Cartoons in Hot Stuff's Flight Manual

[IndyJen]

I write tech manuals for a living, but we don't do things nowadays the way they did back in the Olden Days.

Back in the '40's, the thinking apparently was that a little levity would keep the reader's attention, or drive a point home. Or sometimes there was just some white space to fill, maybe. But scattered here and there through the PV-2 flight manual, you'll find these little cartoons.

I have seen some things in other publications--like Naval Aviation News, specifically the old "Grampaw Pettibone" panels--that are kind of reminiscent of some of these. It may actually be the same artist, whose name escapes me at the moment.

I'm wondering if such cartoons (examples below) are common among other types, or maybe they're only in Navy manuals, or only Lockheed manuals.

Anyhow, check these out, and enjoy. Don't be like Dilbert!

Encouragement to read the book: (with some bleed-thru from the backing page)



Weight and balance, always important:



Preflight, anyone?



What's that white arc for, again?



I haven't found this sort of thing in the maintenance manuals, only in the pilot's handbook. What that says about the difference between mechs and zoomies, I'll leave for others to interpret ...

[Second Air Force]

The B-24D maintenance manual set has some pretty good cartoons with "Lester B. Boner" (I think that's his name, anyway) doing stupid mechanic stuff. The F-86D and B-36 Flight Manuals had some hilarious cartoons in them, too.

Scott

[Hal B]

Check the late POH for the P-51. There's a good one regarding a couple of "nuts"...

[tulsaboy]

There were also some good ones in plant newsletters. I've got several from the Douglas Airview News plant publication from Tulsa. Most in Tulsa were done by local artists; a few were done by Frank Adams, a nationally syndicated cartoonist who worked for Douglas during WWII and the early part of the Cold War. At Tulsa, the plant mascot was a stereotypical Native American figure called "Tulsa Joe." He and "Shifty" play a central role in most of the cartoons. Some are just funny, but a lot of them were designed to raise awareness or to motivate the workers. A sampling is below. A couple of them are missing their captions, which were just typed below. One of them said something like, "Horsing around causes unneeded work injuries."

kevin

[fritzthefox]

Notice Bob Haskin's signature in his cartoon

I can't decide if he did it on purpose or not, but it's funny either way...

[IndyJen]

2AF, you owe me a new keyboard. Or would have, if I'd been drinking anything at all. Holy cow!

Thanks for posting up those plant cartoons, TulsaBoy--those are just great.

[tulsaboy]

Fritz,

Since you're interested, and since I can (because I suck, and I have access to more of the originals) here are two more of Haskins' that should answer your questions.

This one, because 'tis the season...



And this one, just because it's funny... and Fritz, notice that he couldn't decide on a caption?



kevin

[Glyn]

Cartoons were to be found in many official AAF Flight Manuals. Aircraft manufacturers manuals that I have seen from that period were also well endowed with them. These were on superior paper and often used full colour.

[SaxMan]

I'd have to find the link, but there were illustrations in the German Panzer Tank manuals as well that were along the lines as seen above. It just shows you that levity wasn't restricted to the Allies.

[Matt Gunsch]

During the Vietnam war, the army printed a manual on how to maintain the M-16 in comic book form.
http://www.ep.tc/problems/25/index.html

Last edited by Matt Gunsch on Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Second Air Force]

2AF, you owe me a new keyboard. Or would have, if I'd been drinking anything at all. Holy cow!

Thanks for posting up those plant cartoons, TulsaBoy--those are just great.

I'll get you a picture of good ol' Lester in the next couple of days--he's all over the B-24 manuals!