Airboy 3



Time for the Heap! I'm sure a certain Englishman's success with another swamp plodder had nothing to do with the decision to revive these characters. To be fair, they used him sparingly, which worked out well, as it made him a special attraction.

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Stan Woch-pencils, Willie Blyberg-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Ron Courtney-colors, Tim Truman-editor and co-plot.

Stan Woch taking over as penciller, which he will continue for a bit.

Synopsis: When we last saw the gang, we had discovered that Misery had Valkyrie in Michael Jackson's hyperbaric chamber, doing the Sleeping Beauty routine. Which brings to mind a Jay Ward classic...



Yeah, if there was ever something Walt wouldn't have joined, it was a union!

Anyway, Misery loves company, which is why Valkyrie was get 40 winks to the tenth power. We see the bargain between the generalissimo and Misery, as Misery keeps him in power and he murders and imprisons the populace, feeding Misery. Misery used his hold over Valkyrie to force David Nelson to betray his principles and sell arms to Orista, to keep Valkyrie alive, destroying his soul in the process.

Davy Nelson has a nightmare of his father and wakes up screaming. Sky Wolf and Hirota calm him down and they talk of taking down Orista...



The next morning, Sky Wolf takes Davy for weapons training and he isn't quite a chip off the old block, scoring about as well as I did, at 50 yards (I'm nearsighted; so, at least I have an excuse). They are about to move to 25 yards, when someone opens up with automatic fire at the targets. It is Marissa, the mute woman whose tongue was cut out by Orista's troops. Guillermo says they must hit the fortress at Gamanda Cruz to take down Orista. He takes them to meet someone who can give them the layout. It turns out to be an old native shaman, who takes his payment for aiding them...



Dr Pepper? Blech!!! I'd have held out for an RC Cola. Well, if it was 1975, when it still tasted right. Soda pop hasn't tasted right since they started adding high fructose corn syrup!

The shaman speaks of Valkyrie and gets their attention. He tells them of Misery's blackmail and a spell that prevented David Nelson from coming to Bogantilla to rescue her, though he tried, several times. he introduces them to the Heap, who will aid them.



Guillermo alerts them to smoke and gunfire, from their camp and they rush back. Government troops have been on patrol for three days and reach the camp and slaughter the inhabitants. They spot Birdie and decide to take her as a present, for the general. Birdie doesn't like the idea and reacts...



The group arrives back and add their firepower to Birdie's. Davy hears a woman scream and heads in that direction. He finds a soldier standing over a murdered 10 year-old girl. Davy takes aim and fires four rounds into him. Sky Wolf finds him holding the girl's corpse and Davy swears to destroy Misery and Orista.

In Gamanda Cruz, Misery walks through Orista's dungeons and ponders why he hasn't heard from David Nelson or received the arms shipment and wonders if he is trying another rescue mission, as we see hands stick up out of cages, under the floor.

Thoughts: Davy Nelson is still in the deep end of things, trying to stay afloat. His world has been turned upside down. His father is attacked and killed and he has learned the attack was somewhat justified. he has met people who have suffered under a dictatorship, in part thanks to his father. he has learned of Misery and the existence of Valkyrie and met the swamp monster, The Heap. He has also learned to take a life. Hard way to grow up.

Dixon moves things along and keeps up the weirdness, as another piece of the puzzle falls into place. He and Truman have paced this well, giving us a bit more info and whetting our appetite for more. They also continue to add pulp horror touches tot eh pulp adventure. Decayed villains, swamp monsters, Latin American dictatorships, mercenary pilots, aviation heroes, femme fatales held prisoner....this has everything! And we haven't met the Rats, yet!

Stan Woch is another Kubert grad and, like Truman and Yeates, knows how to mix the action and horror elements and make it look creepy and exciting. That early batch of students was just amazing. Woch had mostly inked at DC, up to that point (as I recall, though that may be faulty memory); but, he was penciling here and doing a great job. he wasn't quite as polished as Yeates or Truman; but, he had a nice handle on the material,although his faces could go a bit wonky, at times, depending on the angle. He got better and better, as he went. Willie Blyberg had been involved in the fanzine world and then contributed a bit to AC Comics and then started doing inks at Archie's Red Circle line, for John Carbonaro's Thunder AGENTS revival. He also did some work on the Mighty Crusaders, before becoming the inker on DNAgents, at Eclipse. That ultimately led him to Airboy and other work at Eclipse, including inking Paul Gulacy's pencils on the Valkyrie mini-series. He provided inks on at least one chapter of Mark Evanier and Steve Rude's Space Ghost one-shot, at Comico (a gorgeous book). He was at DC, by the end of the decade, though he also contributed to Heroic Comics and the Champions line, something he would return to in the new Millennium. They make a pretty good team.

