The Skyman is a fictional

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 that appeared in 1940s comics during what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...

. Created by writer Gardner Fox

Gardner Fox

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer best known for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic-book historians estimate that he wrote over 4,000 comics stories....

 and artist Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney was an American comic-book artist and sometime writer active from the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comics through the 1960s Silver Age. He is best known as co-creator of the aviator hero the Skyman and of the superpowered novelty character Herbie Popnecker and his alter ego, the satiric...

, the character first appeared in the Columbia Comics

Columbia Comics

The Columbia Comics Corporation was formed in 1940 as a partnership between Vin Sullivan and the McNaught Newspaper Syndicate. The idea was to publish comics featuring a mix of McNaught-owned comic strip reprints like Joe Palooka and Charlie Chan as well as original features.The first title...

 omnibus title Big Shot Comics

Big Shot Comics

Big Shot Comics was an American comic book series published by Columbia Comics during period in the 1940s that fans and historians refer to as the Golden Age of comic books. It ran 104 issues, cover-dated May 1940 to August 1949. With issue #30 , the title was shortened to simply Big Shot...

#1 (May 1940). He is unrelated to the DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 character called simply Skyman, who originated as All-American Publications

All-American Publications

All-American Publications is one of three American comic book companies that combined to form the modern-day DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comics publishers...

' Star-Spangled Kid

Star-Spangled Kid

Star-Spangled Kid is the name of several fictional superheroes in the DC Comics' main shared universe.-Sylvester Pemberton:The original Star-Spangled Kid was Sylvester Pemberton, a Golden Age character. He became the Star-Spangled Kid in order to battle Nazism during World War II. He was unique...

.

Publication history

After appearing in the first eight issues of Big Shot, the character was spun off into his own series, in which one issue each appeared in 1941, 1942, 1947, and 1948. The Skyman went on to appear in virtually every issue of Big Shot through issue #101 (May 1949). That comic itself lasted only three more issues. The Skyman additionally appeared in a story in Sparky Watts #1 (1942).

New Media Publishing reprinted a Skyman story in the unnumbered one-shot Golden Age Of Comics Special (Summer 1982). A.C.E. Comics' Return of the Skyman #1 (Sept. 1987) reprinted his origin from The Skyman #1 (1941) and published a new story written by Mort Todd

Mort Todd

Mort Todd , is an American who has spent his career in comics, animation and entertainment, notably as the editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine, and later, Marvel Music...

 with art by industry legend Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko

Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....

. Original artist Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney

Ogden Whitney was an American comic-book artist and sometime writer active from the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comics through the 1960s Silver Age. He is best known as co-creator of the aviator hero the Skyman and of the superpowered novelty character Herbie Popnecker and his alter ego, the satiric...

 penciled and inked a new cover based on his cover for The Skyman #1 from 1941. AC Comics

AC Comics

AC Comics is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.AC Comics specializes in reprints of Golden Age comics from now-defunct companies whose properties lapsed into public domain and were not reprinted elsewhere...

 ran two reprints in Golden-Age Men of Mystery #7 (May 1998), and one in issue 23 of the same series.

Skyman has also appeared in issues of AC Comics

AC Comics

AC Comics is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.AC Comics specializes in reprints of Golden Age comics from now-defunct companies whose properties lapsed into public domain and were not reprinted elsewhere...

 FemForce series. He was also shown in promotional art for Project Superpowers

Project Superpowers

Project Superpowers is a comic book limited series published by Dynamite Entertainment beginning January 2008. It was co-plotted by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross, with scripts by Jim Krueger, covers by Alex Ross, and interior art by Doug Klauba and Stephen Sadowski for issue #0, and Carlos Paul for the...

.

Fictional character biography

The Skyman was Allen Turner, who was raised by his uncle to become "outstanding in mind and body." A brilliant scientist, he had no superpowers but did have a flying wing

Flying wing

A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....

-shaped airplane, dubbed The Wing, that flew by the power of Earth's magnetic poles

Earth's magnetic field

Earth's magnetic field is the magnetic field that extends from the Earth's inner core to where it meets the solar wind, a stream of energetic particles emanating from the Sun...

. With this and money inherited from his late uncle's will

Will (law)

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...

, he fought crime.