Scout #15



Another favorite cover!

Creative Team: Tim Truman-story, Rick Veitch-pencils, Steve Bissette-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam Parsons-colors, cat yronwode-editor

Swords of Texas: Tim Truman-story, Ben Dunn-pencils, John K Snyder III-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam Parsons-color, cat-editor

Also from Eclipse: Airboy #13 &14, Clint #2, Crossfire #18, Fusion #1, Official Legion of Super Heroes Index #1, PJ Warlock #2, Stig's Inferno #6. Tales of Terror #10, Zot #11

I got confused by a house ad for Crossfire, thinking it was just launching; but, it started in 1984. However, it hadn't had an issue in 9 months. I thought there was something screwy about Crossfire and Rainbow being out; but, not Crossfire. Should've checked; my bad. Fusion was a sci-fi tale, mixing humans and anthropomorphic animal races, including a group of weasels, who were more or less the fan favorites (such as the series had fans, which was cult, at best). Another DC index, from a company being buried by the big two, though DC was a bit friendlier to the indies, as a general rule. I assume they had authorization from DC, based on the "official" title and the fact they used DC images. Legion was a hot book at this time, though we are past the whole Great Darkness Saga level. Levitz was writing, with Greg Larocque doing some nice art. They were on the Universo Project storyline. Stig's Inferno continues Ty Templeton's series, which started at Vortex. Good series; lot of fun. Zot had also been MIA for a year and a half. Both Crossfire and Zot carried banners, trumpeting the fact they were in black & white; so, probably hoping the black & white boom would give them a boost. That didn't have much blood left in it and would soon collapse, leaving a lot of unsold product in the hands of dealers. Guess what would happen, again, in a few more years, with the speculator boom and all of the superhero universes?

cat's Penumbra is poo-poos the idea of the Meese Commission coming after comics. She was correct, though there was a first amendment fight in the works; it would just come from local authorities and not Federal (which is what happened in the 50s, too; but, the Feds did have a Congressional investigation). Local authorities would soon raid comic shops in Illinois (the raid had already occurred, at this point, as it happened in Nov 1986, and this was on the stands in Jan 1987). This led to comics people donating to defend the store against charges of selling obscenity and the creation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. By the 90s, there was at least one, if not more raids in Oklahoma (as well as action against Blockbuster Video, over The Tin Drum) and the Michael Diana case, in Florida.

Synopsis: Scout: Emanuel Santana is a "patient" at Woromontogus Veteran's Hospital.....



Yeah, not quite Walter Reed. he's pumped full of Xanax (a benzodiazepine sedative), benzedrine (an amphetamine , Navane (an anti-psychotic) and neuroleptics; plus he's restrained in a straightjacket. He tried to escape twice, during which he was injected with heavy sedatives the first time, and shot with animal tranquilizer the second, leading to the current cocktail (though I would think the Bennies and the Xanax would be working against each other). The "doctor" says he can be moved out to the ward and we see him walking around in a drug-induced haze (and that the hospital is in Bath, Maine)...



He stumbles over a janitor's mop bucket and someone named Tony picks him up to get him to a chair and out of the way. The janitor mutters something about losers, referring to the patients, who are all veterans. Excuse me while I release a bird, for a moment.

Tony strikes up an addled conversation with Santana, who asks the day, while Tony voices a hard truth about the sacrifices some veterans make and how the nation responds...



Tony describes the place after Nam, how Xanax didn't work and was outlawed, then things improved, until America started falling apart and budget cuts. Scout is so out of it he can't feel his cigarette burning his lip.

Meanwhile, two orderlies are at a maximum security cell and are delivering dinner. The new guy insults the inmate/patient and the older guy tells him to shut up. The new guy taunts the prisoner, who just calmly lays out his dinner, removing it from the tray. Then, he decapitates the new guy, with his tray. Makes Hannibal Lector look like an amateur!

There is an interruption by the back-up feature, which we will cover later. Don't know why they decided to put it in the middle of things; but, they did. Really, it's less a back-up than a parallel story, which will cross paths with the main, down the road. Now, back to our main feature.

We see Native Americans around the fire, in the Southwest, as they dance around the fire, and somewhere colder, as a group sits around the fire, singing. The singers finish, pack up, grab there weapons and move out, towards the hospital. Inside, the maximum security dude finishes meditating, stands, and says it is time...



In his cell, Santana has a vision, he is surround by three beings, who say he is tainted by the Whites. The gahn speaks for Santana....



Missed the little dude! The four beings remove their headpieces, revealing the Rev. Deluxe, Doody, and Santana's mother and father...



The share prophecies and advice. Santana must sing the songs of Arrow Power and heal, go back West, follow the man of shadows, with whom he will fly to the heavens and cast the man's shadow across the globe. Beware the woman who will follow him with love, as it is a ghost. He will find a woman who he loves and she loves him; but he will not find happiness.

The gahn sends him back. It isn't easy. Santana induces vomiting, to get rid of the drugs as they are administered and deals with the withdrawal. They switch to intravenous delivery. he finally breaks free as they are administering the drugs via hypodermic and snatches an M-16 from a guard. He also gets his hands on a grenade (I can see the rifle, but why would guards carry hand grenades? Man, that is bad leadership!) and he escapes pursuit. he runs down a corridor and smack into a chokehold by the prisoner in cell 13......