Lou Mougin finishes his history of Airboy...



Next, Eclipse and Dixon & Truman ask us to join the Airfighters!

ps, in regards to the next issue of Airboy, I have two words for you.........

DAVE..........STEVENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scout #11



One of my favorite covers of the series.

Creative Team: Tim Truman-story & art, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam Parsons-colors, cat yronwode-editor, Special art assist and design work from Ben Dunn, of Ninja High School.

Monday the Eliminator-Tim truman-writer, Flint Henry-pencils, Bob Hardin-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam Parsons-colors, cat-editor

Also out from Eclipse: Airboy #5 & 6, Champions #4, Crossfire & Rainbow #4, ESPers #2, Mr Monster's Super Duper Special #3, New DNAgents #13, New Wave #6, 7 & 8,Spaced #10, Tales of Terror #8, Three Stooges 3-D #1,

Three Stooges reprints old St John Stooges material, with art by Norman Mauer and Joe Kubert, in 3-D. Paul Gulacy did the cover. I don't recall Spaced. Eclipse published 4 issues, starting with this one. Apparently, it started at another small/self-publisher and came to Eclipse to die. They picked up several series that way, starting with some of the Pacific Comics titles. Also from Eclipse was Modesty Blaise #8, part of the Ken Pierce Editions line of black & white comic strip reprints that Eclipse distributed. This was the last volume from Ken Pierce, with Neville Colvin art. Ken Pierce reprinted the early material, from Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway and when Neville Colvin became the artist; but never got to the Enruique Romero material, which was reprinted, in part, by Titan. Lastly, the Rocketter was colelcted into the Rocketeer Graphic Album, in hardcover. Harlan Ellison provided an intro and Dave Stevens added some new pages to make the story flow better.

The Penumbra talks about behind-the-scenes staff changes, and mentions two of note, to me. The first is Fred Burke, from the Univ of Texas, who was a summer intern and is going to become a writer and editor. He would be with Eclipse at the end, then be involved with the Majestic Comics fiasco (a small company that produced NFL trading cards and went into comics, but lost their NFL license when they were caught pirating their own cards). Bad luck there, Fred. The other is more personal, as joining them is David Allen of Olney, IL. I knew David, to a point. His parents and my parents were both teachers at my hometown junior high/high school, in the 1960s, and good friends. By the early 1970s, they had moved; but, we would occasionally go to their house and have dinner. David was about my brother's age (2 years older), while his brother Mark was about my sister's age (3 years younger than me). David, like me, was a big comic book fan and he showed me some cool stuff. Later, they moved to Olney, a small town in southern Illinois (all of southern Illinois is small towns, though Olney is the county seat for Richland County), where my dad grew up and where my grandparents and an Aunt, Uncle & Cousins lived. So, we'd get together with them when we would go down to visit my grandparents. I discovered a further connection when I was at the Univ of Illinois. The school paper, The Daily Illini, had a long running column, called The Campus Scout (Roger Ebert wrote it, during his days there). It turned out that David was writing it, while he obtained his English degree. I hadn't seen him at several years, by that time, but knew the name when he mentioned Olney, in his column. He was a noted letter hack and used to write to cat about her column in CBG, which led to him working, for a short time, for Eclipse. Years later, his parents got together with mine, while I was back living at home (thank you Reagan/Bush Recession) and I mentioned discovering that he was the Campus Scout and seeing his name in an Eclipse comic. His mother asked, if that was the place run by a woman called "cat," which I confirmed and she spoke warmly of cat.



Synopsis: In the desert (which we are told is growing every day, thanks to the greenhouse effect), Scout has stopped and sees an owl by its dead mate. Owls were considered evil by the Apache and the believed they carried dead spirits, ghosts. As more of the world dies and becomes desert, Scout thinks they will have many spirits to carry. Someone watches him, from a distance...



Meanwhile, In Las Vegas, a man called Show Dog plays like Clint Eastwood, while playing a shooter arcade game. He is interrupted by a flunkie that the opening band hasn't arrived and says to send out the Satan Boys. The band, The New Disciples of Soul, turn up and see their replacements and are not impressed, even is they do look like KISS...



