Wings Comics #90

History

Wings Comics was produced by Fiction House — originally a pulp-magazine house whose aviation pulp 'Wings' dated back to 1928 — and by the time issue #90 appeared in February 1948, it was one of the publisher's 'Big 6' titles alongside Jumbo, Jungle, Planet, Fight, and Rangers Comics. Bob Lubbers, who had served in the U.S. Air Force Air Transport Command during World War II and then returned to Fiction House, was at the peak of his output for the house in 1947–1948, producing both covers and interior Captain Wings stories. The issue was edited by J.F. Byrne (Jack Byrne) and William R. Shelton, the standard editorial team for the title in this period. Interior scripts for the 'Jane Martin' feature carried the house name 'F. E. Lincoln,' a pseudonym whose true author remains unconfirmed.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published February 1948 by Fiction House; 52 pages at the standard dime cover price — still within the run of 52-page issues that continued through #106.
• Cover pencilled and inked entirely by Bob Lubbers (signed), depicting a restrained woman in peril — singled out by multiple commentary sources as arguably the most discussed of all Lubbers's Wings covers in the GGA context.
• Interior art and stories credited to Bob Lubbers, George Evans, Charles Sultan, Al Walker, John Celardo, and Maurice Whitman — a roster that represents the core Fiction House artistic stable of the late 1940s.
• Edited by J.F. Byrne (managing editor) and William R. Shelton (editor), with Thurman Scott as business manager, per Grand Comics Database records.
• Recurring anthology features present in this issue include Captain Wings, Jane Martin, Phantom Falcon, Suicide Smith, Greasemonkey Griffin, and Ghost Squadron — the full complement of the title's late-run lineup.
• The Grand Comics Database records multiple character introductions within the issue's stories: Jim Wright, Betty Wright, Mr. Atlantis, and Miss Areia in the Captain Wings story; Bobo, Stella Marr, and Spike in the Phantom Falcon story; and a Ghost Squadron story featuring Nazi spy characters.
• The cover was reprinted in black and white in Good Girl Art Quarterly (AC Comics, 1990 series) #[3], Winter 1991 — one of the earliest acknowledgments in print of the cover's GGA significance.
• Wings Comics ran for 124 issues total (1940–1954); #90 falls in the series' most celebrated artistic phase, roughly issues #85–100, when Lubbers was producing consecutive covers.

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