Number 1378: Great guns, Skyman!

Looking at the character, The Skyman, I’m flap-jawed at his massive arms...those are some guns! His upper body development looks like one of those padded Halloween costumes to turn the wearer into the Hulk. I don’t have all the Skyman stories, but I have enough to know that he trimmed down after a time. This panel, from The Skyman #3, shows a much more lithe character.

Ogden Whitney, the artist, drew a lot of different features, including superheroes, but he usually didn’t portray them looking so musclebound.

The Skyman was a 1940’s character, created by Gardner Fox and Whitney. The Skyman’s career began in Big Shot Comics #1 and ended in #101 (1949), four issues shy of the comic's last issue. Along the way the Skyman appeared in his own comic for six issues spread over several years, and also in issues of Sparky Watts and The Face.

In this early adventure, from Big Shot Comics #6 (1940), besides the barrel chest and giant arms, we see how the Skyman’s “Atom-atic” pistol works, that his plane will hover and wait for him while he swings through his girlfriend’s window to “scare her,” and about the cancer curing machine — the sole machine in existence — stolen by criminals.

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Here's another early Skyman story I showed a few years ago. Just click the picture.

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 Number 901


The Skyman and the killer rain


As promised, this is the Skyman story from Sparky Watts #1, 1942.

The Skyman, written and co-created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Ogden Whitney, had a good run during the 1940s. I think the Skyman was a cut above many of the heroes of the time, and it was because of the creative crew. Idea-wise, the Skyman is a mixture of several aviation strips with that rich playboy-as-hero we saw so much of in early comic books.

I like these early Skyman adventures because of Whitney's clear ink line, his careful composition and above-average drawing. He kept his distinctive style his whole career, as any Herbie fan will tell you. Whitney's life was something of a tragedy; he was reputed to be an alcoholic, and when his wife died he went around the bend and was evicted from his apartment. The widow of ACG editor Richard Hughes said Whitney died in the early 1970s.

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