Monday, the Eliminator!

Swords of Texas: Capt. Ronald Randle (Ron Randle? it's spelled Randall, Tim) narrates via his report, about the clean-up activities at Mt Fire, day 20. The Israeli's are dismantling Big Moishe and sending it back to Tel Aviv to determine what interfered with it (Doody!). The small arms and rations have been removed to White Sands. One of those trucks has just run into a masked man who cries out "Stand and deliver!"



Only Banner isn't dressed as well as Adam Ant (or, indeed, Adam Adamant). On top of it, he has a pottymouth and makes a reference to a certain word you should never say to a baseball umpire, according to Annie Savoy. Banner and the Swords of Texas relieve them of their K-Rations (hey, Tim, you need to update your research; we had MREs by that point. MRE: Meals that Really taste like Excrement....unofficially) and the M-16s.



They pile everything into their APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) and take off, with Banner and Jade riding a motorcycle and armed sidecar (looks closer to a .50 cal, but that would tear apart the sidecar; so it has to be a .30). The soldiers were left in their skivies, with the distributors taken out of their truck. After the Swords are gone, they radio someone other than the Army to say that the parcel was added to the shipment and the middlemen have it and are bringing it their way. His call-sign is "Trojan Horse." This ain't good.

The Swords meet up with Ortega, their buyer, who has a group of natives. He is happy and tells one of his men to look for the "red crate." Banner smells a rat, but the smell of cash distracts him. Then Ortega signals the double-cross. The Swords return fire; but, Banner gets it point blank, in the gut. Luckily, the Swords all wear body armor. However, Ortega gets away and the Swords take casualties, including Rocket. banner yells a threat in the direction that Ortega went and we end with a closeup of the "red crate"...



Oh, @#$%!!!!!

Tim mentions attending the Austin Science Fiction Convention, where he met many from the local authors scene, which was pretty extensive; and, would later include Michael Moorcock, after he moved there. Tim mentions Howard Waldrop, who he says is an Airboy fan and he says that he promised them an Airboy story. He delivered one, of a sorts, in the very first Wild Cards anthology, called "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway," as Jetboy, a WW2 aviation hero, tries to stop someone from detonating a bomb and fails, releasing the alien Wild Card virus over the city and setting forth a chain of events that will result in genetic mutations, some beneficial, some physically disfiguring, most deadly, which will change the world. Great series, though more the early stuff than later, for my money. Truman would illustrate some of the covers, in the early 90s.

A letter takes them to task for issue 12's paper foul up, which was the fault of the printer (Web World). It was corrected and Tim says retailers were sent replacement copies, so check with them. he also takes a moment to slam the Flexographic Press system that Marvel used , for a short time, that looked like s@#$. Dc also used it, but for an even briefer time, as I recall (might be wrong on that. It was one of the things that turned me away from their comics, apart from Legion, at the time they first started using it. Uncle Elvis asks about Juke Boy Bonner III, and mixes him up with the movie Crossroads; but Tim says he is a tribute to the real Juke Boy Bonner, an electric and acoustic blues man, but also praises Crossroads. It's a decent movie, up to a point; but, Walter Hill never quite sticks the landing, for me. A Canadian Reader says he is dropping Scout and Airboy because he works for the Canadian Government, in Ottawa, and deals with politics every day and doesn't want it in his entertainment. Tim responds to his ideas of trying to "sway" readers and says he is more presenting a self-examination of his beliefs, via artistic expression, in an entertainment field and cites Robert Aldrich's Flight of the Phoenix (the movie, based on Elleston Trevor's novel) and Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers ( a novel about the fall of the 60s counter-culture). Stone adapted the novel into the screenplay for the movie, Who'll Stop the Rain, with Nick Nolte.

Thoughts: A lot of this issue is Truman highlighting the experiences of Vietnam-era vets in VA hospitals, as they try to deal with PTSD. There is a theory that it was worse for Vietnam vets than previous generations, both due to the constant threat of combat, compared to the previous wars, and the fact that they were flown home in aircraft, within 24 hours of leaving the combat zone, compared to long time on troop ships, for WW2 vets. The former carries a bit of weight, as Pacific Theater vets, who fought longer battles of attrition against the Japanese, in similar conditions, has many parallels to the Vietnam experience, though it was less open, culturally. That doesn't mean European theater vets weren't affected, as no less than Audie Murphy spoke up about his problems from the war, with nightmares, pill addictions, and sleeping with a gun under his pillow. He was one of the first high profile vets to speak out about the horrors after the war. Eugene Sledge, who fought wit the Marines at Peleliu and Okinawa, wrote about his own issues, in his book, With The Old Breed: At Peliliu and Okinawa, which was one of the inspirations for HBO's The Pacific mini-series. Sledge's memoir is considered to be one of the best soldier memoirs ever, and about as honest as they come. He was helped by taking up the study of ornithology, with it's detailed, scientific classifications, which helped control his nightmares. Also, the study was focused on life.

