Chuck Dixon: A Precursor to 9/11

Chuck Dixon's "Airboy" series for Eclipse Comics remained controversial through its fifty numbered issues, and in over a dozen specials. Like the 1940s series, it mixed contemporary action with a rich texture of fantasy, and remained popular until the end. Unlike the original, it never belittled people of other nations, races, or cultures. Instead, it showed us the way forward. While the original Airboy might have been manipulated into selling arms to bloodthirsty dictators, he chose to have his son raised by Hirota, a former Japanese fighter pilot, who acts as the boy's teacher, mentor, and friend. 

In Chuck Dixon's hands, the series discussed contemporary events many Americans might not have been aware of. For example, in one four issue story, published in 1988, Airboy travels to Afghanistan, and helps the locals in their fight against the Soviets. He befriends a younger boy-genius who, after graduating from a prestigious British university, returned to his country to organize Russian opposition. The young boy's efforts bear fruit, and he believes that Russia will eventually pull out of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, he fears his country will grow increasingly fundamentalist, and become a hotbed for terrorism.

"Do you realize that the leading anti-Soviet faction among the Mujahedeen plans to put to death all women who do not wear the veil?" the young revolutionary asks. "Is that the freedom I fought for?"

"With the Russians gone, we will have a slim chance at an honestly elected government. But a moderate one? I do not know. World opinion can place a lot of weight behind our cause. I hope to show the world that Afghanistan is not merely the place where Soviet ambition was humbled. It is also a country which needs to join the world community as an equal partner."

"I'll arrange a flight to the states for us," Airboy says, "but I've got a hunch you're gonna have a tough time convincing American politicians that human rights are more important than just having an anti-Communist government in charge."

Sadly, Airboy's cautious view of human nature triumphed over his younger contemporary's idealism. America and the world community forgot about Afghanistan, if indeed, many people here were ever aware of it. If Chuck Dixon had been President, things might have been different on September 11, 2001. They might be better today, all around the world. 

At least one thing is certain. If Chuck Dixon had served as President of the United States, more people would know about Airboy. As his stories talked about how we ought to live, and the role we ought to play in the world, that would be a good thing. Our airline industries might even be healthier, with Airboy's plane Birdie in the public consciousness. For, as the young Afghan revolutionary says, Birdie is "the darnedest plane in all the world!"

Dragon Dave

Airboy on President Reagan

The 1980s sequel series of Airboy, published by Eclipse, provoked its fair share of controversy. 

Airboy returns!

When the original Airboy, now operating an aircraft business, is attacked and killed, his son takes up the mantle. In the second issue, Airboy's son and his friends trace the attackers back to central America. There he learns that his father was supplying a corrupt regime with weapons. As a surprising development, when young Davy sees how the poor people in the country are living, he forgets about revenge, and decides to aid the guerrillas who killed his father!

Eclipse, the publisher of 1980s Airboy, was always politically involved. At this time, the news was filled with the Iran Contra scandal, and allegations that the United States government was funneling guns to Iran (despite an embargo) by aiding the Contras in Nicaragua. So in addition to the original Airboy supplying weapons to a bloodthirsty dictator intent on staying in power at any price, we learn that the United States is propping up a corrupt regime. 

We even see a signed photograph of President Reagan sent to the bloodthirsty dictator. On the photo, our president has written "Best wishes, your pal, Ron." As another sign of the times, given Reagan's contention that a nuclear war was winnable, we see written "Nuke 'em 'til they glow, then shoot 'em in the dark." 

Serious themes for a comic today, let alone in the 1980s. And this in an era when most U.S. citizens loved their president. Even today, many look back on Reagan as the ultimate statesman. Reading these stories today, in the love-him-or-hate-him, hard-swinging, tough-talking, never-apologize era of President Trump, these stories seem a little less audacious.

