Barnstormer: A Ballad of Love and Murder

By Tula Lotay & Scott Snyder. Published by Dark Horse. 

Softcover, 200 pages, Colour, 2024. 

Winner 2023 Will Eisner Award - Best Digital Comic.

A high-flying, post WWI-era historical fiction graphic novel that’s an intimate portrait of love and war—and a meditation on the dangerous level of trust required in both romance and aviation.

It’s 1927—the late days of the barnstorming era, when pilots competed with each other by performing deadlier and more wondrous feats. Injured pilot Hawk E. Baron is back from the frontlines of the war. Still a young man, he’s an adventurer who lives his life traveling from town to town in his plane entertaining folks—most of whom have never seen a car, let alone a plane.

His world changes when he meets Tillie, a young woman who shares his passion for aviation and adventure. They become a traveling act, delighting folks with their antics. Tillie even becomes Hawk’s wing-walker, climbing out on the wing of the plane mid-flight to perform death-defying acrobatics.

When they learn they are suspected of a horrific crime, their journey becomes an even deadlier race against time. Along the way they bond, confessing their secrets, and begin a romance in this lush, character-driven series that explores the early days of aviation and the evolving relationship and romance between two young pilots.

This Bonnie and Clyde romp brings together writer Scott Snyder (We Have Demons) and the breathtaking illustrations of Tula Lotay (Supreme: Blue Rose)—her longest sequential work to date.