''Buck Danny'' is a
Franco-Belgian comics series about a military flying ace and his two
sidekick
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany.
Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, ...
s serving (depending on the plots) in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
or the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. The series is noted for its realism both in the drawings and the descriptions of air force procedures as part of the storyline. In particular the aircraft depicted are extremely accurate. Mixing historical references with fiction, ''Buck Danny'' is one of the most important 'classic' Franco-Belgian comic strips. Starting in 1947, the first albums were set against the backdrop of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but from 1954 onwards, the series started to play in 'the present' and has so ever since. Like this, the series reads as a chronology of military aviation as well as the events that were catching people's imagination at the time of publishing, ranging from the
Korean war
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, the
cold war
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
,
UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
s, international terrorism and drug running, the
space race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
, rogue atomic bombs, the collapse of the Soviet bloc and recently the conflicts in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. The series takes place in a
floating timeline
A floating timeline (also known as a sliding timescale) is a device used in fiction, particularly in long-running serials in comics and animation as well as other media, to explain why characters Ageless, age little or not at all over a period of t ...
with the conflicts and aircraft changing through the times, although the main characters largely remain the same through the decades.
True to the
Franco-Belgian tradition the adventures are first published as a
series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used i ...
in a weekly
comic magazine Comic magazine may refer to:
* Comics anthology
* ''Comic Magazine'', a 1986 Japanese film
* Comic Magazines, the parent company of Quality Comics
* Franco-Belgian comics magazines
* Japanese manga magazines
* A periodical containing comic strips, ...
. After a complete story has run its course, it is bundled and published as a book. In the case of ''Buck Danny'', the story appeared in ''
Spirou'' magazine in weekly installments of one page per issue and from 1947 to 2008, 52
albums
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
have been published by ''Spirou's'' parent company
Dupuis editions. All are still in print today.
From 1947 to 1979, the first 40 albums were a collaboration between writer
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''.
Life
Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...
and artist
Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon (26 April 1924 – 8 January 1979) was a Belgian comic-book artist, best known for the series ''Buck Danny'' and ''Redbeard''.
Biography
Victor Hubinon was born in Angleur, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Victor Hubino ...
. After the death of the latter in 1979, the series took a hiatus of 4 years before Charlier continued for 4 more albums with artist
Francis Bergèse. After Charlier's death in 1989, Bergèse tried one album with a scenario by Jacques de Douhet before writing his own stories. After 1996, 7 more stories appeared, combining realistic penmanship with continuously complex scenarios.
Bergèse announced his retirement after the publication of album 52. Hence since 2008, production of new material ceased. Officially however, the series is not 'dead' but simply on hiatus while the production company is looking for a new artist and writer. In May 2010 it was announced that Dupuis commissioned writer Frédéric Zumbiehl and artist Fabrice Lamy to continue the Buck Danny franchise.
With the publication of album no. 53 in November 2013 it turned out that writer Frédéric Zumbiehl was still in charge but drawings are now made by Francis Winis.
If the new team proves to be successful, this would be the third artist and fourth scenarist for the series.
Synopsis
The comic series follows the exploits of the American military aviator Buck Danny over a period of time from the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
up to the current day. Although the first two adventures starred Danny alone, in the third album he met up with his sidekicks Jerry 'Tumb' Tumbler and Sonny Tuckson and from there on all subsequent adventures were done as a trio.
When the first stories started appearing in 1947, their themes—the
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
, the
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...
and
General Chennault's
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
—were recent history, but after 9 albums, the series caught up with current times and from then on the adventures always played in 'the present'. Since then, the series consists of a chronological string of adventures: In the 10th album, which is something like a watershed for the series, the trio become test pilots and at the end of the album re-enlist into the
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. The Air Force promptly sends them to the
Korean war
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
where the trio battles spies and unmanned aircraft. After that they are somehow transferred to the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
and for the next 55 years they will serve on the latest
supercarriers
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
, fly the latest jets and helicopters and witness the latest progress in aviation firsthand. Flying a
SBD Dauntless
The Douglas SBD Dauntless is a World War II American naval scout plane and dive bomber that was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft from 1940 through 1944. The SBD ("Scout Bomber Douglas") was the United States Navy's main carrier-based scout/dive ...
on his first mission, Buck Danny has flown
Sabres
A sabre is a type of sword.
Sabre, Sabres, saber, or SABRE may also refer to:
Weapons and weapon systems
* Sabre (fencing), a sporting sword
* Sabre (tank), a modern British armoured reconnaissance vehicle
* Chinese sabre or ''dao'', a variety ...
in Korea, Grumman
Panthers
Panther may refer to:
Large cats
*Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis''
**''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards.
***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...
,
Cougars
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...
,
Tigers
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...
and
F14 Tomcats for the Navy. In his latest albums, under stewardship of
Francis Bergèse, Buck Danny and his team fly the
F-18
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...
for the navy, but simultaneously serve as test pilots for the Air force's
F-22
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an American single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). As the result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, th ...
program.
Besides flying for the Navy and helping out the Air Force, several adventures feature Buck and his friends as test pilots for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
, for instance flying the
X-15
The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed ...
rocket-plane or finding rogue transmitters interfering with rocket testing at
Cape Kennedy
, image = cape canaveral.jpg
, image_size = 300
, caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991
, map = Florida#USA
, map_width = 300
, type =Cape
, map_caption = Location in Florida
, location ...
. In addition the trio regularly changes into civilian clothes to work directly for the U.S. government, posing as charter pilots, flight instructors or mercenaries to investigate, uncover and finally thwart, criminal activities all over the world.
Realism has always been a trademark of ''Buck Danny'', especially when it comes to depicting the aircraft and the procedures and
jargon
Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular Context (language use), communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The conte ...
used by the air force. Often, despite the heroics of Danny, Tumbler or Tuckson, the aircraft and carriers drawn are the real heroes. Helping with this is the fact that, contrary to American comic books, Belgian magazines were letter-sized like regular news magazines (technically they were in
A4 paper format). Consequently, the resulting
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s are letter-sized hard- or softcovers as well, considerably larger than
American comics American comics may refer to:
*History of American comics
*American comic book
An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American com ...
or Japanese
Manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
. Also they are printed on top-quality paper rather than
pulp
Pulp may refer to:
* Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit
Engineering
* Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture
* Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper
* Molded pulp, a packaging material
* ...
. All this gives the artist more opportunity to add detail to his drawings.
Realism also is reflected in the grim atmosphere of the books. Especially the
cold war
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
albums are slowly built-up mysteries where the heroes are constantly under the threat of attack by an unseen enemy.