Like many vets, Scout is pumped full of anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, tranquilizers and other pharmaceutical cocktails. One of the problems was that these drugs merely suppressed the effects of PTSD, but didn't address the root causes, as they were administered without proper psychotherapy, both due to a lack of qualified personnel (partially due to funding) and the longstanding military attitude towards psychotherapy. Getting counseling was not considered a good thing, in the long term and what help was there was designed more to get the soldier back to the Front. Making things worse, Vietnam soldiers were administered amphetamines in the combat zone, as well as steroids, in some cases, which led to fewer medical evacuations from "shellshock", but vastly greater rates of PTSD (as much as 15% of all Vietnam vets, according to one study). As Tony says in the story, the drugs don't help people like him; they've seen and done too much and the drugs make it worse, as some act like the drugs they took in combat.

"Go Pills," were outlawed after Vietnam, due to psychotic effects; but, were reintroduced during the Gulf War and the War on Terror and were considered a contributing factor in a friendly fire incident, in which an Illinois Air Guard pilot, flying patrol in Afghanistan, bombed Canadian soldiers. The pilot lived in Springfield, when I worked for B&N and lived in the city and I met him, once, and was very uncomfortable in dealing with him, because he never accepted the responsibility for his actions, blaming everything but his own error. He had been taking Go Pills and Air Guard pilots were notoriously under-trained, as the reserve training system wasn't well integrated into the regular military training cycles. As a result, they had long gaps in training periods, were trained on outdated equipment, and lacked practical experience.

Anyway, Scout struggles against the drugs permeating his system, leading to the vision of the gahn, Deluxe, Doody, and his parents. As Scout said before, he doesn't even know where his mother was buried. She says she was buried inside him, meaning that who she was is part of his memory and that he must look inside to find her. By looking inside, he will also find himself and find what he has lost. That is the kind of therapy that helps deal with psychological stress, not just PTSD. The symptoms experienced are the manifestations of inner struggles...survivor guilt, guilt over killing or causing destruction, loss of "humanity" or innocence, previous trauma that is magnified by the horrors of war, etc, etc... That is what the therapeutic component of treatment is supposed to address; but, this country (and it is not alone in this) often spends more time on the pharmaceutical aspect of mental health and not enough on the therapeutic. Especially if you don't have money or good health insurance.

Scout finds the strength to fight and starts purging himself of the drugs. Now, this is fiction, and a fantastical fiction, at that; but, Scout should be pretty weak from the urging; so, his escape attempt is a bit much. Still, considering he runs smack into Monday, who is immortal, I'll give Truman a pass. Decapitating someone with a food tray? Well, it's more believable than Bullseye's playing cards; but, then again, what isn't? Even more ludicrous is Liefeld's Youngblood debut, where Shaft kills someone by flinging a ballpoint pen, upwards, towards someone one floor up, and impales them in their throat, without having superhuman strength or using a firearm or other weapon to give it high velocity. Rob did say he would have quit school to break into comics, if his parents hadn't have put their foot (feet?) down. I take it physics wasn't one of his stronger classes. Biology, neither, based on things he says in the same Comic Scene interview, where he said he nearly quit school. So, on the weight of that evidence, I'll accept an immortal being able to fling a blunt aluminum tray hard enough to decapitate someone. Tarantino's films get goofy along similar lines.

Swords of Texas is less a back-up than a side story. They have unknowingly transported a nuclear warhead into the hands of a Mexican guerilla, which was set up by someone other than the Army. Want to bet this is Plan B for Bill Loper? (or is it C, after Grail's death and the mess in Houston, at the launch of the New America initiative?) I still am really not impressed by the Swords group, especially in hindsight. I wanted to like it; but, they characters were never well developed and the art was not at Truman's level. It seems like an idea created for one purpose and it never quite had the legs beyond that purpose, no matter how they tried.

So, Monday and Scout have collided; what next? My guess would be a large bodycount. And, who are the Native Americans moving towards the hospital?

Next, Airboy #13 (bi-weekly is helping it to catch up!)

Stig's Inferno was fun. Very sad how it ended, with Ty's collaborator Klaus Schonefeld dying suddenly in his early 20s.

You mentioned The Dreamery earlier. I still have warm feelings for that series, because it introduced me to what became one of my absolute favorite comics: Donna Barr's Stinz.

Airboy #14



Sheesh, no wonder the guy with the M-16 can't hit anything; look at how he is sighting the rifle! I still think LaVerne should be holding twin Uzis and just be unloading rounds as Val pushers her along.

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Stan Woch-pencils, Mark A Nel;son-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor
Skywolf: Chuck Dixon-writer, Tom Lyle-pencils, Rome Tanghal-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor

Synopsis: LaVerne is bickering with the goons pointing guns at her and Link Thorne.



Kip Thorne stumbles on the scene and gets a rifle butt to the head, and they make the mistake of taking their eyes off LaVerne, who gives it to them with both barrels...



In California, Sho Kosugi and Lee Van Cleef attack Hirota and he leaves them bleeding and moaning on the floor. The leader, Sharp, then comes at him with a pair of kama (sickles) and he lays him out, then runs to his room and grabs his katana, as Sharp and the boys recover. Hirota goes Mifune on their asses; but, he is outnumbered (it always works in Kurosawa films!) and is going down, when Iron Ace adds his sword to the melee.



Sharp goes down, holding his intestines. It gets a bit messy.

In New York, Val accepts a dinner invitation from Marlene and enters her apartment to change,. Before long, a man is hurled through the door. She adds a high heel to the face, then pulls Marlene down as his cohorts open fire. Val fires back with a Luger P08 and takes down the two men with ease.



Marlene is a master of understatement!

Off the shores of Texas, Skywolf dispenses relationship advice to Davy...



As future Skywolf stories will reveal, that's pretty rich, coming from him. They land the Apache it Ma Wolf's airfield and meet up with Valkyrie, who has flown down from New York. Hirota is also there and they compare notes as they scarf down some of Link's Three-Alam Chili. All they know is one of them mentioned "the senora," and Davy thinks it must be related to the Grand Corinocos.

Manic throws a fit, because his teams haven't reported in and he shoves Cowgirl, when she tries to calm him. She draws on him and tells him never to shove her again. Next issue is likely to be violent.

You know, not like this one!

Chuck provides an intro to Iron Ace and then it's time for Skywolf.

Skywolf: Sky and Jack Gatling, the Bald Eagle, have scaled a cliff face to escape some enraged yeti and run right smack into some Tibetans. They offer a hand to the pair of yahoos and lead them away, while one of them, with a rifle, fires a shot at the yeti. They lead them through a pass to what appears to be a lamasery...



They are introduced to the head man, who turns out to be a woman, and they fill her in. She says they are of the Sky People, after Jack says they came in a bird of iron (which Sky thinks is a bit much) and the next thing they know, they have spears at their throat. Turns out, the Sky People are aiding She-Who-Would-Be-Queen-of-the-World. They get dumped in a cell, as Jack wonders where the woman learned English.

In the morning, they are marched out of the cell and see another cell, with what looks like a yeti family held prisoner. Sky threatens to shove a spear up some dude's mountain pass and they are brought before the Big Cheesette, who wants to know how their firearms work (the Tibetans have single shot weapons, but not autoloaders).



Sky pulls out some binoculars and sees the yeti attacking outside, led by the blond girl. Jack takes a look and crows about the half million, then ducks as his intended rescue target takes a shot at him. They are stupid enough to hand Sky his Thompson, to demonstrate and he pulls back on the bolt and then unloads a magazine into her goons. He then keeps it pointed at her, as Jack reclaims his BAR. Sky calls down to Stephanie Skeffington, the missing girl and asks for a truce. Steph has a few demands. Sky and Jack march out of the gates with the Number One Gal and Steph decks her. They board the beechcraft to get her home to her father, and she says she still worries about the Sky People (the yetis). Sky has taken care of that...



Thoughts: Lot of action in the main feature, as the various Airfighters kick butt and take names. Ma Wolf is as sneaky as her son, with a double barrel shotgun fired through a card table. Hirota outmatches some martial arts goons and Val is a dab hand with a Luger (had to be a Luger, even though they were obsolete before WW2, where most were issued Walther P-38s or PPKs). Manic laid hands on a woman and Cowgirl threatens to put a pair of .45 slugs into his eyes. I still say the cocaine mcguffin is screwy, but the action and individual chapters are exciting.

Skywolf finishes his adventure, as we find out that the yeti are the good guys and Stephanie has been aiding them. This was very Caniff-meets-Jonny Quest, as I mentioned last time, which means it is a ton of fun. The banter between Sky and Jack is a hoot and it makes you hope Chuck will keep them together, for a while. I still say Skywolf would make for a great film series; though, with everything being CGI, the aviation scenes would look like crap (even Red Tails looked like a video game, with aircraft that pulled off maneuvers that defy the laws of aerodynamics). Still, some great period adventure stuff.

Next, Scout #16, as Santanna is formally introduced to Monday.

Airboy #15



Airboy should be swiss cheese, with that kind of range, against AK-47s

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Stan Woch-pencils, Mark A Nelson-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor

Skywolf: Chuck Dixon-writer, Stan Woch-pencils, Vern Henkel-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor

EDIT:  Tom Lyle did the pencils on issue 15's Skywolf story.  Credits say Sta.  The error is corrected in the letters page of issue 17.

Vern Henkel was primarily a Golden Age comic artist, who worked for Quality, National/DC, Magazine Enterprises, Lev Gleason, and Atlas. He was pretty much out of comics, by the Silver Age, working in advertising. I wonder if he was an instructor at the Kubert School, at some point?

Synopsis: Davy and Kip Thorne arrive in Puerto Oloroso, capital of the Grand Corinocos. It's not quite what the brochure described...



They check into a hotel, with some hippie manning the front desk who sounds like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now. Man! They go up to their rooms, after the guy mentions some chick on three, who is Valkyrie. They are watched by some dude in a straw skimmer hat. Maybe Leon Redbone was doing a gig down there...





Some dude from a fast food company (looking at possible franchises, locally) hits of Val and gets told where he can put his special sauce.

At an airfield, Manic discusses labor relations with some men loading cocaine into the Heinkel bombers (He 177s) that the air force got from Argentina. Davy and Kip watch from beyond a fence, but are found by Leon Redbone and some fat security dude. Davy throws a dropkick to Leon, while Kip tries a right cross which El Gordo shrugs off. Davy hits him with a double-axe handle to the back of the head and he goes down. He tells Kip to run. They get to their car and Davy fires some .45 rounds into the police car of El Gordo. The two boobs are found by Manic, who gets where the spies were from (and I assume shoots the two, though not on panel).

Davy and Kip run up the stairs at the hotel and burst into Val's room, to warn her, and find she wasn't quite ready for visitors...



Kip spots more goons converging on the hotel and Davy sends him and Val out the back while he radios Skywolf, for a pick-up. Link is in the pilot seat, while Sky is in the forward gunner position. They head inbound from some swamp area to pick up Davy, as Hirota jumps into Birdie and follows. Kip and Val escape in a car and head for the airfield, so Val can steal a plane. Leon leads the police through the roof door just as Davy climbs into Birdie and fires a burst through her guns. They fire rockets and it's goodbye to the Holiday In Grand Corinocos. The hippie smells smoke and says there is not cooking in the rooms (while he roles a fatty).

La Senora screams at Manic and Cowgirl and tells him to get the bombers into the air, immediately. El Presidente watches Yogi Bear. Cowgirl seems to have ideas.

Val & Kip arrive at the airfield and find a conveniently fueled and armed A-10 Warthog just waiting for them. Davy and Sky arrive in time to see the squadron of Heinkels airborne and ripe for attack.



Skywolf: July 1950, somewhere north of Galveston, TX. A P-47 lands at a small airstrip, with a sign over a hanger that says Vern's Dusting Insecticides Herbicides. LaVern is sitting on the porch of the house, drinking a coke. She recognizes Lawrence, even through the mask. Says the war's been over for 5 years and he is supposed to be dead. No letter, though. He grabs a coke and she tells him it costs a nickel. (Oh, for those days!). She introduces her mechanic, Tom Hernandez and offers to fix something and Lawrence begs off (her cooking sucks, which Tom agrees).



The next day, they go into Peckinpah, TX (must be a wild bunch living there) for groceries (and Skywolf doesn't wear his "sissy outfit," as LaVern calls it)and Tom tells Lawrence that he was an Army Ranger and lost two toes at Bastogne. LaVern gave him the mechanics job, and he and his wife, kids and Tia live in a quonset hut, behind the field. He goes to fill the grocery list, while LaVern and Lawrence head elsewhere. They stop into a hardware store to pick up a new toilet (Lawrence is there to carry it). They run into Rev Hackett, who says he hasn't seen LaVern at the church in a while. As they leave, Lawrence whispers that she never used to miss church. She says the reverend talks out of both sides of his mouth.

They come outside to find two rednecks holding Tom, while a third gets in his licks, as two others crow about wanting their turn. Sky rushes over and asks what's going on, while the big redneck cracks wise. Lawrence tosses him the toilet and then staggers him with a haymaker.



...followed by an uppercut into the solar plexus. He dropped the toilet, though and broke it.

Sky proceeds to lay into the rest and beat the snot out of them, while the big one staggers back to his feet and grabs him around the neck, from behind. LaVerne reaches into her truck and grabs her double barrel and fires off a shot and threatens to put the other barrel's load of buckshot into the first one who moves. They head back to the airstrip.

LaVern fills Lawrence in on Bo Rawlins (the big redneck) and Klan activity in the area. Conchita, Tom's wife, comes calling to them for help...



Lawrence goes after the "masked men," in his Thunderbolt. He figures all he has to do is look for a bonfire.

Sure enough, the Klansmen have Tom tied to a tree and he goads Bo Rawlins into unmasking. Then, the Grand Wizard turns up and says he is going to send Tom back to Mexico, in pieces...



Chuck also gives us a rundown on Jack Gatling, the Bald Eagle...



Thoughts: Airboy continues to be action packed, as everyone is in the Grand Corinocos to track down Manic and the drugs and all hell busts loose. Kind of feels like they should have a harder time getting in there; but, I suppose money talks. Bit conspicuous, though. Looks like Val has found herself a nice plane, assuming the Warthog is armed. Not exactly a dogfighter, though (neither is the Apache, for that matter). The Apache should be having a hard time keeping up with the bombers. It's max speed is about 182 mph, while the Heinkel's was double that.

Val in her frillies was rather gratuitous; but, I don't think many women, aside from cat, were reading this comic. Fan service. Just wait until we get to the mini-series and the Air Maidens Special. Never let it be said that cat was too much of a feminist to allow T & A to sell comics.

This would feel like they are padding things, if it wasn't for the bi-weekly schedule, which helps keep the story moving along. Really, it never feels like they are wasting pages to get it to trade size. hell, there were barely trade collections at the Big Two. Eclipse would start producing some album collections around this time (and had a few, before, plus original graphic novels, like The Price and Sabre). Airboy didn't get collected until IDW, fairly recently. Miracleman was the big trade product, for Eclipse, though Scout had two collections (4 Monsters and Mt Fire).

Skywolf moves ahead a year and he visits home, allowing more time with LaVern, at a younger age. She must have bee pretty young when she had Lawrence, based on the way she looks here. Chuck is exploring some of the darker aspects of America, as we see Klan activity, which is given a pass by locals and law enforcement. I don't think we need to spend too much time wondering to determine the identity of the Grand Wizard.

