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Aircraft in Comics - Part 6

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"). But the call of the sea was stronger and our heros returned to the Navy, their "first love" (see "Aircraft in Comics part 3"). In episode 4, they flew some prototypes and faced strange foreign Air Forces in hypothetical countries. "Ghost Queen" was the 40th and last Buck Danny episode created by Victor Hubinon. After his death in 1979, Francis Bergèse replaced him and definitely installed the serie in the Modern Jet era.


Episode 6 of Aircraft in Comics is the last one to feature pictures of Buck Danny...

Aircraft in "Buck Danny" episode 6 (modern era planes)

Picture 1:This is the opening picture of episode 46 in wich you can see two McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 "Hornets" in mission over Sarajevo in 1995. Like Hubinon, Bergèse always tries to incorporate a realistic background into his scenarios.

Picture 2:A small sequence with a General Dynamics F-16 "Falcon". In the comic world, U.S. pilots did flew secret offensive missions over central europe...

Picture 3:... with the help of French Mirages guided by a NATO E-3 AWACS.

Picture 4:Real dogfights don't happen anymore in modern aviation warfare, so you have to read comics to see F-16s, F-18s, Mirages and MiG-29s firing and shooting at each other in a close combat!

Picture 5:Not only combat jets are targets. Sometimes the missiles are fired on a poor inoffensive Beech "Bonanza".

Picture 6:Almost a vintage aircraft now: a F-104 Starfighter in the colors of the Managuan Air Force. Don't search in your dictionnary, it's a fictional country in South America.

Picture 7:More modern is this Lockheed F-22 "Raptor". Four of them can be seen here during a demonstration flight over... Paris! Wait... is this allowed?

Picture 8:Let's start a mini-serie with French aircraft. The first ones are "Super Etendards" wich are escorting Buck Danny's F-18.

Picture 9:Here we have an American Grumman E-2C "Hawkeye" with roundels of the French "Marine". The aircraft carrier in the Background is the "Charles De Gaulle".

Picture 10:Another four "Super Etandards", but this time they are used by a criminal organisation. That's why the have no markings.

Picture 11:A Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk", a Vought F4U "Corsair" and a North American P-51 D "Mustang". No we didn't travelled back through time, these are warbirds on a demonstration flight during a meeting.

Picture 12:My favourite modern aircraft: a Fairchild A-10 "Thunderbolt II". It is seen here during the same meeting in a rather unusual attitude...

Picture 13:The Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk", Vought F4U "Corsair" and North American P-51 D "Mustang" seen from another point of view.

Picture 14:To finish, here is a rather symbolic picture representing a F-22 and a P-51 flying in formation during the air-Show.

The end...

It's time to say goodbye to Buck Danny who started his career in the U.S. Navy in 1941. He should be more than 80 years old now, but the magic of comics makes him still look like the young pilot he was during the Pearl Harbor attack! He started his carrer with piston engined fighters and did go through the modern aviation history and he is flying now the most modern jets of the world!

Or maybe not?

Next time I will show you the planes seen in another great hero's comics: RAF pilot Biggles! I promise you a lot of Spitfires, Hurricanes and Messerschmitts!

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