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
, often with deadly results is a common feature in more than one album and several supporting characters are shot, ambushed, blown up by
booby-trap
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...
s or otherwise die violent deaths. Often Buck and his teammates escape more by luck than by their own cunning and the feeling that they ''could'' have died lingers deep through the following pages.
The realism of the stories playing in the present even goes so far that there are over the 53 stories no prequels nor flashback nor secrets from Buck's past as a plot device. Each new stories follows the other chronologically, although some time may have elapsed between one adventure and another. An exception to that are a couple of short stories drawn by
Francis Bergèse included in the large collection books, but not distributed in the official list of albums.
As is traditional in the
Franco-Belgian comic business, the size of a published
comic album
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
is limited to 40-45 pages. Adventures that run longer are either distributed as 40-page chapters of a saga or designed to form independent stories within a longer arc. In the case of ''Buck Danny'', 53 albums form 31 distinct stories: 16 albums are stand-alone adventures, 11 stories are spread out over two albums, 4 stories even use 3 albums. However, especially after the 10th album, the albums of a multi-story arc are laid out as closed chapters with a distinctive ending point, often a
cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
at the end of the album and a short recap at the beginning of the next album.
Publication history
The Pacific War: 1947–1948
Shortly after the end of World War II,
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
was for a few years the hotbed of the emerging comic industry. As such editor
Georges Troisfontaines Georges may refer to:
Places
*Georges River, New South Wales, Australia
*Georges Quay (Dublin)
*Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania
Other uses
*Georges (name)
*Georges (novel), ''Georges'' (novel), a novel by Alexandre Dumas
*Georges ( ...
owned an agency called 'World Press' which he modeled after the American
comic strip syndicates
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
. Part of his staff were the artist
Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon (26 April 1924 – 8 January 1979) was a Belgian comic-book artist, best known for the series ''Buck Danny'' and ''Redbeard''.
Biography
Victor Hubinon was born in Angleur, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Victor Hubino ...
and
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''.
Life
Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...
, who quickly became a talented writer. Soon, Troisfontaines proposed that the two work together. They first collaborated on ''L'Agonie du
Bismark'' (''The Agony of the Bismark''), a war account serialized in ''
Spirou'' magazine in 1946.
Seeing the success of American pilot strips, Troisfontaines suggested to Hubinon and Charlier that they should produce a series about an American pilot just as well and even came up with the name Buck Danny. Keeping in line with their war account stories, the two came up with a semi-historical account of a young engineer working in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
at the beginning of the war. Firsthand witnessing the
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
, Buck Danny enlists in the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
as a pilot and has a series of adventures serving on the aircraft carrier against the backdrop of the
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
. The story was serialized in weekly installments in ''
Spirou'' magazine from January 2, 1947, onwards.
After the story ran its course, it was gathered and published in book form in 1948. By that time Hubinon and Charlier were already working on a second part, keeping the same formula but this time having Buck Danny live through his adventures against the
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...
.
The storyline of these two albums consists of a string of smaller adventures of Buck Danny as a pilot and the real life events of the
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
and the
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...
. In the fictionalized adventures, Buck Danny flies attack missions, engages in dogfights, gets shot down, escapes, returns to his carrier in a stolen Japanese plane and even rescues a hostage. At the end of each album, Buck Danny takes a back seat as his carrier readies for battle and in the description of the historical battle, individual historical pilots, commanders and raids are described in detail. As to the artwork, the pages are laid out classically in 4 'strips' of 3 to 4 panels each, although on occasion, two strips combine to a large shot. Panels often include inserts describing aircraft, carrier procedures, historical figures or maps of the area.
Two years is an incredibly short span to draw two 40-page albums and so, although officially the series was owned by
Victor Hubinon
Victor Hubinon (26 April 1924 – 8 January 1979) was a Belgian comic-book artist, best known for the series ''Buck Danny'' and ''Redbeard''.
Biography
Victor Hubinon was born in Angleur, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Victor Hubino ...
and
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''.
Life
Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...
, everyone at 'World Press' contributed to the albums in various degrees. As a consequence, the artwork is sometimes sketchy and the realism, especially in the aircraft depicted is certainly not up to par with later albums.
While working on the first ''Buck Danny'' albums, they also produced ''Tarawa Atoll Sanglant'' ('Tarawa, Bloody Atoll'), a historical account published in Belgium from the end of 1948 to the end of 1949 in the bi-weekly magazine ''Moustique''. Like the Bismark account, this story retells the
Battle of Tarawa
The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, an ...
in the Pacific Campaign.
(The story was reprinted in ''Spirou'' in 1980 and subsequently republished in two 40-page books as a part of the ''Buck Danny'' series.)
Flying Tigers and desert pirates: 1950–1953
The series took a next step in 1950 with the publication of ''La revanche des fils du ciel'' (''Revenge of the Sons of the Sky'') in which Buck Danny is sent to China to become a commander for the
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
. In China Buck meets up with his teammates Tumbler and Tuckson and by the end of the first Chinese adventure, the three become an inseparable team.
During 1951 and 1952, three more adventures follow in which Buck and his companions team up with Susan Holmes, an army nurse who'd previously had a small role in one of the adventures of the ''Midway'' album. During a Japanese attack on their city, the trio and Holmes are separated from their base and over the next albums they are chased all through Asia by the traitor Mo Choung Young on behalf of a semi-fictional
Black Dragon Society
The , or the Amur River Society, was a prominent paramilitary, ultranationalist group in Japan.
History
The ''Kokuryūkai'' was founded in 1901 by martial artist Uchida Ryohei as a successor to his mentor Mitsuru Tōyama's ''Gen'yōsha''. It ...
(which owes more to American pulp fiction than to historical accuracy).
Again in 1952 and 1953, three more adventures followed. The war having ended,
Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson reunite and go to fly for a dubious airline in the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
. Quickly they are involved in a hornets' nest of gun-runners, opium smugglers and palace revolutions.
Although playing in completely different times and countries, the 'Black Dragon' and 'Desert Pirates' cycles are unique in that they no longer have a historic event as an anchor and instead focus on a series of adventures, often having nothing to do with flying at all. The adventures follow the yarn of a classic US adventure comic of that time and similarities with the adventures of
Steve Canyon
''Steve Canyon'' is an American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, '' Terry and the Pirates'', ''Steve Canyon'' ran from January 13, 1947, until June 4, 1988. It ...
abound. This becomes obvious in the character of
Susan Holmes
Susan Elizabeth Holmes-McKagan (born May 5, 1972) is an American model, television personality, and fashion designer. She is also known as the public face and founder of her business venture Susan Holmes Swimwear. According to an interview by ...
who tagged along in the entire 'Asian' adventure just so she could be the stereotypical
Damsel in distress
The damsel in distress is a recurring narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has either been kidnapped or placed in general peril. Kinship, love, or lust (or a combination of those) gives the male protagonist the motiv ...
