THIS holiday season we’re going all in on The Flying Devil! The Flying Devil was a regular feature of the first fifteen issues of The Lone Eagle and, more importantly, as they announced beneath each month’s story—“the Only War-Air Cartoon Story to Appear in Any Magazine!” The strip was drawn by Terry Gilkison and features the exploits of Buck Barton, a.k.a. The Flying Devil, as he wages a one man war against the Germans in his Spad with the devil on the fuselage.

We’ve reached Buck Barton’s final adventure. From the December 1934 issue of The Lone Eagle, it’s Terry Gilkison’s The Flying Devil is “Lost In Hunland!”

When this adventure ran in The Lone Eagle, it carried a tag that there would be another Buck Barton War-Air Adventure in Pictures in the next issue titled “Spandau Treachery”—

But that adventure never saw the light of day if it was ever even written.

Gilkison would revisit Buck Barton in a way when he created the character of Rex Darrell, The Flying Fox, for More Fun Comics in 1938. Darrell’s Flying Fox was a modern day version of Barton’s Flying Devil. The stories were present day rather than set during the Great War; Darrell was fighting international air pirates rather than Barton’s battles against the Germans; and Darrell worked with a copilot, “Buzz” Blair, while Barton was solo. The one thing that links the two most is their choice of headgear. Darrell wore an aviator’s cap with rather pronounced fox ears much like Barton’s devil horned helmet he sported in the first few episodes.

Gilkison’s The Flying Fox debuted in More Fun Comics 37 (Nov 38). He flew his plane, the Dawn Streak, one of the fastest ever built, through 13 adventures. His final appearance in the magazine was in issue 51 (Jan 40) in the story whose last panel indicates the action was to be continued, but it sadly never was.