They relieve them of their amps and give the crowd some T-Bone Walker. Show Dog likes their attitude and lets them play.

Elsewhere, at the NORAD facility, code named Fire Mountain, two unidentified men kill one guard and take the other hostage, bypass the alarms and 600 armed "terrorists overwhelm the 15-man facility, a relic of the Cold War, with thee armed ICBMs.



Bill Loper reports this, to his unseen allies. The two men are his agents provocateur and they have presented Doody with food, in the form of Hershey bars, or as he calls them, "Manna from Heaven." Well, maybe before they had all that artificial crap in them, like when I was a kid. His fllowers grab the two men and he says they are filled with the Worm's Tounge (told ya'!) and he removes his eye coverings to reveal a not so pleasant sight...



Scout buries the dead owl and then spots his observers. He dives for cover as they open fire. He hops onto his motorcycle and outflanks them, as they report in to their operational commander, who is moving back up in, to cut off the canyon. Scout is hit with an Israeli concussion rocket (a present from Ambassador Glanzman, no doubt). A squad moves in to retrieve him and find that he is just fine...



After doing a Steve <cQueen (in The Great escape) to a pair of soldiers on ATVs, he moves on and the leader moves in with the back up. An advisor tells the leader to use a little less throttle on some military vehicle of Israeli design. Scout finds himself cut off by said vehicle.....



Big Moishe, piloted by an old friend, Rosa Winter. She tells him her squad fired tranquilizer bullets, not live rounds, but Santanna has no guilt, as he returned fire, oblivious to intent. he won't be taken alive. Rosa offers him a deal; just kill someone for your country.

Monday the Eliminator

In a squalid little room, a veteran soldier suffers from PTSD-induced nightmares. The VA fills him full of drugs, which do nothing to stop the nightmares.



He (Shorty is his name) recalls patrolling the jungle with his squad: Motorhead, Doc, Wizard, New Guy, Sky Pilot and the leader, the guy with his eyes hidden by sunglasses, always walking point. The Big Man tells Shorty to watch out for the New Guy and Shorty promises, but he is blown away. he thinks of the rest, after the war.

Sky Pilot's father was a jet jock and he swore to fly when he got out. We see him at the controls of a 747, which explodes in mid-air. Doc, the medic, went on to become a renound cardiologist and is found dead, at a hospital in Lynchburg, VA...



Motorhead wanted to be a mechanic, so they made him a rifleman. He became a cab driver, in New York and had his head blown away by a fare. In his nightmare, New Guy whispers something to Shorty, as he dies. He hears the Big Guy's footsteps as he comes back through the jungle. Shorty is awakened by the Big Guy, in the present...



Letters page has one from Uncle Elvis Orten. See ya' at Munden's.

Thoughts: Things are really heating up. Truman juggles three parallel plots: Scout and the desert attack by the Army, Doody and his followers taking over Fire Mountain, and the New Disciples in Las Vegas. The Vegas stuff is just a subplot, for now; but, they will meet up again with Scout. The other two will collide far sooner. Loper's men have led Doody to Fire Mountain, to give Loper the excuse he needs to implement the New America program, creating a boogyman that needs killing, so industry will start churning out arms and they can build an army. Once you build that army, you need something for them to do. Once you kill the boogyman, it's over. Problem is, there always seems to be a new boogyman to take his place. At least, since 1945 (some would argue since 1845 or even 1781). Latin America has food and resources and Socialist and Marxist governments. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

The art is a given, though Truman gets to mix some more desert landscapes with a bit of urban stuff. Meanwhile, we see the modern Army, as they use 4-wheel ATVs to scout and direct a squad, only for Scout to meet the latest generation in mobile armored weapons, Big Moishe.

