Oakland Museum at the Oakland International Airport

January - May 5th, 2004
Air Strips
Oakland International Airport
located in the entranceway of Terminal One.

Airport Exhibition Archive

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ historic first flight, Air Strips highlights comic strips and cartoons that illustrate aviation’s rise in the realm of popular culture. The possibility of air travel captured imaginations even before the development of mechanical flight, but it was with the invention of the airplane that the public’s fascination with aviation really took off.

Artists found inspiration in the movement, speed and sense of freedom suggested by flight, and many cartoonists drew humor into their depictions of the new aerial age. Several aviation-related adventure strips from the 1930s and 1940s are considered masterpieces of the comic art genre. They demonstrate dynamic uses of line to convey motion, innovative shifts in perspective and graphic narratives that reflect people’s romance with flight. Other popular comic strips entertain flying as a metaphor for the imagination and its unbounded horizons.

Like the fictional flying heroes of the funny pages, real life air adventurers and their accomplishments were also celebrated in comic books and newspaper strips. Educational comic publications from the 1940s—the“ Golden Age” of comic books—illustrated the stories of heroic individuals and historical events to appeal to young readers. As aviators were making front-page news in the early days of powered flight, editorial cartoons provided social commentary and playful responses to aeronautic developments.

Since pioneering inventors have tinkered with ideas about flying machines, comic artists have not only turned to the skies for inspiration but chronicled aviation’s history and its significance in our world and our imaginations.

Barbara Eaton, Curator