, having to be rescued again and again. Although the 'Demobilized' story arc featured more flying, readers were still unsatisfied with the story and demanded more aircraft and less scheming villains.
The two story arcs were drawn at a very rapid pace, seven albums in barely four years, and the level of detail is far less than in the later albums. Especially the secondary characters sometimes appear sketchy and unfinished. Yet, inconsistencies in the storylines and drawings are kept to a minimum. Improbable plot twists do however occur more than once and it is clear that the series were not only drawn, but also written week by week with little thought to layout in books and chapters, but rather as a series of adventurous situations.
The Cold War by Hubinon and Charlier 1954–1979
Still in 1953, Buck Danny returned to flying in his 10th album ''Pilotes d'essai'' (''Test Pilots''). Here the trio returns to the States and promptly re-enlists as test pilots for the air force. This album is buzzing with aircraft and flying feats and apparently here Charlier and Hubinon found their winning formula because at the end of the album the trio is placed back on active duty and promptly sent to fight the war in
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
. The Korean adventure only lasted two albums, both written in 1954, because the censorship imposed by French authorities forbade mention of the war in Korea,
[J-M Charlier & V Hubinon, The Korean War (1984). p. 100.] a problem that would also prevent any mention of the later war in Vietnam, but the next year Buck Danny was back again, this time transferred back to the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
and serving as squadron commander on an aircraft carrier.
From there on the series would continue to play in 'the present' and Danny would continue to serve in the navy for the next 25 years and 26 albums. Keeping with the latest technology, Danny (and his friends Tumbler and Tuckson) would serve on the latest aircraft carriers and fly the latest Navy
jet fighter
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domination o ...
s and from here on aircraft carriers and navy jets would play an important part in the adventures.
Although the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
is explicitly used as a setting in the 1954 albums, Buck Danny would not participate in any more real war or conflict until
Francis Bergèse took over the scenarios. Instead many of the adventures played either on the open sea or on U.S. soil. When the action takes Buck Danny and his team abroad, the adventures either play in an unnamed country, or in a fictitious state as the
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
n countries of 'Viet-Tan' and 'Malakka' or the
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
n dictator state of 'Managuay'
Similarly, although playing in the midst of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
after Korea, Buck Danny never directly engaged either the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
nor any of the
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
states. Charlier rightly felt that his readers wanted their hero in far-away adventurous-sounding places, not their own backyard. Buck Danny never battled the Soviet Bloc military either: the adversaries of the Cold War Years were invariably criminal organizations, most of them employing or headed by
Lady X. Even the occasional spy rings that appear do not steal military secrets out of duty or ideology; their aim is invariably to sell them to the highest bidder. When (usually fictional) foreign countries are involved, they are either headed by megalomaniacal small-time dictators, or by a puppet government installed to give credibility to the pirates or drug lords financing them.
The pace of the series was still furious (30 albums in 25 years) and could only be achieved by continuously turning out one page a week year round. On top of that, from 1959 to 1979, Hubinon and Charlier also made the pirate strip
Barbe Rouge ('Redbeard') for the new
Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''
Pilote
Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0
''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...
''. The workload was enormous, especially for Hubinon, who did all the drawing. Still, the albums quickly came to display the high level of realism that would be a trademark of the series ever since. And somehow Hubinon still found time to write and draw stories on his own. Just before his death, he published one album of the pirate series ''La Mouette'' (''The Seagull'') which he both drew and scripted.
In terms of layout, one page still consisted of four strips of panels, but the ordening of the panels became more loose. Actually, the layout was that of two half-pages. In most cases, each half-page would display two strips of equal size, but variations in strip height were possible and wide-shots taking up the whole half-page were not unheard of. The occasional 'instructional' panel with aircraft stats disappeared, but maps or schematics still showed up from time to time.
Victor Hubinon died in 1979, shortly after finishing album 39 and for several years it looked as if with the death of the artist, after 32 years, the series had ended for good.
Charlier and Bergèse, 1982–1989
On January 8, 1979, while working on his second book for 'La Mouette' Victor Hubinon died at his drawing table following a heart attack. Luckily, the last Buck Danny album was also the finishing album of a three-part story arc. Thus, there were no loose ends left and no half-finished stories to take care of.
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''.
Life
Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...
instead devoted his time to finishing his and Hubinon's other big series, Redbeard, which he continued with
Jijé
Joseph Gillain (), better known by his pen name Jijé (; 13 January 1914 – 19 June 1980), was a Belgian comics artist, best known for being a seminal artist on the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' strip (and for having introduced the Fantasio character) a ...
as artist.
However Jijé himself died in 1980 and Charlier openly declared that he would end the series ''Redbeard'' as he knew no one with the skills of Jijé and Hubinon to do the series justice. This however only made him more determined to look for an artist to take over Buck Danny. He finally found an artist in the person of
Francis Bergèse, who had previously drawn a string of aircraft-related strips with mixed success and openly admitted he started drawing comics because he grew up reading Buck Danny. Furthermore, Bergèse could imitate Hubinon's drawing style almost perfectly.
So in 1982, after almost 4 years of inactivity, Buck Danny returned with
an ambitious 3-album story: ''Mission Apocalypse'', ''Les Pilotes de l'enfer'' and ''Le Feu du ciel'', (Translated and published in English by Amusement Int (USA) in 1988 as ''Mission Apocalypse'', ''The Pilots From Hell'' and ''Fire From Heaven''). Drawing the albums took 4 years with the last album only appearing in 1986. However, this slower pace only enabled Bergese to make his drawings more detailed and his work is au par with that of Hubinon in every aspect.
Bergèse and Charlier made one more album, ''Les Agresseurs'' (the
Aggressors) in 1988 and started work on another two-album story afterwards. It looked like with his new artist, Buck Danny was back and up to speed again when on July 10, 1989, Charlier himself died. At that time, Bergese had drawn the first 16 pages of what would have been Buck Danny's 45th album, ''Les Oiseaux noirs'', (''The Blackbirds''). Although Charlier left behind scenario directions for all but the last pages of this book, it was decided that, with no clue on the second album and the conclusion of the story, work on Buck Danny would be stopped, this time for good. The 16-pages already drawn and Charlier's directions surviving directions for the next pages have since appeared in a number of specials, but are no part of the official Buck Danny
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western can ...
