Caran D’Ache and A.B. Frost soon experimented with series of related drawings telling a short story, often with a funny ending.
In the mean time, richly illustrated childrenbooks were getting populair with another audience. It wad only a matter of time untill both forms of illustrations would merge and give birth to the comic. A childrenbook like “The adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck” (1837) was an early type of comic, since the drawings got text-lines dedicated to it underneath. ” Struwel Peter” (1844) by Heinrich Hoffman and “Max und Moritz” (1865) by Wilhelm Busch had a big inpact on the history of the comic. However, birth of the real comic took place in another part of the world: the USA. The daily newspapers like the “San Francisco Examiner”, ”New York Journal” and “New York World” were eager to serve their readers with the new medium. When “The Yellow Kid” was published from october 18, 1896, created by Richard F. Outcault it was the first time text was used as an integral part of the drawing. Not by means of “balloons”, but by inserting it in the night-shirt of the young hero. Because of its success in “The New York World” other newspapers followed suit, although there was a wide variation of quality. One of the better ones sure was Rudolph Dirks’ The Katzenjammer Kids”. It got so popular it is created even now, thus being the comic with the longest creational history. One of the most superb comics of the early days was ” Little Nemo in Slumberland”, launched by “The New York Herald” in 1905. This comic of Windsor McCay still is very popular, being reprinted occasionally.
The birth of the Aviation Comic
Most of the early comics concentrated on the adventures of human being and animals. Although 1904 marked birth of powered flight, it was hardly noticed by the comic-artists, so it seems. Maybe some reference was made in some comics by dedicating one or two cartoons to an aeroplane passing by, without being noticed by me. Actually, it was an airship that raised the interest of some comic-readers, when Charles William Kahles published his comic ” The Airship Man” during the period may 1902 - october 1903 . In Europe, aviation was also ignored by the comics, although Becassine visits a military airfield in 1916. Something important in aviation had to happen in order to attract the attention of comic-artists and their audience. So may 1927 Charles Lindbergh flew solo to Europe in order to raise popularity of aviation in general and himself in particular. he succeeded all too well, for indeed, a special comic was dedicated to his adventures. However, just before this main event an artist had tried his luck in aviation. Being a pilot himself, Hal Forrst created “Artie the Ace” in 1926. Shortlived, it attracted the attention of businessman John N Wheeler. He arranged a meeting with Forrest and discussed the launching of an aviation comic to be drawn by Forrest and written by Chaffin. Exactly one year after Lindbergh’s flight, on may 21, 1928 “Tailspin Tommy” took the air. It became so popular Forrest added another aviation comic to it, called “The Four Aces”. By 1942, however, the series stopped, since it had lost much of its popularity being oldfashioned and being outclassed by other aviation comics of superior quality. ”Skyroads” (1929) by Dick Calkins; Scorchy Smith” (1930) by Noel Sickles; “Smilin’ Jack” (1932) by Zack Mosley; “Bill Barnes” (1934) Frank Tinsley; “Barney Baxter” (1936) by Frank Miller; “Flyin’ Jenny” (1939) by Russell Keaton. During the thirties the aviation comic established itself by these artists in the USA. His friend Noel Sickles inspired one of the greatest and most popular artist to turn its little hero created in 1934 as a boat-traveling boy into a second world war pilot in 1941. “Terry and the Pirates” was created by Milton Caniff until discontinued by him in 1947 in favour of another aviation-comic called “Steve Canyon”.