Skywolf mentions not liking some of what he has seen, since he has been home and that the country had changed. There is this myth that the post-war era and 1950s were an idyllic time. It depends on who you were. For some, it was; but, many returning servicemen found jobs scarce, minorities still faced discrimination and oppression, the baby boom led to an increase in juvenile delinquency, as there were more youths without both parents and more pushed together into urban environments. Many felt they had fought to end fascism, but saw things like the House Un-American Activities Committee and Loyalty Oaths to smack of the same thing. Minorities had fought in the war and wondered why they fought fascists in Germany and Italy to accept second class status at home. These groups were not prepared to sit there and take it anymore, though organizing would take time.

There was a certain darkness in the post-war era that can be seen in some literature and movies, in things like the writing of James M Cain and the movie adaptations of his work, as well as other "film noir" works and hard boiled detective novels and the emergence of new writers, like Norman Mailer and such African-American authors and poets, like James Baldwin, Ralph Ellis, Gwendolyn Brooks and Richard Wright gave voice to ideas and feelings that would help inform the Civil Rights movement. There is great material for drama in this period, when one looks under the surface of the myth, which was being trumpeted heavily by some circles, in the 1980s. Dixon and company remind us that no era is perfect or a utopia. Similarly, Howard Chaykin and David Tischman's American Century would cover similar ground, in the dawn of the New Millennium, though with a decidedly more cynical veneer. Skywolf fits more in with the world of the film noir classics, with healthy doses of the great adventure strips.

Next, Airboy #16.

Airboy #16



Everyone on this island is a lousy shot!

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Stan Woch-pencils, Mark A Nelson-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor

Skywolf: Chuck Dixon-writer, Tom Lyle-pencils, Vern Henkel-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor

Synopsis: The squadron of Heinkel He177s is 50 miles south of Florida, when one dude, is like, coke and Bermuda Triangle....bad karma, man!



and sure enough...



Bummer, dude!

Skywolf tears up the planes with the Apache's chain gun and Davy hits them with guns and missiles. They take some hits themselves, but keep pourin' it on. Hirota warns Davy that he lost many friends, attacking B-17 formations (some, but they would have gone up against B-25's, more often) and Skywolf is also taking hits; but, this is personal. Val turns up in her A-10m Warthog and hits a few bombers, while Kip makes a technicolor yawn in the rear seat. They splash the last bomber and head back to Grand Corinocos to go for the head of the snake.

Manic and Cowgirl are waiting and Skywolf is circling for a landing and hears Manic call him out and says he is the one who sent a hit team after LaVern. Sky loses any sense of tactics and blasts his chain gun, lands and follows after Manic...



Davy strafes some jeeps then lands and he and Hirota pound ground to the palace, armed to the gills. They shoot their way in and hear shotgun blasts from upstairs and follow the sound. Skywolf ducks behind a couch as Manic unloads his twin Uzis. Sky calls out to him and bets he can't draw his weapons before he can chamber a round and Manic is dumb enough to go for it...



Sky pops up and pumps 3 rounds from his .45 into Manic's gut. Manic's dying words are "You cheated!" and Skywolf agrees. Davy and Hirota turn up, then Cowgirl has them outflanked and gets bashed over the head by a bust-wielding (as in statue, not her mcguffies) Valkyrie.

Davy grabs Val in an embrace and nearly plants one on her, then awkwardly pulls away. They go find El Presidente, who is watching Mr Ed (Willllllburrrr!) and La Senora is sitting at a desk, crying. Sky sees the pathetic sight and turns and tells everyone to head for home.

Skywolf: Tom Hernandez is tied to a tree and the Grand Wizard has a sword. He pulls it back to deliver a killing stroke, when the tip of the blade is shot off by a Thompson M1, held by Skywolf.



He tells them to vamoose and the Wiz says they outnumber him and to get him. A quick spray of bullets removes any backbone left in the sidewinding lowlifes. The Wiz loses his hood as he jumps on his horse and gallops away. A few of the hooded sissies try it anyway and get a buttstock to the head, though Bo Rawlins gets a boot to Sky's goolies. He goes down singing soprano, but, grabs the dropped sword before Bo can club him and sticks it into Bo's gut. Bo knows pain!

The rest of the hooded horses' patoots slink away at the sight of a Thompson barrel and Sky frees Tom and heads back to the airstrip. Bo Rawlins is oozing blood; but, gets to his feet, picks up a revolver and shuffle steps after them.

Skywolf returns and tells Conchita that Tom is okay and at the Galveston hospital. The Reverend is there, "comforting" Conchita, when Bo turns up and shoots him dead, for being a coward. he then keels over, dead. of course, the rev was the Grand Wizard, like that surprised anyone. LaVern tells Conchita everything is all right and to bring the kids and her aunt into the big house for now. She then tells Sky that the country is okay and the actions of some bad apples don't reflect the average America.

A week later, Sky is ready to go and says his goodbye as he goes looking for another war. LaVern says he is more and more like his father...



Letters page gushes over issue 9 and the Skywolf back-up series. Someone suggests Frank Robbins for a fill in (he did Johnny Hazard, which fits right in); but, he is retired. Chuck asked for favorite aviation movies and people chime in. Mine:

12 O'Clock High, The Spirit of St Louis, Strategic Air Command, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, The Blue Max, The Dam Busters, 633 Squadron, the pilot movie to Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Flight of the Phoenix (which is only an aviation movie at beginning and end. Also, The Right Stuff (for Yeager). Haven't seen Aces High or Hell's Angels. Top Gun is bull@#$%. Von Richtofen and Brown has some nice flying scenes, but isn't particularly well acted or written. I'll take Tuskegee Airmen over Red Tails, since it doesn't have video game CGI, with unrealistic aircraft movement. Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines is a bit of fun. For this kind of stuff, add Desperate Journey (the closest thing to a Blackhawk movie, including the Columbia serial), High Road to China, and the Baa Baa Black Sheep tv series.

Thoughts: A helo attacking bombers from above is a bit much; but, they were at low altitude. Speed is more of the issue. Then again, an ornithopter and a supernatural enemy with a flying tomb kind of gives you license to accept a lot of things. No idea where Val landed her A-10, which needs a lot more runway than a helo or Birdie. Manic went down hard, showing Sky is a sneaky SOB. He would need to be to survive that many wars. The ending makes sense, though I would have to think it made more sense for Manic and Cowgirl to take over La senora's operation, rather then go down as foot soldiers.

Skywolf ends like you would expect, though it's a bit much to think Bo could survive a sword to the gut and make it to the airstrip. Nice little two-parter to build Sky's past, as well as LaVern. Next story has Sky back in the wars, in Guatemala.

Airboy #17



Terrific cover by Ken Steacy. If there was one artist I would have liked to have seen on this series (aside from Reed Crandall) it's Ken Steacy. The man can draw aircraft and adventure.

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Bo Hampton-pencils, Will Blyberg-inks, Bill Pearson-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor
Skywolf: Chuck Dixon-writer, Tom Lyle-pencils, Roy Richardson-inks, Bill Pearson-letters, Olyoptics-colors, Tim Truman-editor.

Roy Richardson worked for DC and Marvel and in syndicated comic strips. He is also married to artist June Brigman

Synopsis: We start out on August 10, 1945...



The Soviets have declared war on Japan and are attempting to move on Korea, through Manchuria and China. As their tanks race south, we see a face in the sky; a familiar "face"...



Misery!

In Washington, President Truman confers with advisors. The nearest US troops are in Okinawa and couldn't be in a position to stop the Russians before they were in Seoul. Truman says to get Les Groves on the line. That's Lt Gen Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project. By noon, on the 11th, a B-29 is taking off from Tinian. The crew are receiving their briefing, in flight. They are headed for Northern China for refueling. They unseal their orders and read the target list: Leningrad, Stalingrad, Odessa and Moscow, as primary, depending on weather.

The aircraft carries a "Little Boy" atomic bomb, the last of three manufactured for use in combat. The aircraft makes it's refueling point and then, 4 hours later, crosses the Chinese-Soviet border. Soon after, the aircraft disappeared completely.



In 1987, Davy and Hirota are flying in Birdie, through dense fog, as Davy attempts an instrument landing. They make it...just. Meanwhile, Valkyrie dreams and hears a familiar voice. It is Misery, he calls to her and takes her on a tour through the missing B-29 and the souls lost.



He shows her Moscow, from the air and reveals it was their target. Misery snatched the plane from the air and has the atomic bomb.

Val calls Davy and tells him about the dream. She tells him that Misery is capable of what he claims. The tv that Davy had been watching is interrupted by a special bulletin that the Soviets have announce a plane has intruded on their airspace, with US markings. The US denies any military aircraft in the vicinity. Davy runs off to get Hirota. We cut to the bomber, in flight, headed for Moscow....

Skywolf: Guatemala, August, 1950...



Skywolf finishes a coke and gets on a bus and meets up with a CIA man, named Lacey. They know each other from the war. Lacey says he was double-crossed in China to appease Kai-Shek. They have intel that the Chinese are set to invade Korea, in support of the communists in North Korea. He offers Skywolf a clear name in exchange for leading an F-86 Sabre squadron.



Meanwhile, Communist insurgents are staging an attack on the bus, including one already on board. Skywolf rushes up and forces the driver to floor it and run through the bandits. The inside man tries to rush him, with an M-3 "Grease Gun" submachine gun...



He trips over a goat and Lacey knocks him cold, with a pistol butt. He grabs the M-3. Meanwhile, the bandits give chase, on motorcycles. Skywolf grabs the M-3 and sprays the road between them and the bandits, forcing them to veer off. One of the bandits gets off a shot that hits the inside man, as he rises to his feet. Lacey just happens to have sticks of tnt, with a detonator, which they use to blow a bridge, after the bus gets across it. The reach the town of La Libertad safely. Lacey departs and tells Sky to think it over, as he may find that there are no more good guys and bad guys and he is liable to end up dead.

