Introducing 'I'm The Gun!'

 

From History of the DC Universe #1; art by George Perez & Karl Kesel

There's been a huge balloon-shaped hole in the comics' blogosphere & the 1st several posts on this blog aim to correct that!

As far as I know, there hasn't been any extensive bloggage covering the career of World War I American flying ace, Steve Savage - until now.  I've been itching to share my love of the DC Universe, and I've decided to start right at the top - or at least way up in the wild blue yonder.

'The Balloon Buster' made not many more than a dozen featured appearances in DC Comics from the mid-60s through the early 80s (and perhaps only 1 appearance of any significance since then), but I've always been fascinated by this character, who had one foot in the Western comics' tradition, and the other in the kind of modern war comics at which DC so excelled in the 1960s.

I'm positive that my introduction to the character came in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9, where Lt. Savage is given 5 panels to wonder at the chaos ripping across space & time, manifesting as some rose-tinted skies.  The look of the Balloon Buster was, of course, what drew my 9 year old self to the character.  Steve Savage's appearance was very distinctive, illustrating that line-straddling tradition of the character, by wearing basically a cowboy outfit with aviator goggles.

From Crisis on Infinite Earths #9; words by Marv Wolfman, art by George Perez & Jerry Ordway

It wasn't until much later that I had (financial) access to the character's earliest appearances and could see for myself that, though Savage wasn't given very many chances to shine, the stories he appeared in were top-notch comics produced by top-notch talent.  It was in those early stories that The Balloon Buster first drawled that strange, awkward mantra of violence, from which this blog borrows it's title.

So this blog will begin by reviewing each of the Balloon Buster's featured appearances beginning with next post which will cover the character's debut in All-American Men of War #112 (Dec. 1965). I'll provide a little commentary and some scans from my own collection.  As there are only a couple handfuls of Balloon Buster stories, the focus of this blog will eventually shift to many corners of my beloved (pre-New 52) DC Universe.

As the posts start rolling in, if anyone reading this has anything to say about Steve Savage, Enemy Ace, DC Comics, super heroes or comics in general, feel free to leave a comment!