Allen Bert Christman (May 31, 1915 – January 23, 1942) was an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and naval aviator. He is best known as artist of the newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

Scorchy Smith ''Scorchy Smith'' is an American adventure comic strip created by artist John Terry (cartoonist), John Terry that ran from March 17, 1930 to December 30, 1961. Scorchy Smith was a pilot-for-hire whose initial adventures took him across America, ...

'', about a pilot-adventurer in the inter-war years. He was also credited with co-creating the original, Wesley Dodds version of the

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

character the Sandman.

Biography

Artist Bert Christman and writer

Gardner Fox Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (May 20, 1911 – December 24, 1986) was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC ...

are generally credited as having co-created the original Wesley Dodd version of the

character the Sandman. While the character's

first appearance In comic books and other stories with a long history, first appearance refers to the first issue to feature a fictional character. These issues are often highly valued by collectors due to their rarity and iconic status. Reader interest in fir ...

is usually given as ''

Adventure Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), ...

'' #40 ( cover-dated July 1939), he also appeared in DC Comics' 1939 '' New York World's Fair Comics'' omnibus, which historians believe appeared on newsstands one to two weeks earlier, while also believing the ''Adventure Comics'' story was written and drawn first.The Sandman
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

: "''Adventure Comics'' #40 wasn't quite the character's first appearance, though. The 1939 issue of ''New York World's Fair Comics'', an extra-big anthology DC put out to capitalize on the eponymous event, contained a Sandman story, and probably hit the stands a week or two before his first ''Adventure'' story (though the one in ''Adventure'' is believed to have been written and drawn earlier)." from the original December 5, 2011.''New York World's Fair'' #1 (1939), DC, Detective Comics, Inc. imprint
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...

: "First Sandman story to appear in print (before ''Adventure'' #40)." Each of the two stories' scripts were credited to the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Larry Dean"; Fox wrote the untitled, 10-page story in ''New York World's Fair'' #1, while he simply plotted, and Christman scripted, the untitled, six-page story, generally known as "The Tarantula Strikes", in ''Adventure'' #40.''Adventure Comics'' #40
at the Grand Comics Database Creig Flessel, who drew many early Sandman adventures, has sometimes been credited as co-creator on the basis of drawing the Sandman cover of ''Adventure'' #40, but no other evidence has surfaced. Christman gave up his career as an artist, and joined the U.S. Navy in June 1938 as a pilot cadet. He was serving on the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

''Ranger'' in 1941 when he was recruited to join the

American Volunteer Group The American Volunteer Groups were Military volunteer, volunteer air units organized by the United States government to aid the Kuomintang, Nationalist government of China against Empire of Japan, Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The only ...

to fight the invading Japanese in the skies over China and Burma. The AVG was later famous as the “

Flying Tigers The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...

.” During his time with the Tigers, Bert made many friends by using his artistic talents to personalize the noses of the P-40Bs of the “Panda Bear” squadron of the AVG with cartoons and caricatures for the pilots. In 1942, Christman's plane was shot down and he was killed while parachuting by the Japanese Army Air Force while flying in defense of the Burma Road. He was buried with the full military honors due to being a colonel in the Chinese Air Force. Bert Christman's grave is located in Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins, Colorado.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christman, Allen Bert American comics artists 1915 births 1942 deaths United States Navy officers Flying Tigers pilots Aviators killed by being shot down Shot-down aviators People from Fort Collins, Colorado United States Navy personnel killed in World War II Military personnel from Colorado