Thoughts: Chuck is cookin' this issue. Airboy sets up a very scary scenario, and a rather plausible one, apart from Misery and his supernatural intervention. The Soviets declared war on Japan 1 hour before midnight, on August 8, in accordance with agreements made at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. The Soviets agreed to declare war on Japan, after the defeat of Germany. Previously, after border incidents in the 1930s, the Soviets and the Japanese signed a neutrality pact, which had to be renewed annually. The Japanese had been pushing to renew the treaty and offered territorial concessions, in exchange for the agreement and for the Soviets to aid in negotiating a truce with the Allies. After the Potsdam Conference, where all agreed at unconditional surrender for Japan, they pushed even harder, as the Soviets did not make the declaration, as they were not officially at war. The Soviets, meanwhile, began a massive buildup in the Far East, in preparation for invading Manchuria. Japan was aware of some activity and believed that the Soviets would invade, but they didn't expect it until late August, at the earliest, and possibly not unto the Spring or Summer of 1946. The Soviets delayed answering the Japanese about renewing the neutrality pact and then launched a pincer attack through Manchuria, as agreed with the Allies. Their aim was the surround the Kwantung Army, of over 700,000 men and cut off their retreat through the Korean peninsula. Concessions had been agreed, including the division of Korea, at the 38th Parallel. The Soviets launched their invasion and soon overwhelmed the Kwantung Army, with sheer numbers. They advanced well ahead of rail lines, surprising the Japanese, seizing airfields and landing supply planes with fuel to continue the advance. Fighting continued for one week, before the Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan, on August 15, though there was some confusion and orders to surrender were not immediately received by the Kwangtung forces. The Soviets retook islands lost in the Russo-Japanese war and conducted amphibious landings in Northern Korea. The halted just shy of the Yalu River.

In Chuck's story, they are aiming for Seoul and Truman is oblivious to the agreements at Yalu and Potsdam, ignoring actual history. In fact, Chuck says the Soviets waited until the war was won, before invading. This is fiction; but, Chuck is bending a lot of history to fit his narrative, and it is one that has been perpetuated by some, on the Right, who were itching to declare war on the Soviet Union and end the Communist threat, as they saw it. Within the story, when the airplane captain unseals their orders, he says the war isn't ending and will now never end. That is not an unlikely scenario, had the allies declared war on the Soviet Union. It had the resources and population and experience to fight on for years, while the populations of the Allied countries yearned for an end to the war. No matter how it might be spun, a new war against a former ally would not have gone down well in the Allied nations, who wanted to rebuild and bring their loved ones home.

The basic premise here, aside from the alternate history and supernatural hook, is one that was done a few times before, in the novels, Red Alert, by Peter George, and Fail-Safe, by by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, which were adapted into Dr Strangelove and Fail-Safe, respectively. Both feature US strategic bombers on a collision course with the Soviet Union, despite attempts to recall them (which led to a lawsuit and settlement from Kubrick & Peter George, against the rival novel and film production). The main difference there as those are jet bombers, vs the B-29, which as we see, had to refuel to travel that distance. Dr Strangelove is the better known and more successful of the two films (though Fail-Safe is the more plausible scenario, if you ask me) and it doesn't take too much imagination to see where this is headed. The Cold War was still very touchy and a collission course would likely mean the end of things. Great stuff for drama. Misery makes it even more interesting, as he snatches the aircraft from the past and delivers it to the present, where SAC would have no record of a flight and it would already be past the Soviet early warning systems. A B-29 would be a sitting duck for Soviet fighter planes, though, which makes you wonder what the deal will be, as that would occur long before Davy could reach Soviet airspace. One would assume that the nuke would be the issue, though the Soviets would have more sophisticated weapons. My guess would be to prevent Misery from detonating it, after the plane is shot down, somehow.

Taught thriller, even if not very original.

Skywolf is really just a quick transition to send him to Korea, for the Korean War. In 1950, Guatemala was governed by the popular Arbenz government, following a coup against the government in 1944. Since that time, liberal reforms had been implemented and free elections held. Arbenz had been elected and established many popular reforms. However, there were elements who fought his reform, on the Right, particularly those in the pockets of the United Fruit Company. This organization held large areas of land in Guatemala and elsewhere, after displacing the natives who lived there. At this point, Arbenz hadn't initiated his land reforms, which returned United Fruit Company possessions to the locals. This would lead the UFCO to use their influence with the CIA (the Dulles brothers were on their board of directors) and get the US government to sanction a coup, replacing the Arbenz government, in 1954. Once again, Chuck's history is out of whack. Guatemala would descend into civil war in 1960 and continue fighting into the late 80s. The native population was heavily targeted after the coup and through the Reagan years. So, it seems Chuck is mixing a bit of the '54 coup, with the later civil war, and the previous coup, to generate fighting, when things were relatively quiet. It doesn't matter much, as the point is for Skywolf to meet up with Lacey, so he can entice him to come to Korea and fly Sabre jets. This sounds a little ridiculous, as he wouldn't have any experience in them, though he did with experimental planes (the semi-planes of the Hillman comics, which he said were deathtraps and just newsreel propaganda, in these comics). However, Korea caught the US Army at a bit of a loss, as well as the newly spun-off US Air Force and many officers and some enlisted were recalled to duty in Korea. Major Dick Winters, of the Band of Brothers, was one of those, though he was eventually released from service, without seeing combat in Korea. So, Skywolf's combat experience would be a plus. One questions whether this would be a regular Air Force squadron or some sort of special missions group. The CIA was still in its infancy, though Chuck is correct that they had intel about the Chinese invading, in support of the North Koreans, which was ignored by the military, as their own intelligence wings disputed this. They still held greater sway in US policy decisions.

So, Davy and the Air Fighters will be attempting to stop Misery from detonating a rogue atomic bomb from 1945, in the USSR, while Skywolf will be flying in MIG Alley, F-86s against MIG-15s. This should prove pretty exciting, over the next few issues.