Buck Danny

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Buck Danny and his wingmen flying F-14s in Mission: Apocalypse, Dutch edition
Buck Danny and his wingmen flying F-14s in Mission: Apocalypse, Dutch edition

Buck Danny is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon, which chronicles the adventures of a trio of pilots in the United States Navy.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The first half dozen albums recount Buck Danny's exploits in the Pacific war. Originally, Buck signs up in naval aviation after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, where he was already employed by the Navy. During the first two stories, he participates in the Battle of Midway and several other historical events. He is then transferred from the Navy to General Chennault's Flying Tigers in China, where he is joined by the two other main characters, Jerry Tumbler and Sonny Tuckson.

The trio is demobilized at the end of World War Two. After a brief stint as commercial pilots in the Middle East, however, they return to the military first as test pilots for the Air Force, then again as fighters pilots in the Korean War. At the end of that war they are transferred to the U.S. Navy, where they have remained ever since. The adventures of the three mainstays continue to this day, and although Colonel Danny and his comrades have never aged, they and their stories have kept pace with history, becoming involved in various conflicts around the world. The series also tracks recent technological advances, its heroes now flying F-14 Tomcats on modern aircraft carriers.

[edit] Publication history

The series was created for the magazine Spirou shortly after World War II, first published on January 2, 1947.[1] After Hubinon's death in 1978, the drawing of the series was taken over by Francis Bergèse, who also took over the writing after Charlier passed away 11 years later.

During the 1940s, Victor Hubinon and Jean-Michel Charlier worked separately for the World Press, a Belgian agency directed by Georges Troisfontaines, who proposed that they work together. They first collaborated on L'agonie du Bismark ('The Agony of the Bismark'), a war account published in Spirou in 1946. They were also the authors of Tarawa Atoll Sanglant ('Tarawa, Bloody Atoll'), a historical account published in Belgium from the end of 1948 to 1948 in the bi-weekly magazine Moustique, relating the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific Campaign by American troops during World War II.[2]

Mixing historical references with fiction, Buck Danny is one of the most important 'classic' Franco-Belgian comic strips.[3] Like Bob Morane (by Henri Vernes), Buck Danny centers on the lives of pilots; its characters are based on popular heroes of the Second World War, which was still fresh in the memories of readers when the comics began.

In 1978, Victor Hubinon died, but Buck Danny returned after a few years with Francis Bergèse now on board, though the author remained Jean-Michel Charlier. Bergèse drew 4 stories until 1988, and had begun another novel, but was interrupted by the death of Charlier in 1989. The series continued with Jacques de Douhet assisting at first, though eventually, Bergèse took up both writing and illustrating.

[edit] Realism

The series depicts aircraft very realistically, and often includes recent technological developments, such as VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft, stealth planes, the newest Soviet/Russian aircraft, the effects of low-flying, etc.

The ships and bases where the adventures take place are also very close to reality (most are American, but a Russian and a French aircraft carrier have been depicted, as well as real American bases). Certain events were also taken more or less directly from reality, when the censors allowed it; examples include the Korean War, the Bosnian War and the war in Afghanistan. More often, Charlier simply invented entire countries, thus allowing him to take greater liberties with the story. Since the Vietnam War, for example, had been declared off-limits by French censors, Charlier wrote the "Return of the Flying Tigers" story arc to take place in the fictional country of Vien-tan.

The realism of the series is also enhanced by short definitions or explanations of technical material, such as RADAR, Radio direction finding, and other terms. Sometimes they also contain historical notes, and at other times, English jargon (such as "Scramble") is translated into French for the readers' benefit.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

After Pearl Harbor Buck Danny enlists in the United States Navy, and soon finds his sidekicks Jerry 'Tumb' Tumbler and Sonny Tuckson, with the three quickly becoming inseparable friends. Together, they participate in many extremely dangerous missions, with their adventures taking them all over the world. In missions ranging from the Korean War in the 1950s to the Balkan War in 1996, they prove themselves ardent defenders of the United States of America.

