¹⁄35

Aircraft in Comics - Part 4

The story so far...

In 1951, SPIROU, a comic magazine for young readers, published Buck Danny's WW2 episodes (see "Aircraft in Comics part 1"). After that, the authors, Hubinon and Charlier, decided to get their pilots back to civil life. But the Fans were disapointed. This led the creators of the series to make Buck Danny return to his military status and become a jet pilot fighting again (see "Aircraft in Comics part 2"). In the last episode, our heros returned to the Navy, their "first love" (see "Aircraft in Comics part 3").

Now, in episode 4, they will fly some prototypes and face strange foreign Air Forces!

Aircraft in "Buck Danny" episode 4 (the prototype years)

Picture 1: The first mission for Buck Danny as a test pilot is to fly the X-13 prototype designed by someone called Jerry Nichols. In fact it looks more like a North American A3J Vigilante to me.

Picture 2: The competitor of the X-13 is another prototype, designated X-12, and is produced by "McDougall" in the Comic book. Well, it seems the authors just changed the name a little, as it is a McDonnell Douglas F4H Phantom.

Picture 3: This time the designation of the plane is right: it's a North American X-15. On the picture, the prototype has just been launched from a B-52 carrier plane. In this comic, the story is very similar to the movie "The Right Stuff".

Picture 4: After having destroyed a few prototypes, Buck Danny and his friends are flying in the "Vietanese" Air Force. Note the Flying Tiger insignia on the tail of this A-4 skyhawk. "Viet-Tan" is an imaginary country which has to fight against a rebel force...

Picture 5: ...equipped with Italian Fiat G-91s...

Picture 6: ... and Swedish Saab J35 Drakens!

Picture 7: Another Swedish design is this Saab J-29 Tunnan. It is escorting a B-26 Marauder fitted with an Atomic bomb. the target is the capital of "Mantegua", another imaginary country.

Picture 8: What's nice in Buck Danny comics is that you can find rare planes like this M6A Seiran floatplane. This one is the personal aircraft of the feared Lady X. Maybe that's why it is painted all red!

Picture 9: And now something more traditional: a Grumman F-11 Tiger.

Picture 10: With this McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, Buck Danny prevents a Missile deployment within the "Inagua" island. This story is obviously inspired by the real-life Cuban Missile Crisis.

Picture 11: In this image, a Vought F-8 Crusader crosses the path of a top secret Lockheed SR-71. At the time this comic was published, very little was known of this plane called an A-12.

Picture 12: Last but not least, our heros have the privilege to fly with the Blue Angels!

To be continued...

This was the last episode of "Aircraft in Comics" to feature drawings by Victor Hubinon. After his death in 1979, Francis Bergèse took his place and, thanks to him, Buck Danny is still alive and ready to fly every type of plane!

All images reproduced in this article are Copyright © S.A. Éditions Dupuis