Locating the Comic Book that Named My Great-Uncle

Have you ever thought to look for an ancestor in a comic book?

Many years ago, while speaking with my grandmother, she told me that a comic book had been written about her brother, Rayburn D. (R.D.) Lancaster while he was serving in the Army Air Forces in World War II. I thought that interesting and tried several times to locate this comic book in comic book stores. However, none of the proprietors knew what I was talking about. These stores were more focused on superhero comics.

R. D. Lancaster enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 14 January 1942 as an aviation cadet. He was twenty-one years old.[1] He trained in Chickasha, Oklahoma. When he wrote home, he said he had acquired the nickname “Rip.” During his first solo flight, in checking his parachute, he noticed a string and upon pulling on the errant string, caused him to be lifted several feet off the ground.[2]

Fast forward in time, a fellow volunteer at the History Center where I volunteer is an avid fan of comic books, so I posed the question to him how I could locate this comic book about my grandmother’s brother. After a matter of searching and questioning others on a Facebook comic book group, he relayed the comic book title to me. It is in a series of comic books titled Fight Comics. The issue number is 29, which was published in December 1943. I have since discovered a website that has indexes for many comic books, Grand Comics Database (https://www.comics.org/).

These comics were published by Fiction House, a pulp magazine publisher of all kinds of pulp fiction, from January 1940 through 1954.

One day, I decided to search for this comic book online. Using a Google search, I discovered it on Comic Book + (https://comicbookplus.com). It is available in a digital form and I can read it. If I create an online account on the website, I could download the comic book. The total number of pages including the front and back cover is 60 pages.

So I browsed through the comic book and none of the articles seemed to mention Rayburn. Because of that, I had to read through each story until I found the one that mentioned my great-uncle.

The title was “Grandstand Seat. . . .”[3] This is a story about Hubert Miller, a second lieutenant, who parachuted out of his plane after a malfunction stopped the engine. Rayburn was in the same flight formation and noticed that Hubert was in trouble. So the story is about Rayburn engaging against a Nazi plane and shooting him down. The images of Rayburn Lancaster or his plane are in the third through eighth frames. Later in the story, Miller is rescued as landing ships arrive in Sicily and he’s met by his cousin, Bert, who was a sailor.

In July 1943, this action took place over Sicily where the Italian Campaign occurred as the Allies were invading Sicily and later mainland Italy in an effort to ease fighting at the Russian front.[4] I am curious how these stories came about. In searching Newspapers.com, I discovered an article about Lt. Miller in the Kenosha News, describing he was one of two local boys lost in action. However, his rescue from his life raft during the invasion of Sicily from North Africa was called “the luckiest hitch-hiker of the war.”[5] It is a shame he was later lost in the war.

In many July newspapers, I discovered articles about Lt. Hubert Miller, a P-40 Warhawk pilot, being rescued by his cousin, Seaman 2d Class Francis Stratford.[6] Most of the articles were only about Miller being rescued by his sailor cousin. However, I finally found a Fort Worth newspaper that described R.D.’s actions in the episode. R.D.’s action in the comic book story varies slightly from the newspaper account. He did not attack the German Messerschmitts but returned to Malta with less than five gallons of fuel but was able to give Miller’s location. Of course, the comic book writer needed more action in the story.

So, now I know how the story might have been created for the Fight Comic. Newspapers around the country picked up the amazing story of a pilot being rescued by his cousin and some of the stories mentioned R.D.’s part, too. Both men witnessed the invasion of the Allied forces into Sicily.

#52Ancestors-Week 4: Witness to History

This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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[1] “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8939), Rayburn D. Lancaster, 1942.

[2] "R.D. Lancaster Now Attending Aviation School," The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), 17 Mar 1942, The Portal to Texas History, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth140861/: accessed 14 Mar 2013).

[3] “Grandstand Seat. . . ,” Fight Comic, Dec No. 29, unpaginated; imaged at Comic Book + (https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=28175), images 35-36.

[4] “Italian Campaign,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_campaign_(World_War_II).

[5] “Somers Reports Two Soldiers Lost in Action,” Kenosha (Wisconsin) News, 20 Sep 1943, p. 1 & 7.

[6] “Racine Cousins Meet After One Drops Into Sea,” Chicago Tribune, 14 July 1943, p. 2. Also, “Fighter Pilot Thumbed a Ride,” Nebraska Daily News-Press (Lincoln, Neb.), 14 July 1943, p. 1.

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