The Blackhawk Archives

    (DC, 2001)
™ and ©2000 DC Comics

The Blackhawks were a team of fighter-jet pilots during World War II whose members represented countries vanquished or threatened by Nazi Germany. Blackhawk, the dashing leader, was Polish; his ranks included a Frenchman, a Swede, a dissident anti-Nazi German, and a Chinese cook (originally intended as comic relief, and therefore an unfortunate ethnic stereotype). From their base on Blackhawk Island, they conducted marauding missions behind enemy lines, often embroiling the mysterious Blackhawk himself in danger, romance and intrigue.

Blackhawk was created for Quality Comics by Will Eisner, who wrote the first few stories for an artist in his studio, Chuck Cuidera, to draw. The strip anchored Military Comics (later Modern Comics) starting in 1941, but proved popular enough to spawn a quarterly solo title by 1943. After Eisner left, Dick French and Bill Woolfolk took over the scripting, and the masterful draftsman Reed Crandall arrived to give the series its classic look starting with issue #11. Initially heavily influenced by Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates, Blackhawk soon developed its own personality and remains one of the best-remembered strips of the Golden Age, despite a rather dramatic decline in the 50s and 60s. Retro-adventure films like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow owe quite a bit to Blackhawk.

Because the classic early Blackhawk stories were published by Quality and only later acquired by DC, they have rarely if ever been reprinted and are not well-known beyond the circle of Golden Age fans. The characters make occasional cameos in present-day DC continuity, and Blackhawk was the subject of a controversial “update” by Howard Chaykin in the early 1990s. Still, it is interesting that DC devoted a volume of its deluxe Archive Editions to bring this wonderful series to the bookshelves of current-day readers.

— Rob Salkowitz
Jump to issue:
  • 1
    #1
    Includes 17-page cover gallery & creator bios
    Aug 2001
    Cover: $49.95
    W: Will Eisner, Bob Powell, Dick French, Bill Woolfolk  ·  A: Chuck Cuidera, Reed Crandall
    Reprints Blackhawk stories from Military Comics #1–17; Reprints Military Comics #1-17 (Blackhawks stories only); 1st appearance of the Blackhawk; 1st appearance of the Blackhawks; Origin of the Blackhawk; Origin of the Blackhawks; 238 pages; Foreward by Mark Evanier; Includes 1-page map of Blackhawk Island; Includes 1-page song of the Blackhawks
    1 copy for $48.00