Big Moishe was designed and drawn by Benn Dunn, who was working on Mangazine, bringing Japanese manga stylings and conventions to an American audience. The first wave of the manga invasion was just about to kick in, as televisions were already offering syndicated Japanese anime, in the form of Voltron and Robotech, plus older material, like Gatchaman (as Battle of the Planets) Space Battleship Yamato (as Star Blazers) Mazinger Z (as Tranzor Z) and Go Nagai's robot mecha (as Force Five). Ben Dunn turned those giant mecha into a battle weapon, developed by the Israeli defense industries. The idea of mecha as a battle platform goes back to the early 70s, in Japan, as Gatchaman turned the monsters that fought Ultraman into battle mecha, shaped like monsters, that fight the G-Force team. From there, Go Nagai gave us giant mecha and their pilots, like Mazinger Z, Grendizer, and Gaiking. These would be brought to America in the form of the giant Shogun Warrior toys, along with Godzilla, which would lead to the Marvel tie-in comic (minus Godzilla). Eclipse was about to dive head first into the manga world, with Kamui the Ninja, Mai the Psychic Girl and Area 88, quickly followed by several more. First Comics would adapt Kozure Okami, as Lone Wolf and Cub, with covers and intros by Frank Miller (with Matt Wgner continuing the covers) as Miller revealed where he swiped much of Ronin (as well as Moebius) and his take on Wolverine (with Claremont abetting). Comico was publishing the Robotech tie-in comics. Still, it took time, as Viz became the main source for these (first working with Eclipse, then on their own), before the managa explosion of the late 90s.

Monday the Eliminator is a bit cliched, as we mix Vietnam imagery (though never identified as Nam; it could have been Central America) with an Underground horror style. Monday, when we finally see him, immediately suggest the likely inspiration: Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's big, wearing sunglasses and zebra striped spandex pants, and carries automatic weapons. Sounds like Commando, to me, right down to the squad being murdered. To be fair, that plot had been used in Mens' Adventure pulp series and action movies, including Chuck Norris' Good Guys Wear Black (which even has Jim Backus in it!) To me, that was always the problem with Monday. As we will see, there is an interesting wrinkle to things, though it will take time to be revealed; but, it is the lone bright idea in a sea of pulp cliche. You had a generation of young writers and artists who had read things like The Executioner, The Destroyer, Casca the Eternal Mercenary, The Death Merchant, The Mercenary and more in the 70s and early 80s. I admit to reading some of that (the Executioner and later Gold Eagle Mack Bolans, plus spin-offs Able Team and Phoenix Force, a couple of Destroyers and a couple of later ones); but, a little goes a long way. Now, low budget B-movies were filled with the stuff, along with tv and the odd bigger budgeted films of Arnie, Sly and Chuck (well, Chuck's didn't have the budget; but, he had the name). As it turns out, this will owe more to Casca than Bolan; but, Truman and Henry never really pursued that idea very far; just used it more as window dressing.

As I say, Mt Fire is probably my favorite Scout segment (though War Shaman is really good, but really, really dark), and these issues demonstrate why. Truman was kicking @$$ and taking names.

No, I haven't seen David since we were kids.  We never encountered each other on campus and probably wouldn't have recognized each other anyway.  After his parents visited with mine, in the 90s, I ended up going to the Olney Public Library, where his mother also worked or volunteered (she taught in the Olney/Noble School System, while David's father taught at the Olney Community College) to do a class on cartooning, at her request.  Turned out, there was a local who turned up for it who had some published inking work at Malibu, on Ex-Mutants.

Funny enough, I have connections to Tom Artis and Doug Rice.  After leaving the Navy, I lived in Springfield, IL, first with my folks and then in my own apartment, when I could afford to move out.  Tom Artis was living in Springfield and would often come into Barnes & Noble.  Sadly, he kind of burned too many bridges at the publishers, with blown deadlines; and, I understand he had some personal turmoil that affected his career and personal life.  I first met him at a local convention, where I bought some sketchbook pages from him and he did a sketch of the Black Terror for me.  He had self-published a Black Terror book, but only got out the first issue and it seemed like he rushed it, as the last third of the book didn't look fully inked.  Seemed a nice enough guy, though we didn't have any deep conversations.

At the same convention, I met Doug Rice, whose work I enjoyed on Manhunter and Dynamo Joe.  On my wall, in my computer room, I have framed sketches he did for me of Manhunter and Pvt Pomru, from Dynamo Joe.  We talked for quite a while about both books and Spitting Image and the cancellation of the series by Image (I was more upset than he was about it).  i had asked him about what inspired the look of the Mark Shaw Manhunter and he remarked about the Japanese hero shows, particularly Kamen Rider, which inspired the scarf, the tunic (as did the Simonson Manhunter) and the mask.  There was a bootleg video dealer there and he had some Kamen Rider tapes; so, I immediately bought a Kamen Rider X tape and the Kamen Rider ZO movie (some footage was used in Saban's Masked Rider series).  That got me started hunting down some of that, which led to tapes of Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX (both of which were the main footage in Masked Rider), JACQers (the second Sentai series, Dynaman (the spoof version, with the dubbing, from Night Flight, on the USA Network), Jetman (the series just before ZyuRangers, which provided the main footage for Power Rangers, Ultraman, Johnny Sokko, the Eight Man movie, which led to the Eight Man OVA series, and some clips of Kikaider and the Ultraman vs Kamen Rider documentary, with clips from all the Ultra and Kamen Rider series, to that point.

