Amelia Earhart has inspired quite a bit of pop culture over the years, either directly or indirectly.Besides the current Hilary Swank movie Amelia, there have been films including Flight to Freedom, Amelia Earhart: the Final Flight, and she's even been featured in sci-fi like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Night at the Museum 2: Battle for the Smithsonian, and the two-part Star Trek: Voyager episode "The '37s"!
She also inspired writers and artists of the 1940s to do strips specifically about female flyers!
The first newspaper strip (and comic book) about such an aviatrix was Flyin' Jenny, created in 1941.
Her artistic pedigree was impeccable!
Jenny's creator was Russell Keaton, who had previously worked on the aviation-themed SkyRoads strip, as well as the first Buck Rogers comics!
When Keaton passed away in 1945, Marc Swayze (best known for co-creating Mary Marvel) took over illustrating the last year of the series.
"Jenny" was Jenny Dare, a test pilot for Starcraft Aviation who, besides flying experimental aircraft, also battled saboteurs, industrial spies, and other evil sorts, handling the threats as well as any male could!
One of the coolest aspects of the series was the fact that most male pilots looked down on women fliers...until Jenny either beat (or in some cases, rescued them), forcing them to acknowledge and grudgingly respect her!
Jenny's co-stars included aircraft designer (and platonic friend) Rick Davis and newspaper photographer Babe Woods.
The newspaper comic strip ran two simultaneous storylines, one in the Sunday strip, and a different one in the Monday thru Saturday "daily" strip.
Unfortunately, after World War II ended, interest in the strip waned, and it was cancelled in 1946, along with a comic book series that had just begun reprinting the newspaper strip.
Trivia:
The name "Flying Jenny" also referred to a famous Curtis JN-4 biplane of the 1920s and '30s. A mis-printed postage stamp (known as the "Inverted Jenny") illustrating the airplane is one of the rarest and most expensive stamps in the world!
We at Atomic Kommic Comics™ feel the time is right to resurrect Flyin' Jenny as part of our Heroines™ line of cool clothing and collectibles.
Her single best comic cover, shot directly from the original comic, then digitally-restored and remastered, is now available on t-shirts, mugs, journals, and other kool kollectibles which would look great unde the Christmas tree!
PLUS: Copies of the now out-of-print book Aviation Art of Russell Keaton (featuring Flyin' Jenny) can be found HERE! (It'd make a great gift package with one [or more] of our collectibles...Hint, Hint!)
Grab them NOW, before they disappear..like Amelia!
You can also visit the OFFICIAL website of Amelia Earhart!
Learn about the heroic woman who inspired the creation of Flyin' Jenny!
