Who is Robert Kanigher?

Today -- and for the next few weeks -- I will explore the man who created Johnny Cloud. His name is Robert Kanigher.

So who is he? And, how was it that he created a character as complex and nuanced as
Johnny Cloud?

I regret that I never met the man. Comic fandom came late to me, so I missed the interviews. Still, this master storyteller penned his way into my boyhood. My little fighters flew most of these missions. Kanigher was the hidden hand, pulling the strings. But who was he, really?

Our task now is to unmask the writer.

Did Kanigher create Johnny Cloud by himself? How? Why? I desperately want to know. But most of all, I want him to tell me that Cloud was special … that Cloud was his favorite.

Yet, I’m not so sure.

I would like to think that Cloud is real. I see him on the page. He is there, in color, panel after panel, blasting Me-109s out of the sky, and shaping my boyhood. Cloud was my superhero, my Big Brother in the Sky.

But reality bites as they say. Johnny Cloud was but a figment of Kanigher’s mind. A figment? What is that, but a flight of fancy – Happy Braves and Battle Hawks – all made up on some frantic afternoon, in a crowded office, on a tired Royal typewriter.

And decades later, Cloud is my figment too. I turned the props of his P-51s. And did I say that I had a squadron of them. After all, Cloud crashed and rammed his way through the war. It seems belittling to call him a mere figment. Nonetheless, when we discuss Johnny Cloud, we are probing the inner workings of the writer’s (and editor’s) mind, and his name is Robert Kanigher.

Let’s make a list of questions. Had Kanigher been planning a fighter pilot series to complement his ground-pounders and tank jockeys? Was his artist-friend Irv Novick a co-conspirator? Did the idea of a Navajo warrior spring from their Westerns?

We will never get the answers we want, but here’s the thing: Kanigher was a blur, furiously typing with no outline, and always on to the next thing. Frankly, I don’t think he would have tolerated too much psychobabble. In fact, he might not have been able to pinpoint the spark the led to Cloud or Rock or Stewart (much as we would have liked him to).

But I wonder: Did Kanigher intend to fashion a superhero? Did he write Cloud as the Avatar of the Great Warrior Spirit, his Big Brother in the Sky? Or, did Cloud assert himself on the page? This is not a fantastic suggestion, as many fiction writers have remarked that their characters took over by sheer force of personality and circumstance.

Mission Twelve: Silent Rider - The Debriefing

Silent Rider is an interesting story coming directly after one with the Battle Hawk repaying an old debt to our hero Johnny Cloud. For sure, Kanigher never wasted a story, begging the question: Was he squeezing this theme (i.e., paying off a debt of gratitude) to get every drop on the page? I think so. 

Still, Cloud’s character benefits – he is a man of his word. And, in typical Cloud fashion, he worried about when and how he would be able to repay the Silent Rider ... yeah, Cloud is a bit of a moralistic worrier.

The action scenes are urgent but a bit predictable. We know what’s going to happen. The amazing bazooka shot is on the cover and on the splash page, so this tells us how it ends. 

But, all that aside, the bazooka shot is dramatic! And what a shot it is! With the E/A racing through the air at maybe 300+ mph, can you imagine the luck needed to hit that Fw-190 with a one shell? 

That’s all comic book land of course, and not unique to Johnny Cloud! Indeed, Sgt. Rock enjoys the same kind of circumstances and luck.

There is glaring misfire on the cover that cannot be ignored: The bazooka man is firing at a pair of Japanese Zeros! What gives? Well, you get that sometimes when one artist does the cover, and another does the story. But Zeros? Russ Heath did the cover. Irv Novick did the story art. 

So, come on Russ! Everyone should know by now that Cloud flies over Europe! In any case, we see that the splash page is accurate.

Image Credit:

AAMOW#93 (October 1962): Story Art: I.Novick; Writer: R.Kanigher

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics

Mission Twelve: Silent Rider - Part Two

Last time we learned that Johnny Cloud often thought about a debt that he owned to a young ranch hand who saved him from being kicked by a wild stallion. Cloud only remembered the ranch hand as the "Silent Rider" who came to his aid just when he needed it.

Now, years later during the war, Cloud meets the Silent Rider in the field of battle. The ranch hand is a bazooka soldier facing down a column of Tiger tanks. And Cloud ... he has just landed his damaged P-51 in a field. The column of Tigers rumble in the distance.

Are they trapped? Will they be captured?

Amazingly not!

The bazooka man is a wizard mechanic and repairs Cloud’s P-51. But as they squeeze into the cockpit, the tank column appears on the road ahead. There is barely enough time or space to take off.

Cloud rushes his take off and roars towards the tanks. He pulled hard on the stick and the P-51 noses up, just missing the tanks. He has saved the Silent Rider, so the debt is paid!

For an instant, Cloud is relieved.

But the battle is not over. 

An Fw-190 attacks Cloud’s damaged Mustang as they cross the channel. Cloud is unable to fight back since his guns are jammed! The German sees an easy kill, so he swoops in close, guns twinkling with fire. 

Cloud slides his canopy back, and the bazooka man hangs out the cockpit; he fires his last rocket to destroy the bandit. 

WHAM! He has saved Cloud again!

With smoke billowing from his cowling, Cloud ditches his plane in the channel. Both men are thrown from the wreckage after a wave tips the sinking plane. 

The Silent Rider struggles to swim. Cloud races and grabs him before he drowns. Cloud holds him tight and keeps
the Silent Rider afloat until they are rescued. 

Finally, the debt – having been paid and repaid – is even.

Image Credit:

AAMOW#93 (October 1962): Story Art: I.Novick; Writer: R.Kanigher

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics