In our third part reminiscing about Eclipse Comics we finally come to AIRBOY - which is the one that started this whole thing - and I have to confess that I don't know that much about the book aside from one issue that I bought which was mainly due to Dave Stevens cover for issue five featuring the series sultry femme fatale Valkyrie, about whom I only knew that she liked wearing shirts without buttons for obvious reasons.
Airboy is one of the many aviation heroes from the Golden Age which inspired Dave Stevens to create THE ROCKETEER and the Airboy comics were originally published by Hillman Periodicals during WW II ending his initial run in 1953. When Cat Yronwode - the Editor - In - Chief of Eclipse Comics discovered the copyright to Airboy and the Airfighter characters had expired in 1986 she and Eclipse Comics co - founder and publisher Dean Mullaney decided to revive the characters. Originally Timothy Truman ( whose SCOUT series was also published by Eclipse Comics ) was scheduled to write and draw AIRBOY but when his friend Chuck Dixon ( best known for his work with Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Catwoman or the Punisher ) heard that AIRBOY was being revived he was determined to be involved and thus ended up becoming the new writer.
The comic started in a new format - 16 pages for 50 cents coming out bi - weekly - which allowed Eclipse to undercut DC Comics and Marvel Comics who were still at the 75 cents threshold. I know that to Today's comicbook readers who are used to comicbooks having a price tag of 5 dollars and up but back in the day 25 cents made a huge difference.
I still remember when Marvel Comics made the price change from 65 cents to 75 cents. Anyway, sadly Eclipse Comics couldn't stick to the 50 cent price and from issue 9 onward AIRBOY was priced at 1.25 dollars with an added back up feature. Speaking of which, in issues 38 - 40 AIRBOY had a back up featuring THE HEAP written by Len Wein and drawn by Carmine Infantino that was initially planned for a spin - off series. So we have two connections to SWAMP THING with THE HEAP who was the inspiration not only for Swamp Thing but also for Man Thing and Len Wein who co - created Swamp Thing with artist Bernie Wrightson.
As for the Valkyrie, declared as " the sexiest character of the Golden Age bar none " by Chuck Dixon the cleavaged sexbomb was obviously one of the most popular characters of the series who contributed greatly to the series success and was beloved by critics and comic afficionados alike.
Which is why she is featured so heavily in this post which - by the way - is a bit different than I had originally planned to include more original artwork so we have more than enough material for a follow up post.
flying through the airboy
airboy stuff
airboy links
airboy videos
airboy comics
airboy banner
airboy quote of the day
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