I got the Manhunter sketch the first time I met Doug, then he came back the next year and remembered me and we talked for quite a while.  He was working for Star Toons, on Pinky & the Brain and Hysteria and had a flyer for a comic series he was going to publish, set in an alternate 1930s pulp world, with an aviation theme.  Sadly, he never published it.  Sounded fantastic and our discussion led me to hunt down a copy of the 1930s sci-fi film FP1 Doesn't Answer, with Conrad Veidt.  That was when he sketched Pomru, which he gave to me at no charge, as I was pulling out money.  He wouldn't take anything and we just left it at a handshake and many thank yous.  Also got to meet Clarke Hawbaker there (super nice guy, who seemed to drop in and than leave comics, just as he got noticed) and Steve Leiber (again, super nice, but stuck around comics), with whom I discussed the Kubert School as I knew he was a grad and I had talked about getting accepted there; but, not being able to swing the tuition (I wasn't eligible for the GI Bill and wasn't wanting to take on that much debt in student loans, when I though my chances of developing enough as an artist to break into the industry were pretty slim, especially given my age, then).

Doug was a sadly underrated artist in comics and I do wish he had stuck with Manhunter, as it was so much better with his dynamic art; but, as he said, he got bored with John Ostrander's scenes of family dialogue (as did I), when they had started the series as more of an action/adventure book, with an emphasis on fast pace and exciting scenes.  The first 4 issues give you that, but then things slow down quite a bit.  I still enjoyed it, because Ostrander is such a good writer; but, the excitement was lost and Grant Miehn just didn't have the stylistic flair that Doug had.

Sorry to hear about Tom's personal and work issues. I can certainly testify to him being a very nice guy.

Agree wholeheartedly about Ostrander's writing, but I can also see where his "scenes of family dialogue" would be more enjoyable for us to read than for Doug to draw, so can't really fault him there. Kind of surprised Doug never (that I know of) crossed paths with the Transformers franchise; you'd think that would be a natural fit. Or even Star Wars.

I never had a military or gun phase, but movies with lots of gun battles and explosions, absolutely.

I can definitely recommend at least the first several Casca books. I know my interest petered out eventually but can't remember where. I remember seeing Horseclans books often in used stores but never read any, even though they looked interesting. So many books, not enough time. Don't think I knew Spider was an actual pulp series; I thought Truman was just paying homage to the style.

Airboy #5



Scrumptious cover by Dave Stevens, an homage to this cover, from Air Fighters #14 (Vol 2, #2, according to Hillman's numbering)



That was done by Fred Kida, who did the bulk of the classic Airboy stories.

Eclipse later released several of Stevens' covers as posters, a situation he was not happy with. He did the covers largely to buy out of his deal with Eclipse after relations soured when they put out the Rocketeer Graphic Album, after numerous "communications problems." Mainly, it was convention season and Dave could never get ahold of Dean Mulaney or cat yronwode to communicate and the people left behind at the offices had no idea what was going on. This was part of the series and one of the most popular, along with his Mr Monster cover, which I used to have on my bedroom door, at one apartment.

By the way, either Valkyrie is a tiny woman, or Dave is overly exaggerating the size of a Colt M1911 pistol.

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-scripter & co-plot, Stan Woch-pencils, Will Blyberg-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Ron Courtney-colors, Tim Truman-editor & co-plot. Emil Novak is credited for inks, with Blyberg.

Synopsis: Airboy lands a dropkick (okay, it's actually a flying karate kick), while Valkyrie lies prone, on the ground...



He follows up with a high kick to the head; but, Orista is a streetfighter and he can absorb punishment. He gets dirty with Davy and backhands him a good one.

Meanwhile, Misery faces Hirota, Marisa, and The Heap...



Hirota's katana slices through Misery; but does no damage. The Heap attacks, but Misery seems fine.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Sky Wolf is still trying to evade Orista's F-15 pilots and ducks under a bridge, then let's one have it with a Maverick missile (I assume, unless he had some Sidewinders).