The aviation comic in Europe
What happened in Europe, in the mean time? Not much as far as aviation comics is concerned. Europe simply lacked the widespread tradition of newspaper-comics (although European newspapers started to pick it up). It was Germany-born artist Kurt Caesar who introduced aviation comics into Europe. Starting his career as a comic-illustrator in 1927, he created ” Romano, il Legionario” and had it published from april 23, 1938 in “Il Vittorioso” (Italy). He soon created another aviation comic:” Dino e Dario, ero dell’ ario” and after the war contributed to various “small-size” aviation comics. However, by that time TinTin was created by Herge, marking the beginning of the golden age of the European comics. Two comic-magazines were launched: “TinTin”(Kuifje) and”Spirou”(Robbedoes). Although the war intervened, it had at least one good effect on those magazines. The Germans didn’t like the American aviation comics being published, forcing the editors in planning comics of European origin. So “Bob L’Aviateur” (Scorchy Smith) had to go, not without influencing the European artists taking over. The aviation comic in Europe got a mayor boost when “Tarawa” was lauched. Though not so much an aviation comic as a war comic, quite some aircraft were flying around in it. Created by Jean-Michel Charlier, Victor Hubinon and Albert Weinberg, it was published in “Le Moustique” and “Humo” in 1948/1949. These names were to get famous since they are connected to the most successful aviation comics of European origin. Buck Danny was launched in 1948 by Charlier and Hubinon, being published in “Spirou/Robbedoes”. Clearly influenced by Milton Caniff, it took a while to establish its own character. Also proper drawing of the various aircraft types needed some practising. And research, for in the initial stories Zero’s were presented as biplanes! Weinberg made contributions to the aviation comic scene by working on several comics (including “Joe la Tornado”) until launching “Dan Cooper” in 1954, being published in “TinTin/Kuifje”, “Pep” and “Zack”. Charlier wrote the scripts for “Tanguy et Laverdure”, drawn by Albert Uderzo (famous from “Asterix”), published from 1959 in “Pilote” and “Pep”. Many other aviation comics were launched in Europe after the war, trying to be as successful: Bob Mallard, Hop Harrigan, Strut Warren, Adler, Steel Angels, The Black Hawk Line, Rud Hart, Piloot Frank, etc. Some were stopped after a few episodes because of poor quality, whilst others were successful (Adler), some others changed into science-fiction in order to be more attractive (?) ( Piloot Storm). One aviation-comic character is worth mentioning: Biggles. Being created as a hero in aviation-novels by W.E. Johns, its characters inspired a number of comic-artists in several countries. In England, a single Biggles-story (Cruise of the condor) was converted into a comic by Pat Williams in 1955. Ron Embleton tried his luck on Biggles between 1960 - 1966 on behalf of “TV-Express”. In France Guicha and Melies tried their luck between 1963 - 1966, whilst in Belgium Vandersteen’s Karel Biddeloo had his own version between 1965 - 1969. Most successful, however, was the comic called “Biggles” as created by Bergese in Belgium. Being taken over by Loutte and Oleffe, it was published 1990- today.
Another phenomenon in comics featuring aircraft in comics was the “small format” war comics being launched in Europe in the early sixties (although some were on a normal format, I call them “small format” as well because of similarity in concept). Most famous is the English publication “Commando”, dedicated to the second world war’s battles om the ground, at sea and in the air. It is still active to this day, issue nr 4000 being published recently. Well done. Because of its succes other publishers used the same concept, some of these series concentrating on the war in the air only. “Rapaces” in France, “Kampflyver” in Denmark and “Pilot” in Sweden were succesfull with their aviation comics work. Though most of the heros in it only performed in on or two stories by anonymous artists, a few got popular. “Tony Cyclone”, created by Roger Mellies (1949-1965) “Paddy Payne” created by Mark Ross/Gary Keene (1957-1969) and “Battler Britton” by Michael Butterworth/Geoff Campion present the best of “small-size” war comics. After a slow start, compared to America, aviation comics were at the top of their popularity in the sixties.
Post-war aviation comics
Back to the US. A lot had changed regarding aviation comics during the second world war. Some of the early aviation comics couldn’t cope with the changes the war had brought. “Tailspin Tommy” and “Skyroads” vanished in thin air in 1942 and 1943, being overly romantic. However, tougher aviation hero’s were ”born” during the war, like Ralph Lane’s naval pilot ”Buzz Sawyer” (1943), Frank Robbins’ “Johnny Hazard” (1944)and Ray Bailey’s “Bruce Gentry” (1945). Moreover, early forerunners of the European “small formats” were launched during the war to satisfy the needs of a nation. Some of these concentrated on the war in the air, like ” Wing comics” and “True aviation picture stories”. When Steve Canyon joined the band of US aviation comic heros, it looked like the US was the place to be for aviation comic enthousiasts, never to be surpassed by Europe.