  • Buck Danny: Buck Danny is the titular character, and his rank advances fastest throughout the series (however, he never attains a rank higher than Colonel, as this would remove him from the status of active pilot). He represents the stereotypical fighter pilot (tall, blond haired, athletic, and rather handsome) and also the ideal leader; strict but fair, courageous but level-headed, tough but easily approcheable, an unquestioned patriot, and loyal to a fault. In the comics, Danny is reported many times as "the best pilot in the Navy."
  • Sonny Tuckson: a proud Texan, Sonny often serves as comic relief, a role which accentuates as the series goes on (in the form of pie-in-the-face pranks, failed sporting stunts, and prodigiously bad luck in romance). He is an excellent pilot, and has proven himself to be extremely capable in combat situations. He is also the most loyal and risk-taking of the three, and is often willing to violate orders and ignore the chain of command to help a comrade in danger.
  • Jerry "Tumb" Tumbler: Tumbler is the least well developed of the characters, and also the most serious, cynical and suspicious of the three heroes. He serves mainly as a foil for Buck Danny's character. The two were antagonists when they first met in China; Tumbler, a veteran in the Flying Tigers, resented the fact that Danny, who had just come in from the Navy, was promoted to squadron commander before him. This feeling faded away when Danny saved Tumb's life from Japanese troops at considerable risk to his own; they, along with Sonny, have been best friends ever since.

[edit] Antagonists

  • Lady X (Jane Hamilton): first appearing in Northern Menace, Lady X is the only recurring enemy of the heroes. She is an outstanding pilot who was once "the fastest woman in the world," and is today a beautiful, mysterious and unscrupulous mercenary. She often works as a spy or secret agent, gathering information or running sabotage operations for the highest bidder (including foreign powers, the Mafia, drug cartels, nefarious business conglomerates and various terrorists and dictators). However, she has also at times been called upon for more hands-on tasks, as in the "Return of the Flying Tigers" story arc, where she is put in command of an Asian despot's air force. She has been reported dead many times during the series, but invariably resurfaces to the dismay of Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson. Originally a blonde, she is seen with brown hair in the later volumes, and was always shown as having eyes of "blue steel." Jean-Michel Charlier based her on famous German test pilot Hanna Reitsch.
  • Mo Choung Young: a Chinese pilot in the Flying Tigers. He is secretly a traitor for the Japanese and a member of the Black Dragon Society, whose goal is to create a pan-Asian empire free of Western influence and led by Japan. His main objective in the novel is to prevent Danny and Tuckson from bringing the Flying Tigers the plans for the Allied offensive in Burma. He and his Black Dragon superiors commit suicide at the end of "Attack in Burma" to avoid falling into Allied hands. Although he only appears in the "Flying Tigers" story arc, Mo is an iconic figure in the franchise.

[edit] Recurring characters

  • Slim Holden: a fighter pilot who has a long history with the three main characters. Although as good a pilot as Danny, Tumbler or Tuckson, Holden's impulsiveness, confrontational nature and lack of respect for authority have made it harder for him to progress through the ranks; this is occasionally a sore point between him and Danny. Despite their differences, they remain friends and Danny has more than once requested his presence on dangerous missions.
  • Cindy McPherson: the first U.S. Navy pilot portrayed in the series, she has appeared in several of the later novels (nineties and onwards). A crack pilot, she is also extremely attractive and a frequent target for Sonny Tuckson's advances.
  • Admiral Walker: an admiral in the U.S. Navy, and the trio's direct superior since the "Mission Apocalypse" story arc. Though sometimes impulsive and easily displeased, he is overall a good commanding officer. His most memorable attribute is his dog, O'Connor, who lives on board with him and quickly became Sonny Tuckson's worst nightmare.
  • General Scott: a general in the U.S. Air Force, often in charge of classified and extremely delicate operations. He first appears in "Restricted Zone," where he and Danny command an off-the-books fighter unit in the Bosnian War, and is referred to only as "General X." His name is revealed in "The Night of the Serpent," in which he directs an operation to recover an American pilot in North Korea.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] As originally published

  • Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon
    • Les Japs attaquent (The Japs Attack)
    • Les Mystères de Midway (The Mysteries of Midway)
    • La Revanche des fils du ciel (The Revenge of the Sky-Children)
    • Les Tigres Volants (The Flying Tigers)
    • Dans les griffes du dragon noir (In the Talons of the Black Dragon)
    • Attaque en Birmanie (Attack in Burma)
    • Les Trafiquants de la Mer Rouge (The Traffickers of the Red Sea)
    • Les Pirates du désert (The Desert Pirates)
    • Les Gangsters du pétrole (The Oil Gangsters)
    • Pilote d'essai (Test Pilot)
    • Ciel de Corée (Korean Sky)
    • Avions sans pilote (Planes Without Pilots)
    • Un avion n'est pas rentré (A Plane has not Returned)
    • Patrouille à l'aube (Dawn Patrol)
    • NC 22654 ne répond plus (NC 22654 No Longer Answers)
    • Menace au Nord (Northern Menace)
    • Buck Danny contre Lady X (Buck Danny Versus Lady X)
    • Alerte en Malaisie (Alert in Malaysia)
    • Le Tigre de Malaisie (The Tiger of Malaysia
    • SOS soucoupes volantes (SOS flying Saucers)
    • Un prototype a disparu (A prototype has Disappeared)
    • Top secret (Top Secret)
    • Mission dans la vallée perdue (Mission in the Lost Valley)
    • Prototype FX 13 (Prototype FX 13)
    • Escadrille ZZ (Squadron ZZ)
    • Le Retour des Tigres Volants (The Return of the Flying Tigers)
    • Les Tigres Volants à la rescousse (The Flying Tigers to the Rescue)
    • Tigres Volants contre Pirates (Flying Tigers versus Pirates)
    • Opération Mercury (Operation Mercury)
    • Les Voleurs de satellites (Satellite Thieves)
    • X-15 (X-15)
    • Alerte à Cap Kennedy (Alert at Cape Kennedy)
    • Le Mystère des avions fantômes (The Mystery of the Ghost Planes)
    • Alerte atomique (Atomic Alert)
    • L'Escadrille de la mort (Death Squadron)
    • Les Anges bleus (The Blue Angels; in this adventure Buck Danny meets with heroes from other air force military series, Tanguy et Laverdure, also written by Charlier, published in Pilote, and Dan Cooper, published in Tintin).
    • Le Pilote au masque de cuir (The Pilot with the Leather Mask)
    • La Vallée de la mort verte (The Valley of Green Death)
    • Requins en Mer de Chine (Sharks in the China Sea)
    • Ghost queen (Ghost Queen)
  • Jean-Michel Charlier and Francis Bergèse
    • Mission "Apocalypse" (Mission "Apocalypse")
    • Les Pilotes de l'enfer (The Pilots from Hell)
    • Le Feu du ciel (Fire from Heaven)
    • Les Agresseurs (The Agressors)
  • Jacques De Douhet and Francis Bergèse
    • Les Secrets de la Mer Noire (Secrets of the Black Sea)
  • Francis Bergèse
    • L'Escadrille fantôme (Ghost Squadron)
    • Zone interdite (Restricted Zone)
    • Tonnerre sur la cordillère (Thunder on the Cordillera)
    • La Nuit du serpent (The Night of the Serpent)
    • Sabotage au Texas (Sabotage in Texas)
    • Mystère en Antarctique (Mystery in Antarctica)
    • Porté Disparu (Missing in Action)

[edit] New edition albums

Buck Danny was reprinted some years ago into a series of sixteen albums, each of which contained between three and four of the above novels; this allowed story arcs that occurred over several novels to be contained in one book.

