Les Tigres volants sur Rangoon

An e-pal sent me these images from a hardcover French comic book about Les Tigres volants. One of a series, this one is entitled "Raids Over Rangoon" and the detail is impressive, even though the artist (Felix Molinari) has wrongly placed Curtiss P-40E models in the hands of the AVG 2nd Squadron at Mingaladon Airport. I haven't seen the actual books, which run 45-50 pages, so I can't hazard a guess as to what the Chinese fishermen are doing at Rangoon. Perhaps the scans are from two different stories? Enjoy them for what they are.

Here's a detail of the Chinese fisherman looking at the pilot's jacket. He's saying to his buddy: "Come read what's written on his back!" (The patch of course is a blood chit, with the usual message urging aid for a friendly foreign pilot.) Could a fisherman in 1942 actually read the ideograms, which are far more challenging than the Dick and Jane primary readers that American children had to master?

For more about this series, go to the Les Tigres volants website.