Dragon Dave

Airboy, Women, and Codebreaking in WWII

As an adult, I found it hard to take in the "new reality" Americans faced after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. So imagine how children in the United States felt after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, Daddy and older brothers were signing up for the military, and Mommy was heading off to work in the factory to jumpstart a war program. Comics like "Airboy" would have helped frightened children feel more empowered. Just like the movie "Top Gun," "Airboy" would have helped children make sense of the sudden ravages to their home lives. 

"Airboy" may have inspired their older brothers to join the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. It might have helped Army draftees feel better, thinking that all Americans were joining the fight in some way. At the very least, "Airboy" gave Navy seamen something to distract them while off duty, as they never knew when a squadron of the dreaded Japanese Zeros might bomb them, or a German U-Boat might sink their ship with a torpedo. 

Perhaps young women also read "Airboy." The stories might have inspired them to work in factories, or train to be nurses, just like Agatha Christie did in England during WWI. Women felt a duty to defend the homeland, and support and protect the boys.

Women didn't just work in factories or hospitals during WWII. They also played a crucial role in defending soldiers lives before battles were even fought!

In wartime, it's important to know what the enemy is planning. German leaders coordinated their military by coding messages sent by radio or phone. They did this by using encoding machines.

While other models preceded it, the best known machine used by the Germans was the Enigma machine. The model above was one specially commissioned for Adolf Hitler.

The Japanese also used encoding machines to coordinate military strategy and troop movements. Americans called this model the Japanese Red machine. Like its German counterpart, Red could scramble messages that troops in far flung Japanese outposts could decode, but would make cryptologic analysts puzzle over for days.

To cut down on the time necessary to decode German and Japanese messages, Americans built their own decoding machines. The type below, designed and operated by women as well as men, was known as the Bombe. Catchy, right?

If you ever find yourself in Maryland, visit the National Cryptologic Museum, where I took the above three photographs. There you'll find exhibits on all manner of Crytological devices, from simple code breaking methods used during the American Revolutionary war, to the Cray supercomputers used before the age of smartphones. The knowledgeable staff may not know much about "Airboy", but they can certainly tell you how the men and women who might have read the comic helped defend service members, and our shores, during World War II.

Dragon Dave

Helpful Links
National Cryptologic Museum

Airboy in the 1940s and Beyond

The cover for a 1940s Airboy

A while ago, I shared how I had been reading a 1980s series called "Airboy" by Eclipse Comics. These issues were penned by Chuck Dixon, and illustrated by Tim Truman, Stan Woch, and other artists who today are regarded as giants of the comic field. It was, in fact, a sequel series to the original series, which was published in the 1940s. Recently, I discovered the original series online, and began reading them.

For those unaware of Airboy's origins, the young pilot creates a revolutionary plane with the help of a Catholic monk. Then he goes off to help the military defend the United States against Germany and Japan.

Interior art for 1940s Airboy

The comics shine a light into the mindset of the times. Japanese fighter pilots are called Japs (when they're not called Yellow or Japanazis). Nearly all are villains. 

The Germans are equally dastardly. Service personnel from both countries appear as treacherous and cowardly. Modern people from those countries, or who share that cultural heritage, would likely be offended by everything Airboy or the narrator calls them. 

The stories, while entertaining in their simple way, also represent propaganda from an earlier time. Remember, the U.S. base in Pearl Harbor had been attacked. In one day, the country's military had suffered a terrible blow, and thousands of people died. The United States government, now forced to enter World War II, had to recruit soldiers, build new warships, and create all the infrastructure necessary to fight a war spanning the entire globe. 

Immediately.

So "Airboy," and publications like it, were thought necessary to rally the troops, convince women to trade homelike for factories, and help children make sense of the new situation.

Still, I'll be the first to admit that they're a little difficult to read, and enjoy as fully as I'd like.

