BUZ SAWYER SET The War In The Pacific & Sultry's Tiger

One of the most influential early newspaper comics pioneers, Roy Crane wrote and drew Wash Tubbs, which was one of the first adventure strips running nearly 20 years. In 1943 he left Wash to create Buz Sawyer, about a World War II navy fighter pilot in the Pacific theater. In the first two years' worth of the black-and-white daily episodes, Buz and his comic-relief sidekick, gunner Roscoe Sweeney, are shot down on a Japanese-occupied island. In another sequence, Buz flies a captured Japanese torpedo-bomber on a special mission to enemy territory. The strips are stronger on action than characterization. Buz's most prominent personality trait, other than eagerness to fly heedlessly into danger to fight for his country, is his irresistibility to the ladies; no matter where his missions take him, he finds a gorgeous dame he can charm into helping him. Sultry's Tiger- In these 1945-46 episodes, Buz and gunner Roscoe Sweeney crash-land at sea and are taken prisoner by a Japanese submarine crew. Later at home on leave, Buz faces girl trouble--soap operatics that Crane handles as adroitly as the battlefront action. Postwar, Buz becomes a troubleshooter for a global airline, enabling the derring-do to continue unabated. Crane is noted for his simple yet bold cartooning and distinctive use of doubletone shading, both in full evidence here. Out of Print. Condition: Very Fine.