Number 1452: The Blackhawk team’s transition

When Everett “Busy” Arnold sold his Quality Comics characters to DC (then called National Comics Publications), how did it work? Comic books were in the doldrums, several companies had gone out of business. There wasn’t really a huge market where Arnold could have his rivals bidding for his successful titles, like Blackhawk. Did Arnold contact DC and offer to sell, or was it the other way around? What do Blackhawks go for, anyway? What was the price? I don’t know, and have never read anything about the business transaction that sent Blackhawk from Quality to DC. (Quality sold other titles and characters, but for this post I’m only concerned with Blackhawk.)

For the readers the transition was seamless. One month they were reading Blackhawk #107 (dated December 1956) under the Quality label, next month they were reading DC’s Blackhawk #108 (January, 1957). There were some cosmetic changes. In my opinion DC’s coloring looks kind of muddy compared to Quality. I’m showing the very last story in Blackhawk #107, and the first story from #108. The art team remained the same, and that must have been a good deal for Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera, who were the Blackhawk artists. In those days comic artists were lucky to pick up work, so they probably jumped at the chance of a steady gig at DC as opposed to scrounging for work in the wasteland that was left after the comic book crash of the mid-fifties.

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Number 1240: Babes battling Blackhawk

I had fun in September showing four stories in a row from Fawcett, so this week I’m doing the same with the Quality Comics group. Make sure you come back and see what I’ve got tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday.

I wonder if there was a directive at Blackhawk Island? “Do not accept calls for help unless there’s a hot woman involved.” You’d think so from reading Blackhawk #95, where all three Blackhawk stories involve female villains.

I’ve showed several Blackhawk stories that use strong women villains. Since the comic book was aimed at male readers they probably wanted some sex appeal. That was kind of moot thanks to the Comics Code. They could show all the chicks they wanted to, they just couldn’t emphasize breasts or other feminine attributes. It didn’t stop them from using women as bad guys, though. A guy just had to use his imagination to visualize them in sexy, abbreviated costumes.

The stories are all written by Joe Millard, and drawn by longtime Blackhawk artists Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera.

From Blackhawk #95 (1955):

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Number 1154: Blackhawk and the slinky, kinky Black Widow

There’s a panel on page three of this tale from Blackhawk #94 (1955) that shows how disconnected comics could get between visuals and scripting. Although the Blackhawks’ jets are screaming away from an airfield, a mechanic is shouting, “Hey, Blackhawk, I wanted to ask you...” His buddy says, “Let him go, Sam!” as if there was a way to call Blackhawk back.

(I can just visualize artist Dick Dillin's first encounter with that panel in the script, exclaiming, “....Wha---?!”)

Blackhawk and his fellow soldiers of fortune have just captured the villain, Mogreb, who has hidden the plans for an “atomic ray machine” and won't say where they are. He's sentenced to hang at noon by a judge who presides in a court in whatever unnamed country the story takes place. In the aforementioned strange panel on page three the second mechanic says, “Blackhawk hates capital punishment,” and in the very next panel Blackhawk says to his men, “I’m not mooning over Mogreb's hanging! He deserves to die!”

A girl masquerading as a reporter shows her true colors by becoming the villainous Black Widow, and the race is on to the plans for the atomic ray machine. The slinky, kinky Black Widow, like many other bad-ass women in Blackhawk, acts the dominatrix, in control of a gang of men in masks. That fetish stuff fits with the leather-clad Blackhawks. I like her, even if other things in the script are off-kilter.

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