.
As to graphics, the 4 albums of the Bergèse-Charlier team fit in seamlessly with the earlier albums drawn by Hubinon. As an artist, Bergèse copied Hubinon's style perfectly and the ships and planes drawn radiate the same level of technical realism. Bergèse even stayed true to the layout of the pages in four strips with the occasional half-page
wide shot
In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surrou ...
. The only difference is that with Hubinon the characters could sometimes come over as wooden or stiff whereas Bergese's persons seem more lifelike. Especially their clothes seem to fit them more loosely and display an occasional wrinkle.
In terms of plot, the albums follow the typical cold war Buck Danny layout of either a mysterious criminal organization threatening world peace (in the Mission Apocalypse albums a terrorist organization steals two nuclear bombs to wipe out a summit of world leaders), international espionage aimed at America's military secrets (in ''The Aggressors'' a Russian defector may not be what he seems to be) and cold war U.S. air power (in ''The Blackbirds'' Buck is assigned a covert mission on a
U-2 spyplane).
There are changes however: Although the first scenes of ''Mission Apocalypse'' still play in the fictional Central-American state of ''Managuay'', for the rest of the stories, cities and nations are openly called by name: The two stolen F14 fighters are flown by renegade pilots from Iran hired by Lady X, the summit the terrorists want to bomb is the real-life
North–South Summit
The North–South Summit, officially the International Meeting on Cooperation and Development, was an international summit held in Cancun, Mexico from 22 to 23 October 1981. The summit was attended by representatives of 22 countries from 5 cont ...
at
Cancun,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and when
marooned Marooned may refer to:
* Marooning, the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area
Film and television
* ''Marooned'' (1933 film), a British drama film
* ''Marooned'' (1969 film), an American science-fiction film
* ''Marooned ...
on a Caribbean islet, Buck and Sony are rescued by a destroyer that is openly Cuban. (With Hubinon, the ship would be from a fictional Caribbean state). Furthermore, where in earlier albums, 'terrorists' were solely motivated by greed or revenge, the terrorists of the 'Apocalypse' story have a distinct left wing radical ideology reminiscent of the
Baader Meinhoff or
Red Brigade groups. Also, where former albums just make allusions to 'Washington'; or 'the President', here an accurately drawn
President Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
is addressed by name as he gives out orders firsthand.
The new realism continues in the next albums: In ''The Aggressors'', for the first time in his career, Buck Danny openly enters a dogfight with a Russian fighter plane... and gets outmaneuvered. Later the pilot of that plane resurfaces as a defector and becomes Buck Danny's teammate while training for the Air Force's
Aggressor Squadron
An aggressor squadron or adversary squadron (in the US Navy and USMC) is a squadron that is trained to act as an opposing force in military wargames. Aggressor squadrons use enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures to give a realistic simulatio ...
. He turns out to be a double agent in a plot orchestrated no longer by a group of criminals but by the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
itself. In ''The Blackbirds'' it is openly stated that the target of Buck Danny's spy mission is a nuclear facility near
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
. All in all, with the 'new' Buck Danny scenarist Charlier now displays a level of directness that would have been unthinkable in previous albums.
After Charlier: Bergèse and De Douhet, 1996
When Charlier died in 1989, the series lost not only its author, but also the last person of its original team and it seemed certain that with both Charlier and Hubinon, Buck Danny had died as well. Francis Bergèse was still around, but as good as he was an illustrator, he was no writer, especially not of the skill level expected for the Buck Danny series.
By now however, at the age of 48 Bergèse had found his calling in drawing aviation comics, so in 1990 he took on a comic book adaptation of "that other famous aviation ace"
Biggles
James Bigglesworth, nicknamed "Biggles", is a fictional pilot and adventurer, the title character and hero of the ''Biggles'' series of adventure books, written for young readers by W. E. Johns (1893–1968). Biggles made his first appearance ...
for ''
Tintin
Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to:
''The Adventures of Tintin''
* ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series
** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...
'' magazine. At that time, the 'Biggles' adventure books by
W. E. Johns
William Earl Johns (5 February 189321 June 1968) was an English First World War pilot, and writer of adventure stories, usually written under the pen name Capt. W. E. Johns: best known for creating the fictional air-adventurer ''Biggles''.
Ear ...
were well known in Belgium and France, but as Johns had died in 1968, no new material meant no younger fans.
For Bergèse, the new strip meant a complete departure from his Buck Danny work. for starters, there was the artwork: The series playing during and shortly after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
with a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
flying ace as a hero, the aircraft of his choice now were
Spitfires
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
painted in colorful green and brown camouflage schemes compared to the dull navy blue and navy gray of the Buck Danny aircraft. Eventually, Bergèse played into this by painting the whole artwork in more vibrant, almost aquarel-like colors, giving the panels a look and feel reminiscent of early 1940s
color photographs
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...
.
More importantly, as the series was based on a series of books written on average 45 years ago, there were no detailed instructions on panel-to-panel layout like the ones Charlier provided for the Buck Danny albums. Bergèse had to do most of the writing himself, starting with the selection of suitable adventures up to the page-by-page layout. As a result, with every album, Bergèse became more and more skilled as a scenarist himself.
By that time however
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgium, Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines.
Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic comics album, albums and magazines. It is ...
was yearning to remake the commercial success of Buck Danny, and so in 1995, through intermediary of Charlier's son Philippe, the documentary maker
Jacques de Douhet was asked to supply some outlines for a possible Buck Danny scenario. One of the ideas caught on and so in 1995, Dupuis asked Bergese back and he and de Douhet teamed up for Buck Danny album 45: ''Les Secrets de la Mer Noire'' (''The Secrets of the Black Sea'').
The album is at the same time a complete departure from the Charlier-Hubinon series as well as a logical development of their work: Playing in the new political realities of the 1990s, in particular the collapse of the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
and the
fall of the Iron Curtain
The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...
: Set in 1991, after Buck Danny 'loses' his aircraft carrier in a
war game
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
exercise, he is sent on a diplomatic mission to be an observer on the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's latest aircraft carrier, the
Admiral Kuznetsov and arrives there just in time to be a pawn in the attempted
1991 August Coup
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, 1991 Russian presidential election, elected as Russia's first President of Russia, president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated ...
.