    • La Guerre du Pacifique, première partie (War in the Pacific, Part 1).
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Buck Danny enters the Navy and becomes an aviator. He participates in several naval engagements, rises to the rank of Commander, and is eventually transferred to the Flying Tigers, where he encounters Jerry Tumbler and Sonny Tuckson.
    • La Guerre du Pacifique, seconde partie (War in the Pacific, Part 2).
Danny and Tuckson are charged with flying to the Allied headquarters in Rangoon and bringing back the plans for the upcoming offensive into Burma. When the mission goes wrong, they are trapped in the middle of the jungle and must dodge Japanese troops, hostile natives, pirates and traitors to bring the plans back to the Flying Tigers.
Unemployed after the end of the war, Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson are hired by a shady airline company operating in the Middle-East, and find themselves swept up in a nest of intrigue involving Arab tribal politics and the rush for oil.
    • La Guerre de Corée (The Korean War).
Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson are persuaded by their old CO to return to the military as test pilots, and are eventually transferred to a fighter unit in Korea. There, they encounter not only Communist pilots but also remote-controlled aircraft against which Danny is ordered to find a response.
    • Pilotes de Porte-avions (Aircraft carrier pilots).
Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson are transferred to the U.S. Navy, where their adventures continue in three stand-alone novels. In the first, they train a squadron of new recruits to work as a team. In the second, they are racing against a group of ex-Nazis to uncover a treasure from a sunken U-boat. In the third, they take down a group of pirates disrupting air traffic over the Arctic.
    • De l'Extrême-Nord a l'Extrême-Orient (From the Far North to the Far East).
Two story arcs. In the first, Danny and his wingmen provide fly defensive patrols over the military's newest ICBM test base in Alaska, and find themselves facing the spies of the mysterious Lady X. In the second, they are returned to the Navy, this time on a mission against pirates in the South China Seas, who are using weapons and bases abandoned by the Japanese to become a near-military force.
    • Vols Vers l'Inconnu (Flights into the Unknown).
Two story arcs. In the first, Danny and his wingmen are testing new prototypes with VTOL technology for the Navy. In the second, they are sent to Tibet to retrieve a German rocket scientist vital to the U.S. space program before the Soviets do.
    • Pilotes de Prototypes (Prototype pilots).
Danny and his wingmen test new aircraft for the Navy, first the brand-new X-13 (based on the A-5 Vigilante), then the X-15. They must overcome rivalries within their own squadron, as well as face several saboteurs hired by foreign powers and disgruntled aircraft constructors.
    • Le Retour des Tigres Volants (Return of the Flying Tigers).
When a revolution begins in the Southeast Asian nation of Vien-tan, the U.S. finds itself unable to intervene officially. Instead, Danny and thirty Navy pilots are retired from the service and sent to fight in Vien-tan, under the flag of the newly reconstituted Flying Tigers.
    • Missions Top-Secret (Top secret missions).
One story arc and two stand-alone novels. In the story arc, Danny and his wingmen try to recover a Mercury space capsule lost at sea. In the first novel, he must defuse the threats of a Caribbean dictator bent on causing a nuclear war between East and West. In the second, he and his wingmen investigate the sightings of unidentified aircraft over the Arctic.
    • Missions a Très Haut Risque (High-risk missions).
Two story arcs. In the first, the Navy loses a nuclear weapon over the Central American republic of Mantegua; Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson are infiltrated among the rebels who recovered it to try and steal it back. In the second, they enter the Blue Angels and are sent to a high-profile airshow in Karachi, where they must again face the threat of Lady X as well as deal with racial tensions within the squadron itself.
Danny and his wingmen discover a Mafia-run opium plantation in the Bornean nation of North Sarrawak. With the United States politically unable to act, the admiral in charge of the carrier group defies the Pentagon's orders and decides to take down the operation himself.
    • Alerte Nucléaire (Nuclear alert).
NATO is being blackmailed by the International Front of Armed Revolutionary Groups, a red terrorist organization which has stolen a nuclear weapon and two F-14s from the U.S. military. Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson must locate the terrorists' base in the Caribbean before the Front can use the weapon on an upcoming UN summit.
    • Ennemis Intérieurs (Enemies within).
Two stand-alone novels, heavily influenced by international developments in the last few years of the Cold War. In the first, Danny is sent to Nellis to take charge of a defecting MiG-29 pilot. In the second, he is sent to visit the Soviet Union's newest aircraft carrier and finds himself swept up in a web of perestroika politics; certain parties want him eliminated, while others want to use him for their own ends...
    • Zones de Combat (Combat zones).
One stand-alone novel and one story arc. In the former, Danny commands an off-the-books fighter unit in Yugoslavia. In the latter, they are sent to train fighter pilots in Central America making a transition from F-104 to F-18. There they find themselves facing a powerful drug cartel which plans to take control of several Central American nations... with a little help from Lady X.
    • Embrouilles en Temps de Paix (Troubles in peacetime).
Three stand-alone novels. In the first, Danny and his wingmen help recover an American pilot shot down over North Korea. In the second, they are sent to test the new F-22's performance, which has recently been hindered by several sabotage actions. In the third, they locate a flight of unidentified aircraft over the Antarctic, and are sent to investigate.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ BDoubliées. Spirou année 1947 (French).
  2. ^ Dupuis. Hubinon (Dessin) (French).
  3. ^ Victor Hubinon (from the aeroplanete.net website, Retrieved on April 19, 2007) (French)

[edit] References

[edit] External links