Tor asked me to write a piece on the history of Quality and DC's "Blackhawk" series, since it is one of the lesser-known properties to join the relaunch this fall.I mean, we all know who Blackhawk is, but the average Tor.com reader might not be familiar with some of the character's greatest hits, and it's not like Absolute Blackhawk is on the reprint schedule anytime soon. Though I would buy it, of course, assuming it reprinted either (a) the swinging 60's superhero years, (b) the Evanier/Spiegle run, or (c) Chaykin's three-parter, which was THE FIRST HOWARD CHAYKIN COMIC I EVER READ AND THAT WOULD PROBABLY EXPLAIN A LOT ABOUT ME.
Anyway, my history of Blackhawk turned into a piece about Blackhawk throughout the ages and, oh yeah, Will Eisner is racist. I didn't intend to go there, but as I read the DC Archives edition of the first "Blackhawk" stories, I just couldn't give Eisner a pass. He sometimes gets a pass for Ebony White, but Ebony White PLUS Chop-Chop? A pattern of foul racism derailed my "Blackhawk" retrospective a bit.
Still, I marched on. Go READ: Such a Man is Blackhawk.
2 comments:
Your Tor series has been great!
Please tell me that you went back and read AMERICAN FLAGG, THE SHADOW and other Chaykin masterpieces after you read BLACKHAWKS. Not a bad Chaykin run, but the others are far superior in my opinion.
I have read pretty much everything Chaykin's done. I'm kind of a Chaykin obsessive, and have been since I read his Blackhawk when it debuted.
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