Tailspin Tommy was an air adventure comic strip about a youthful pilot, "Tailspin" Tommy Tomkins (sometimes spelled Tompkins). Originally illustrated by Hal Forrest and initially distributed by John Neville Wheeler's Bell Syndicate and then by United Feature Syndicate, the strip had a 14-year run from May 21, 1928 to March 15, 1942. In the wake of Charles Lindbergh's 1927 flight across the Atlantic, the public's fascination with aviation escalated. Tailspin Tommy was the first aviation-based comic strip to appear as a result of this heightened interest. The strip's 1928 launch was followed by others, notably Skyroads (1929-1942), Scorchy Smith (1930-1961), The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1933-1973) and Flyin' Jenny (1939-1946). Publication history Scripted by Glenn Chaffin, a newspaper journalist and press agent, Tailspin Tommy began its run in four newspapers on May 21, 1928. By 1931, it was published in more than 250 newspapers across the country. After buying out Chaffin's interest, Forrest took over the scripting; his first credited Sunday strip ran on January 7, 1934, and his first Sunday appeared on January 22. Forrest wrote and drew the strip solo for the next three years. In 1936, Forrest took on an assistant, Reynold Brown, who inked (uncredited) over Forrest's pencils. Tailspin Tommy is held by some to have improved with Brown's contribution. The Sunday page had several topper strips over the course of the run: Progress of Flight (1930-1933), Four Aces (1934-1941), How to Fly (1935), War Plane Insignia (1935) and Tailspin Tommy Flying Club (1935-1941). Characters and story Living in Littleville, Colorado, young Tommy Tomkins had such an obsession with flying that he was given the nickname Tailspin Tommy before he ever actually went inside a plane. Although Tommy took an aero-engineering correspondence course, his real introduction to aviation happened when mail pilot Milt Howe made an emergency landing in a field near Tommy's neighborhood. Tommy watched the downward spiral of Milt's plane and ran to help. Howe rewarded Tommy with a greasemonkey job in Texas at the Three Point Airlines, where he soon became a pilot along with his girlfriend, Betty Lou Barnes, and his best buddy, Peter "Skeeter" Milligan. The trio eventually became part owners in Three Point and took off for many airborne adventures. By 1940, Tailspin Tommy began to lose papers. A change in syndicates from Bell to United Features did little to help, and the strip ended on March 15, 1942. Film