For the artwork, Bergèse immediately took over from where he had left off in 1989 and comparing the new album 45 with album 44, it is hard to tell the difference. There are however subtle details such as the air battle over the Ukraine, which plays out against the backdrop of a deep blue night sky illuminated by a full moon. This poetic accent makes the battle appear almost dreamlike, something more fit for the Biggles albums than for Hubinon's hard technical edge. There is enough technical detail however in the realistic depiction of the various Soviet aircraft, helicopters and ships, especially the Kuznetsov and the
A-90 Orlyonok
The A-90 ''Orlyonok'' (Russian: Орлёнок, English: "Eaglet") is a Soviet ''ekranoplan'' that was designed by Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev of the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau.
The A-90 uses ground effect to fly a few meters above ...
ekranoplan
A ground-effect vehicle (GEV), also called a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG), ground-effect craft, wingship, flarecraft or ekranoplan (russian: экранопла́н – "screenglider"), is a vehicle that is able to move over the surface by gainin ...
which plays a key role in the later part of the adventure. Whereas the images are a delight, the story itself has its problems: Although it starts off with a bang and has several tong-in-cheek references to the 'classic' Buck Danny adventures (Buck's wingman on the Kuznetsov is a
Volga German
The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...
named Tumbler who later turns out to be a traitor), the story fizzles toward the end. Various secondary personages and side plots are introduced in the first part only to be forgotten later on and after Buck Danny is saved, the final conclusion of the big event, the August 1991 coup is only mentioned in one panel.
Nevertheless, the 'new' Buck Danny series had his potentials, and expectations were high for a second de Douhet/Bergèse album, a
synopsis for which was already written. However, in 1996, de Douhet announced that he would retire from comic book writing for 'personal reasons' and once again Buck Danny was without an author.
De Douhet died on August 19, 2009.
Francis Bergèse, 1996–2008
In 1996, the series was back where it was in 1989: A good formula, a superb artist, but no writer. However, whereas in 1989 Francis Bergèse clearly lacked the knowledge to produce a script that would live up to Charlier's standard, he since gained experience as a writer working on the
Biggles
James Bigglesworth, nicknamed "Biggles", is a fictional pilot and adventurer, the title character and hero of the ''Biggles'' series of adventure books, written for young readers by W. E. Johns (1893–1968). Biggles made his first appearance ...
albums.
Bergèse only made three Biggles comic books from 1990 until 1993, when he started working on Buck Danny again. All three were adaptations of the
Biggles
James Bigglesworth, nicknamed "Biggles", is a fictional pilot and adventurer, the title character and hero of the ''Biggles'' series of adventure books, written for young readers by W. E. Johns (1893–1968). Biggles made his first appearance ...
adventures written by
W. E. Johns
William Earl Johns (5 February 189321 June 1968) was an English First World War pilot, and writer of adventure stories, usually written under the pen name Capt. W. E. Johns: best known for creating the fictional air-adventurer ''Biggles''.
Ear ...
between 1932 and 1968, slavishly following the plot of the books. This even went so far that in the second album ''The Pirates of the South Pole'' Bergèse wrote a foreword where he apologized for having to draw
polar bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
s in the Antarctic because the original book mentioned them. In 1994 however, while Bergèse was working on Buck Danny,
Lombard gave the series to author
Michel Oleffe
Michel may refer to:
* Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name)
* Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers)
* Míchel (footballer, born 1963), S ...
and artist
Eric Loutte. In a radical departure to the series Oleffe produced ''The Flight of the Wallenstein'', an adventure written entirely by himself, without any reference to W. E. Johns, other than the names of the characters.
After Buck Danny no.45, Bergèse returned to Biggles for two more albums: ''Squadron Biggles'' was a collection of short stories reaped from different books of W. E. Johns, for ''The Last Zeppelin'' he wrote his own scenario keeping the original characters. So when de Douhet departed as a writer for Buck Danny, Bergèse felt that he was ready to take over the writing part as well as the drawing and in 1996 he returned to
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgium, Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines.
Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic comics album, albums and magazines. It is ...
to draw and write Buck Danny no.46.
As between 1989 and 1994, by 1996 the world had changed again and so Buck Danny's next album ''L'escadrille fantôme'' / ''Ghost Squadron'' plays against the backdrop of the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
, in particular the siege of
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
. The theme was nothing but controversial: Frustrated by being forbidden to respond to obvious crimes committed by
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
n forces, the U.S. sets up a secret squadron of unmarked
F 16 jets to combat
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
n
warlord
A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...
s.... Only to find out that 'the other side' operates a similar squadron of
Mig 29
The Mikoyan MiG-29 (russian: Микоян МиГ-29; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the ...
jet fighters. In spite of this controversy, the album was well received and Bergèse followed up with a two-album adventure: ''Zone interdite'' and ''Tonnerre sur la cordillère'' (''Restricted zone'' and ''Thunder over the Cordillera'') in which Buck and his friends revisit the fictional country of Managuay. Although the story was less controversial: the fight against
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
traffickers, it still showed the U.S maintaining an uneasy alliance with a local dictator and dared to give a little background on WHY so many farmers in Managuay chose to cultivate
coca
Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine.
The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, Al ...
rather than food crops. In a plot twist Charlier would be proud of however the real culprit is an international ring of criminals run – again – by Lady X. Unlike Charlier, this time they are in cahoots with criminal elements on the Navy aircraft carrier who use their supply aircraft to fly the drugs from Managuay to the US.
In 'Ghost Squadron', Bergèse also introduced a new recurring character: the female Navy pilot: Cindy McPherson. Cindy resurfaced in the Managuay albums as a pilot in the same transport squadron of the traffickers and played an important part in unmasking the plot. She has cameos and minor roles in all of the following adventures and could be considered the fourth 'man' on the team in a way Susan Holmes was in the 'Black Dragon' adventures. However even as Cindy will occasionally get into trouble and have to be rescued by Buck, she is an accomplished pilot and definitely capable of taking care of herself.
After the Managuay adventure four more albums followed, each a closed adventure and each again situated against the backdrop of real-life events and so from 2000 to 2008 Buck and his friends have to rescue a downed pilot from South Korea, uncover sabotage and political power play in the
F22 testing program, uncover
illegal mining
Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission, in particular in absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits.
Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the cas ...
in the Antarctic and find a
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
agent investigating a ring of
gun-runners in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
.
Apart from skirting today's hot-button topics and naming states and events by name, something that would be absolutely
taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
in a scenario by
Jean-Michel Charlier
Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''.
Life
Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...
, there are several other differences between the two authors: Under Bergèse, both Buck Danny and Jerry Tumbler seem to mellow a bit and on several occasions Buck actually shows genuine caring, if not fatherly, feelings for Cindy McPherson. The most important change is however in the behavior of Sonny Tuckson who more than often reacts with outrage to perceived injustice. In this he has become the inner voice of Bergèse himself: When Sony asks in 'Ghost Squadron' "Why isn't the world doing anything?" it is Bergese's question to the reader just as much as it is Sonny's question to Buck.
7 albums between 1996 and 2008 make for a bit less than two years per album. About twice as long as Charlier and Hubinon took. This shows in the artwork: planes, ships and other technical details are as realistic as ever and the characters, especially Buck, do not only seem to be realistically drawn but also lifelike, compared to the sometimes wooden face and straight-as-a-rod postures drawn by Hubinon.
In 2008, after writing his 12th Buck Danny album, (''Porté disparu'' / ''Reported Missing'') the 52nd in the series), Francis Bergèse, now 67 announced his retirement.
Winis & Zumbiehl 2013-
In May 2010 it was announced that the Buck Danny series will continue with an all new team of writer Frédéric Zumbiehl and artist Fabrice Lamy. Lamy is known up to now for drawing the realistic
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
comic strip Colt Walker while Zumbiehl bursted into the scene in 2007 with the one-shot album ''Team Rafale'': a yarn about industrial espionage and economic warfare surrounding the
Rafale fighter. In lay-out, ''Rafale'' closely follows the later Bergese albums with their combination of flying, crime and politics and, apart of the flying taking part in a French plane for the French military, similarity between this album and Buck Danny is abound.
As per December 2013 publisher Dupuis announced that album no. 53 was made available in Belgium and the Netherlands.
It is written by Frederic Zumbiehl and artist is Francis Winis, who apparently has taken over from Lamy. Reasons for this are unknown.
Realism
Except for smaller oversights – for example, the early WWII episodes use "Zero" as a generic term for all manners of Japanese fighter aircraft rather than the Mitsubishi
A6M Zero
The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 19 ...
– the series aims to depict aircraft very realistically, and often includes the most recent technological developments, such as
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...
(Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft, stealth aircraft, 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 also 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
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
and the
War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
*Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...
. More often, Charlier simply invented entire countries, thus allowing him to take greater liberties with the story. Since the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, 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 terms, such as
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
or
Radio direction finding
Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio station ...
. For this the authors often use separate texts, diagrams, drawings and schemes. Novels also often contain technical or historical notes, and at other times, English aviator jargon (such as "Scramble" or "Overshoot") is translated into French for the readers' benefit.
Although in the course of 60 years of stories Buck Danny is promoted from simple pilot to squadron leader, captain and colonel (Tumbler is promoted to major after ''Fire From Heaven'' while Tuckson seems to stay captain forever since his promotion in ''S.O.S. Flying Saucers''!) the characters themselves never seem to age. From the first album on, Hubinon always drew Buck Danny with a realistic, weathered face and a military crew cut for his blond hair. Like this his visible age has always been somewhere between 25 and 49. Although Bergèse, as a scenarist makes 'his' Buck Danny appear more grizzled and war-weary, as an artist, he mostly kept to Buck Danny's original look, although in the latest albums the lines on his face appear a bit deeper. Likewise his companions Tumbler and Tuckson have kept their same look throughout the series. So Tumbler appears just as weathered ageless as Buck Danny, with Sonny Tuckson's round face and distinctive flock of red hair his not aging becomes apparent. This cannot be said of Lady X, Buck biggest antagonist in many albums, who although still as beautiful as vicious as ever also gets some more lines in her face.
Handling of racial themes
In the series of three episodes following World War II that finds the heroes in the Middle East, one of the negative characters is Jewish, named "Bronstein", and depicted in a manner reminiscent of the anti-semitic strips of the World War II era. It is only in the 1950s that youth commissions, notably in France, insisted on the non-stereotyping of characters. By the 1960s, the series in fact alluded to racial tensions in the US as part of its story arcs, with Buck Danny taking a strong stance against discrimination and racism, such as in the album ''Les Anges bleus'' (''The Blue Angels'').
Characters
Main characters
After
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
Buck Danny enlists in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, and soon finds his
sidekick
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany.
Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, ...
s Jerry 'Tumb' Tumbler and Sonny Tuckson, with the three quickly becoming inseparable friends. Together, they participate in many dangerous missions, their adventures taking them all over the world. In missions ranging from the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
in the 1950s to the
Balkan War
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defea ...
in 1996, they prove themselves as true defenders of the United States of America.
* Colonel Buck Danny: Buck Danny is the title character, and his rank advances fastest throughout the series (however, he never attains a rank higher than
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
, 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, brave but level-headed, tough but easily approachable, an unquestioned patriot, and loyal to a fault. In the comics, Danny is described many times as "the best pilot in the Navy."
* Captain 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 nevertheless an excellent pilot, and has proven himself to be extremely capable in combat situations. In recent books, he is known to decorate his planes by painting a skull and crossbones on the tail. He refers to himself as the 'Texan Pirate'. 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 friend in danger.
* Major Jerry "Tumb" Tumbler: Tumbler is the least well developed of the characters, and also the most serious, cynical and suspicious of the three heroes. Chain smoking, 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 the Japanese at great risk to his own; they, along with Sonny, have been best friends ever since. In later albums like ''Ghost Squadron'' his contribution becomes more elaborated.
Antagonists
* Lady X (Jane Hamilton): first showing up in ''Northern Menace'', Lady X is the heroes' only recurring antagonist. She is a world-class pilot who was once "the fastest woman in the world," and is today a beautiful, mysterious and unscrupulous
mercenary
A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...
. She often works as a spy or secret agent, gathering information or running sabotage operations for the highest bidder (including foreign powers,
the Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
, 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/black hair in the later volumes, and is always shown as having eyes of "blue steel." Her motives for her behaviour are unclear, be it money, fame or even emotions. For sure, Lady X hates Buck's guts and would happily see him dismissed from the Navy as soon as possible. Nevertheless, some remarks by her and Buck in ''Buck Danny against Lady X'' and ''Mission Apocalypse'' point out she and Buck seem to know each other and share some common history of hatred and even love. This is also shown in ''No-Fly Zone'' where Lady X kisses Buck up-front upon which Sonny asks him: "How was it?" Buck answers: "Scary." Jean-Michel Charlier based her on famous German test pilot
Hanna Reitsch
Hanna Reitsch (29 March 1912 – 24 August 1979) was a German aviator and test pilot. Along with Melitta von Stauffenberg, she flight tested many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II and received many honors. Reitsch was amon ...