However, things changed a lot after the fourties. Whilst popularity was rising in Europe, a decline in popularity was encountered in the US. I think because of three reasons. To start with, the American aviation comic artists were somewhat older than their European counterparts and had to retire or died in the sixties or seventies. Some of their hero’s were adopted by younger artists, however, without the quality of the original creators. Moreover, young generation in the US had a different kind of appreciation, preferring fanatasy and SF-comics rather than the straight adventure comics the preceding generation liked so much. “Barney Baxter” ceased flying in 1950, “Bruce Gentry” quit in 1952, “Flyin’ Jenny” retired in 1952, “Scorchy Smith” ended his 30+ years of a carreer in 1961. However, the real “killer” of the US aviation comic hero was the Vietnam war. Being very unpopular both in the US and Western Europe, they were treated much different by the artsts in both continents. In the US, involvement of a US-military pilot like Steve Canyon was inevitably. Nevertheless, the young public wasn’t amused. As an effect, some of the newspaers ceased publication of Steve Canyon, leaving Milton Caniff as a frustrated artist. He didn’t bother about drawing aircraft anymore, leaving it to his assistants. The role of aviation dimished: in (one of?) his last Steve Canyon-stories out of almost 400 drawings only 8 are dedicated to aircraft (DC10, C141) of poor quality. Milton’s dying in 1977 wasn’t only the end of Steve Canyon, it was the end of an era. “Terry and the Pirates” and “Smilin’ Jack” ceased being published in 1973, ”Johnny Hazard” joined Steve in retirement in 1977, whilst “Buzz Sawyer” finally bowed away in 1979. Although some of these hero’s were picked up again for a while during the 80-90’s, like ”Buzz Sawyer” (1983-1989) and “Terry and the Pirates” (1995-1997) and planes are still flying around in some recent American comics every once and a while (like in “Luftwaffe 1946″-series) the days of the US aviation are over (forever?)
How could the European aviation comic artists avoid defeat by the Vietnamese war? By circumstances, rather than smart decisions. Different circumstances, for France had already lost Vietnam in the fifties. So before the US showed up in Vietnam, France government proved so sensitively about the country it tried to force the comic world to stay away from there. When Buck Danny showed up in those regions anyway in 1962 in the story “Tigres volant contre pirates/Vliegende tijgers tegen de piraten” the name Vietnam was changed into Vientan, whilst the introduction of “Flying tigers” referred to the story of Anerican volunteers during the second world war in China in a modern setting, rather than a reference to what was about to happen in Vietnam in the years to come. It was the only story of U.S. Navy pilot Buck Danny in Vietnam. When the war in Vietnam was in full swing, his U.S.Navy unit had better things to do in other parts of the world. Neither Dan Cooper nor Tanguy and Laverdure showed up in Vietnam either, since they were pilots in the Canadian Air Force and the Armee de l’Air. Vietnam was fully ignored by the European comic world. It wasn’t untill the late eighties some comics were dedicated to the war in the air in Vietnam: “Leader Blue” by Barreiro and Rodriguez and “Nam!” by Kooyman. They met very limited success, only. So the impact of Vietnam was limited compared to the US.
The decease or retirement of the main artist is another story. Hubinon died in 1979, Jije died in 1980, Charlier died in 1989. Weinberg is still alive and kicking, presenting me a nice Dan Cooper drawing during the BD-fair in Angouleme in 2005. However, born in 1922 he had to retire years ago; so did Dan Cooper. Tanguy and Laverdure seemed to be doomed into retirement also. However, “Prissonniers des serbes” (Laidin/Fernandez)was published in 2002, followed by “Operation Opium” (Laidin/Garreta) in 2005. The real success-story, however, is Buck Danny. Indeed, most of the popular aviation comics were hard to continue after the death of the original artist because of inferior quality of successors. Not so Buck Danny. In 1983 Dupuis started to publish a collective series (+3 stories), the covers being made by some Bergese. Being very succesfull afterwards with his “Biggles”comics, he was a natural choice to comtinue Buck Danny. This year Buck will celebrate his 60th birtday as an aviation comic hero; by far the most lasting of all aviation comic heros. When celebrating, Buck can invite a lot of European collegues, for a lot has happened since the sixties. Michael Logan (Beautemps/Van Hamme 1972-1978), The Black Hawk Line (Staller 1990-1994) and Flying tigers (Molinari 1972-1987) didn’t suvive. Adler (Sterne 1985- ) would be most welcome. However, the 21st century comic aviation scene is dominated by French comics like ‘Missions ”Kimomo” ‘ (Brouard/Nicole), “La strategie des sentinelles” (Laplagne/Aiffue) and “Team Rafale” ( Loutte/Zumbiehl). A new artist of astonishing quality is Romain Hugault ( “Le dernier envol” and “Au-dela des Nuages”) published by Paguet, a comic publisher specialised in aviation comics under the name “Cockpit-collection’). Moreover, this year (2008) the 4th “Bande Desinee Aeronautique” will be helt at Musee de l’Air at Le Bourget. This is the only fair in the world specially dedicated to aviation comics.
So Aviation comics are still popular. long may they live!
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