Free Comics Monday: Airboy and The Heap

After last weeks post about Ibis, I got a couple of emails requesting other heroes I've overlooked in this feature. One of the most requested was Airboy.

Here's what wikipedia says about Airboy...

Airboy is a fictional aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the World War II-era time period that fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books. He was created by writer Charles Biro with scripter Dick Wood and artist Al Camy.

Airboy made Air Fighters Comics (renamed Airboy Comics with vol. 2, #11, Dec. 1945) a top seller through the 1940s. In the early issues, Biro wrote the scripts with Dave Wood and drew the covers, while Dan Barry and Fred Kida worked as main illustrators. The book contained backup stories about other aviators, including Skywolf, Iron Ace, the Black Angel, the Bald Eagle, the Flying Dutchman, the Flying Fool, and the prototypical comic book swamp monster, The Heap.




[ Airboy 04 ]

Each of these issues also contains stories featuring The Heap. For those of you unfamiliar with The Heap, he was the *original* swamp monster from the 40's who inspired both Man-Thing and Swamp Thing.

Again, from wikipedia's entry on the Heap...

The Heap is the name of three fictional, comic book muck-monsters, the original of which first appeared in Hillman Periodicals' Air Fighters #3 (Dec. 1942), during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. It was created by writer Harry Stein and artist Mort Leav, and revived in the 1980s by Eclipse Comics.

Similar but unrelated characters appeared in comics stories published by Skywald in the 1970s and Image Comics in the 1990s.



[ Airboy 05 ]

Enjoy!