.
* 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
The , or the Amur River Society, was a prominent paramilitary, ultranationalist group in Japan.
History
The ''Kokuryūkai'' was founded in 1901 by martial artist Uchida Ryohei as a successor to his mentor Mitsuru Tōyama's ''Gen'yōsha''. It ...
, whose goal is to create a
pan-Asian empire led by Japan and free of Western influence. His main objective in the story 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.
Recurring characters
* Lieutenant Commander Slim Holden: a Navy fighter pilot and
TOPGUN
The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as Top Gun (stylized as TOPGUN), teaches fighter and strike tactics and techniques to selected naval aviators and naval flight officers, wh ...
strike fighter tactics instructor who has a long history with the three main characters. Although as good a pilot as Danny, Tumbler or Tuckson, Holden's impulsiveness, fondness for the bottle, 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. Based on his personality, Slim is comparable to Tom Cruise's character Maverick from the movie
Top Gun
''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an a ...
.
* Admiral Hal Walker: an admiral in the U.S. Navy, and the trio's direct superior since the "Mission Apocalypse" story arc, as captain of the carrier
USS ''Eisenhower'', where the core trio is often stationed on board. Sometimes impulsive and easily displeased, especially when Sonny Tuckson is involved. His most memorable attribute is his dog, O'Connor, who lives on board with him and quickly became Sonny's worst nightmare.
* O’Connor the dog (sometimes spelt O’Conner) is Admiral Walker's pet and a mascot for the carrier USS Eisenhower. He is very fond of Captain Tuckson, much to the Admiral's displeasure. O’Conner acts like a sort of ‘Marmaduke’ - he is cherished by his owner and lives to cause trouble for Tuckson. In Ghost Squadron he tags along with Sonny when he is transferred to a top secret land-based flying outfit. In ''Mystery in Antarctica'', Buck and Tumbler play a cruel prank on him wherein they fake O’Conner's death by his hand; Sonny soon has nightmares of getting put to death by an enraged Admiral.
* Lieutenant Cindy McPherson: the first female 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 very attractive and a frequent target for Sonny Tuckson's advances.
* General C. Scott: a general in the U.S. Air Force, often in charge of classified and extremely delicate operations. He first appears in ''Ghost Squadron'', where he and Danny command an off-the-books fighter unit in the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
, 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.
Bibliography
As originally published
Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon
Jean-Michel Charlier and Francis Bergèse
= 70th Anniversary edition
=
16 pages were written for ''Les Oiseaux Noirs'' before Charlier's death. The script was finished by Fréderic Zumbiehl and Patrice Buendia, and the artwork was finished by Bergèse. The second album was drawn by Andre Le Bras. The two were released as a 70th Anniversary edition in 2017.
Jacques De Douhet and Francis Bergèse
Francis Bergèse
Frédéric Zumbiehl and Francis Winis
Frédéric Zumbiehl and Gil Formosa
Spin-off series
In 2013,
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgium, Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines.
Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic comics album, albums and magazines. It is ...
created a
spin-off series, ‘Buck Danny Classic’, drawn in the original style, and focussing on the period covered in the first books, with the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
for the first two volumes, the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
for the next two volumes, then the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
for the last two. As of September 2020, the series has 6 albums.
Frédéric Zumbiehl and Jean-Michel Arroyo
Frédéric Marniquet, Frédéric Zumbiehl, and Jean-Michel Arroyo
New edition albums
Beginning in 1983, in the line of the ''New'' "Buck Danny" novels by Charlier and Bergèse, Publisher
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgium, Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines.
Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic comics album, albums and magazines. It is ...
took it upon them to re-issue the previous albums in a ''collectors edition'' under the new format "Tout Buck Danny" ('Everything Buck Danny' or 'The complete Buck Danny'). These differed from the original albums still in print as each volume being a solid hardcover book with three or four of the original novels plus some additional material. With most of the Buck Danny stories stretching out over two or even three albums, this enabled the reader to have a complete adventure in one novel. Yet the addition of magazine artwork, promotional material and other work made it clear that this editions were aimed at the elder collector. During the hiatus years after the death of Charlier, this series continued with the accumulated material and its success no doubt prompted Dupuis to press Bergèse into continuing the series. At present, with 'complete' album 16 covering the 'loose' albums 49, 50 and 51, the 'complete' books have caught up with the loose album series.
*''La Guerre du Pacifique, première partie (
War in the Pacific, Part 1)''.
:Covers the albums 1) 2) and 3) and Charlier and Hubinon's first collaboration: The Agony of the Bismark
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)''.
:Covers the albums 4) 5) and 6)
Danny and Tuckson are ordered to fly to the Allied headquarters in Rangoon and bring 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, Chinese pirates and various traitors to bring the plans back to the Flying Tigers.
*''Les Aviateurs Démobilisés (
Pilots Demobilized)''.
:Covers the albums 7) 8) and 9)
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, smuggle and the rush for oil.
*''La Guerre de Corée (
The Korean War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Korean War
, partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict
, image = Korean War Montage 2.png
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
)''.
:Covers the albums 10) 11) and 12) plus three short stories written for the magazine ''Sprint''
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
drones against which Danny is ordered to find a response.
*''Pilotes de Porte-avions (
Aircraft carrier pilots)''.
:Covers the albums 13) 14) and 15)
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)''.
:Covers the albums 16) 17) 18) and 19) plus three parodies by Hubinon
Two story arcs. In the first, Danny and his wingmen provide 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 return 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)''.
:Covers the albums 20) 21) 22) and 23) plus a previously unpublished short story
Two story arcs. In the first, Danny and his wingmen are testing new prototypes with
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...
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)''.
:Covers the albums 24) 25) and 31) plus a previously unpublished short story
Danny and his wingmen test two new aircraft for the Navy, first the brand-new X-13 (based on the
A-5 Vigilante
The North American A-5 Vigilante was an American carrier-based supersonic bomber designed and built by North American Aviation (NAA) for the United States Navy. Prior to 1962 unification of Navy and Air Force designations, it was designated t ...
), then the
X-15
The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed ...
. They must overcome rivalries within their own squadron, and root out several saboteurs hired by foreign powers and disgruntled aircraft constructors.
*''Le Retour des Tigres Volants (
Return of the Flying Tigers)''.
:Covers the albums 26) 27) and 28) plus a short parody
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)''.