Back at the ranch, Davy busts an M-60 over Orista's head and kicks a pistol out of his hand.

The Heap puts a hurtin' on Misery and snaps an arm; but, Misery takes him out and says that pain just feeds him. he turns his attention to the mute Marissa.

Sky Wolf is running from the remaining F-15 and he then pivots his helo and fires a burst with its chain gun, hitting the jet in it's rudder, which sends it out of control, crashing into the fortress and exploding. Sky Wolf crash lands from his own damage. Misery is distracted by the explosion. he decides to fight and run away, but the Heap grabs him and lifts him over head, throwing him into the portal he created...



Misery drags the Heap with him and the portal closes, allowing Misery to escape from Hirota and his band and the collapsing fortress.

Davy is still not winning the fight and Orista has him reeling, when he gets some unexpected help...



...from Valkyrie.

Hirota and the rest arrive and Valkyrie sees him aged 30 years and is confused. Hirota explains and that Davy is the son of Airboy, David Nelson Sr, and Valkyrie faints. Davy carries her outside and finds a crowd carrying El Lupo, Sky Wolf, who is credited with the victory that has led to Orista's defeat,. Davy fills him in and says he and Hirota are going to take her back to California, in Birdie. Sky Wolf is going to stay to help finish off the government troops.

Letters page includes one from the extremely prolific TM Maple, aka Jim Burke, a Canadian letter hack whose writings were all over comics in the late 70s and 80s. The TM stood for The Mad Maple, as that was how he signed his letters, originally. Tom Defalco abbreviated it TM, to make it sound like a real name and circumvent a new company policy prohibiting pseudonymous letters. Burke continued using it that way and eventually "unmasked" in letters to Zot #21 and Action Comics Weekly #615. There was some thought that Comic Book Guy was based on him, though Matt Groening and others have denied it and have cited a clerk at LA's Golden Apple as a partial inspiration, as well as other clerks across the country, with similar attitudes. Maple was never dismissive, like that; so, how that idea got started, I don't know.

A house ad promotes the first issue of Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman (a fun series).

Thoughts: More great action, mixed with the creepy stuff, which is what really made this series work, beyond just another shoot 'em up. TM Maple ponders whether an aviation strip can attract the imagination, like in the 40s, when aviation was still relatively new; but, as Top Gun and iron Eagle proved, people still have a love affair with aircraft, if you give them a connection. Here, it's the characters pulling you in, with the hardware being a bonus, if you enjoy that sort of thing. My father was an aviation nut and served in Strategic Air Command, as a mechanic, in the Air Force, in the Korean War era. He worked on the B-36 Liberator, America's first inter-continental bomber, designed specifically to deliver nuclear weapons (as seen in the movie Strategic Air Command, with Jimmie Stewart). In his youth, he observed a flight of Blimps passing over, probably coming from Akron, where the Goodyear factory was. When I was about 4 or 5, he took us to the Osh Kosh Air Show; and, later, when my mother attended a real estate convention in Cincinnati, he took us to the Air Museum, at Wright-Patterson AFB. He also took us to Cape Kennedy, during a Florida vacation. So, needless to say, this was right up my alley.

Valkyrie is now free of her spell and facing time displacement, ala Steve Rogers; though her past relationship with David Nelson throws an interesting monkey wrench into Davy's life, as we will see. Davy's age hasn't been stated, so far; but, if memory serves, once they suggest romance, they make it clear that Davy is 18 or 19. Even then, it gets complicated (as we will see).

Orista's fighting is a bit hard to swallow, given his fat design; but, Davy is young and inexperienced. Still, breaking an M-60 over someone take quite a bit and no human would be standing after. We will have to chalk it up to Misery's power. That is something that is still a bit mysterious. Obviously, he has supernatural powers and can create dimensional gateways and can draw power from human suffering; but, the spell over Valkyrie had an obvious technological angle, as she was in a chamber with mechanical attachments, suggesting cryogenics or a similar technology. His exit also takes the Heap out of play; so we are left with the non-supernatural, for a while. As Jim Cornette says (when referring to wrestlers moving between territories, in the old days), "How can we miss you if you don't go away?" Misery and the Heap will return, which will make it a big deal, as Davy and the rest deal with more mundane things, though even that gets pretty weird. Vive la pulp!

Next, Airboy #6.