Dragon Dave

The Elusive Airboy

The Airboy series produced by Eclipse Comics in the 1980s was a revival of comics produced during the 1940s and '50s, when the idea of people flying in planes and protecting U.S. sovereignty thrilled a generation of young boys. The Eclipse series featured the son of the WWII hero, Davy Nelson, who flew the same plane as his father in fifty fabulous issues and a number of specials. This plane, named Birdie, had a mind of its own, and sometimes performed transport and combat maneuvers without the aid of a human pilot. The stories featured other Sci-fi elements such as zombies, intelligent rats, and robots. I started reading the series at issue 50, enjoyed it, and then sought more issues out in the discount rack. Visits to other comic book shops helped fill out the series, and gradually, the number of issues I possessed exceeded the number I needed to procure.

For more than a year, I collected issues of Airboy when I could find them. I read some, but saved most for when I filled the series and could read it in sequential order. I also found a hardcover book containing reprints of significant issues from the original 1940s & '50s, and devoured those stories in a few evenings. Eventually, I filled in the missing issues until I only needed one: Issue 5. And there, the collection remained incomplete, for a long time.

Last weekend, I visited the comic shop. Along with other series I was looking to fill, what should I find but Issue 5? And they only wanted a dollar for it, not six dollars the one place I had seen it elsewhere. Price is important to me, as I'm not purchasing these comics for resale value, but merely for my reading enjoyment. I could have purchased a trade paperback containing Issue 5 for fifteen dollars long ago, had I not set my heart on getting the original issue, along with the editor's preface, advertisements, and letter column. But now I've got the last missing issue. Hooray!

As you can see, Issue 5 features Valkyrie on the cover. She was a German villainess in the original series, who at times turned to good and aided Davy's father, and other times returned to her villainous ways. She returned for this sequel series, and as I recall, befriended the new Airboy. Don't ask me how she retained her youthful appearance: as I recall, that was another Sci-fi element that attracted me to the series. I look forward to discovering the answer to that, and much more, as I delve into the series now and read them in chronological order. You know, interspersing those Airboy issues with all the other series I collect, including Star Wars, Star Trek, and Conan The Barbarian.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read Issue 1 for at least the third time. Maybe, if you're lucky, I'll tell you about it sometime.

Dragon Dave  

The Intriguing Airboy

Last year, a guest at a dinner part asked what comics I collected. I found this a surprisingly difficult question to answer. My immediate answer was "Cheap ones," which was mostly true, but does neither me nor my hobby any credit. The fact is that a visit to Stan Lee's Comikaze in Los Angeles reminded me how much I had enjoyed collecting and reading comics earlier in my life, so after the convention I investigated my local comic book stores. I quickly discovered that I could secure missing issues from series I had collected cheaply or expensively. Some sellers sold their copies for a dollar. Others wanted five or ten dollars for the same issue. As the issues I had picked up over the years probably weren't worth that much, I opted for the less expensive copies. After all, what I was buying were images and words printed on pieces of old, stapled-together newsprint. How much would you justify spending on something like that?

Besides, I was interested in the stories, and building a larger, cohesive story out of unconnected individual ones, some of which ended on cliffhangers. I wanted to know how the cliffhangers ended. I also wanted to learn the crucial events that set up the scenarios depicted in the issues already in my collection. 

While I initially began by trying to fill out series I had previously collected, I found other books that intrigued me. One good story led to another, and soon I was collecting all sorts of books that I had not previously heard of, nor had any interest in. A perfect example of that is Airboy. A publisher named Eclipse produced the series in the 1980s. The title and covers suggested no reason why I should desire it. It offered no visible links in subject matter, characters, or authors to Conan the Barbarian, Star Wars, Star Trek, or any of the other Sci-Fi/Media titles I had ever collected in the past. But when I found a few issues of the comic in the twenty-five cent boxes of a local comic store, I found myself picking up one and flicking through it. The story looked interesting. Should I buy it? 

When the barrier to entry is so low, what did I have to lose by investigating the series?

As I read that issue, what I found was a series that excited and intrigued me. It made me want to know more about the central character and his world. What stories have you discovered recently, that surprised you by making you a rabid fan of the author, the characters, and the new world you discovered in its pages?

Dragon Dave