:Covers the albums 29) 30) 32) and 33)
One story arc and two stand-alone novels. In the story arc, Danny and his wingmen try to recover a
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
space capsule
A space capsule is an often-crewed spacecraft that uses a blunt-body reentry capsule to reenter the Earth's atmosphere without wings. Capsules are distinguished from other satellites primarily by the ability to survive reentry and return a payl ...
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)''.
:Covers the albums 34) 35) 36) and 37) plus a previously unpublished short story
Two story arcs. In the first, the Navy loses a nuclear weapon over the Central American republic of Managuay; Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson are infiltrated among the rebels who recovered it to try to steal it back. In the second, they enter the
Blue Angels
The Blue Angels is a flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy. stunt team 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.
*''Mission Aérienne Anti-Mafia (
Aerial Anti-Mafia Mission)''.
:Covers the albums 38) 39) and 40) plus four short stories
Danny and his wingmen discover a Mafia-run
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
plantation in the
Bornean
Borean (also Boreal or Boralean)http://ehl.santafe.edu/EhlforWeb.pdf is a hypothetical linguistic macrofamily that encompasses almost all language families worldwide except those native to the Americas, Africa, Oceania, and the Andaman Islands. ...
nation of North Sarawak. 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 (Buck Danny), Nuclear Alert)''.
:Covers the albums 41) 42) and 43)
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 (Buck Danny), Enemies within)''.
:Covers the albums 44) and 45) plus the unfinished version of ''the Blackbirds''
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 Air Force Base, 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; some parties want him eliminated, while others want to use him for their own ends.
*''Zones de Combat (Combat Zones (Buck Danny), Combat zones)''.
:Covers the albums 46) 47) and 48) plus a special short story 'the Mascotte (Buck Danny), The Mascotte'
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
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...
. 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 (Buck Danny), Troubles in peacetime)''.
:Covers the albums 49) 50) and 51) and two unpublished short stories
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.
''Tanguy et Laverdure'' crossovers
Buck Danny crosses over several times with ''Tanguy et Laverdure''.
Buck is first shown on his own in the adventure ''Escadrille des Cigognes'', talking with two Australian pilots in the canteen of a USAF base in Europe. Buck and his sidekicks also appear in some of the illustrations for the adventure ''Canon Bleu Ne Rèpond'' ''Plus''. In this story the two French pilots meet Buck Danny and his US Navy squadron of Vought F-8 Crusader, F-8 Crusaders in the US base of Thule Air Base, Thule. Another tribute is also present at the end of the ''Tanguy Et Laverdure'' story ''Prisonniers Des Serbes'' where Erneste Laverdure is reading the Buck Danny album ''Les Agresseurs''.
Buck, Tumbler and especially Tuckson play an important role in the album ''Rencontre De Trois Type''. This adventure is placed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nellis AFB during one of the periodical "Red Flag" exercises on which the Rafale and Mirage 2000 of French Air Force are involved. Buck Danny and his friends help the French aviators to bring a dangerous group of saboteurs to justice who are carrying out attacks against French Rafale fighters, helped by an accomplice journalist, to disqualify the aircraft in the aviation newspapers. In this adventure Lady X also appears, involved in the plot against the French aircraft.
Buck, Tuckson and Tumbler are also shown in the second volume of the series ''Angel Wings (comics), Angel Wings''. They are depicted watching Jinx Falkenburg during her concert which many squadrons were invited to. The ''Angel Wings'' adventure is placed during WWII, in the Burma area, thus in the same period during which Buck Danny and friends are on duty with the Flying Tigers.
Conversely, there is also a cross-over with Tanguy and Laverdure appearing in one of Buck Danny's episodes: in the duet of albums (36 & 37) where Buck, Tumb and Sonny join the
Blue Angels
The Blue Angels is a flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy. and participate in an international exhibition; they compete against (amongst others) both Tanguy and Laverdure representing France, and Dan Cooper representing Canada.
In 2016 a special box set was published by
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgium, Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines.
Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic comics album, albums and magazines. It is ...
, Dargaud, and Zephyr, dedicated to Buck Danny and Tanguy et Laverdure. The box included the 'Buck Danny Classic' adventure ''Les Fantomes Du Soleil Levant'', the 'Tanguy et Laverdure Classic' adventure ''Menace Sur Mirage F1'' and a short black and white crossover (''La Rencontre'') between the two series placed in 1965, written and drawn by Zumbiehl, Buendia and Philippe.
English publications
Several albums have been translated into English, including ''Mission Apocalypse'' in 1988, and ''Mystery In The Antarctic'' (''Mystère en Antarctique'') in 2005.
Cinebook Ltd have been publishing English language translations of Buck Danny since 2009.
# ''Night of the Serpent'', 2009,
# ''The Secrets of the Black Sea'', 2010,
# ''Ghost Squadron'', 2012,
# ''No-Fly Zone,'' 2014,
# ''Thunder over the Cordilleras,'' 2015,
# ''Mystery in Antarctica'', 2016,
# ''Missing in Action'', 2017,
# ''Black Cobra'', 2018,
# ''Flight of the Spectre'', 2019,
# ''DEFCON One'', 2019,
# ''Vostok Isn't Answering'', 2020,
# ''Operation Vektor'', 2021,
# ''The Pact'', 2021,
See also
* Portal:Aviation, Aviation portal
* Tanguy et Laverdure
* Dan Cooper (comics)
Notes
References
''Buck Danny'' publications in ''Le journal de Spirou''BDoubliées
* de Syon, Guillaume. “Don’t read those ‘toons! French Comics, Government Censorship, and Perceptions of American Military Aviation,” in Contemporary French Civilization 28, 2 (2004): 274–292.https://www.academia.edu/2512916/Buck_Danny_Politics_of_a_French_aviation_comic_strip_about_a_US_pilot..._Pub._2004_in_CFC
External links
Weblog of the new authors (Zumbiehl and Winis)
English Publisher of ''Buck Danny'' - Cinebook''Buck Danny'' at its original publisher Dupuis/SpirouUS Military Aviation
''Buck Danny''Artelio
Unofficial website {{in lang, fr
Buck Danny,
1947 comics debuts
Adventure comics
Aviation comics
Belgian comics characters, Danny, Buck
Belgian comic strips
Belgian comics titles
Comics characters introduced in 1947, Danny, Buck
Drama comics
Fictional aviators, Danny, Buck
Fictional NASA people
Fictional United States Air Force personnel
Flying Tigers in fiction
Male characters in comics, Danny, Buck
Military of the United States in comics
War comics
Bosnian War in comics