As we covered not long ago, Airboy was one of the most successful characters of the Golden Age of Comics. Not quite a super hero, more an adventurer aviator, the characters was perhaps better positioned to adjust to the changing tastes of the evolving audience, particularly in the postwar period. Created in 1942, AIRBOY COMICS (launched initially as AIR FIGHTERS COMICS) ran for an impressive 111 issues until finally closing up shop in 1953.
Over that time, the name of the strip became something of a misnomer, as, after the war years, Airboy was allowed to slowly age. By 1953, he was clearly a grown man. But the title of the series never waivered. From a strip whose focus had been on aerial combat during the war years, Airboy thereafter dabbled in horror and pathos and suspense, a broad mix of tones and styles, some of which were more successful than others.
The writer of this final Airboy adventure is unknown at this point, but the artwork was produced by Ernie Schroeder. Schroeder was a regular contributor to comic books from the mid-1940s through 1958. Most of his work was unsigned and thus uncredited.
There’s no sense within the story itself of this being the final Airboy adventure. It was just another day on the job for Davy Nelson. Decades later, however, after a small group of fans had kept Airboy’s legend alive by writing about the now-discontinued series, Eclipse Comics bought the rights and launched a new AIRBOY series in 1986, this time starring the original Airboy’s own young son.
Looks like some copy got edited out of that Zomboli balloon in the second panel on this page.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
I thought that the copyright had expired and Eclipse didn’t have to buy the rights.
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That was my impression as well.
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SO glad you talked about him. I loved the comics and over the pandemic we created some “sequels” as audio dramas and they did very well for us. We have Air Boy Junior (1 season), Jet Boy ( 1 season, season 2 coming soon) and Air Woman (2 seasons). Its been fun. they are on all audio platforms. I like that he was an adventurer aviator with flaws.
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Serendipitous coincidence. Yesterday I was going through some issues of that 1986 revival of the series. Dang. Now I want to re-read your “Not Brand Echh” piece on that…
I do miss Eclipse Comics.
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I don’t think I’ve run across Ernie Schroeder’s work before — it’s very good! Has a little bit of a Milt Caniff vibe, with the heavy shadows.
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A big cannon firing a shell containing people, I wonder if the 1902 film A Trip to the Moon ( Only 14 minutes long film ) inspired it?
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I think it’s more likely that both film and Airboy story were influenced by From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Verne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon
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Thank you for talking about this! Loved this comics so much that over the pandemic we did “sequels” as audio dramas and they have been successful for us. We did Air Boy Junior (one season), Jet Boy (one season , season 2 coming) and Air Woman (2 seasons). They are on all audio streaming platforms!
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One of the neat “meta” things in the Wild Cards novels is the Jet Boy character, an Air Boy-type character. His actions and some activity by Aliens lead to the release of the Wild Card Virus.
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