A Few Issues Ago
Ever so often someone stumbles across one of the old issues of Lee's Traveller through a search engine or some other way and sends an email about the Mystery Photo of that issue. Even though this was done as a Mystery Photo a long time ago, here's the comments I received.
Larry Smith from Illinois writes: "The guy on the comic book cover of Blackhawk comics is probably Bart Hawk the leader of the Blackhawk group."
The original team, who first appeared in Military Comics #1 (August 1941) and last appeared in Blackhawk #273 (November 1984), included:
? Blackhawk the group’s leader, was originally identified as Polish, but later issues referred to him as American. His actual name was unknown until Blackhawk #242 (Aug.-Sep. 1968) revealed that his name was Bart Hawk, an American of Polish extraction.
? Andre (last name unknown) is French.
? Olaf Bjornson is from Norway.
? Chuck Wilson is a Texas-born American.
? Hans Hendrickson is a Dutchman.
? Stanislaus (last name unknown) is Polish.
? Chop-Chop (named Liu Huang in Blackhawk #203; Mark Evanier named him Wu Cheng in Blackhawk #251 to 273), is Chinese.
? Zinda Blake (Lady Blackhawk) is American.
Other short-term members are Zeg (Polish), Boris (Russian), Baker (English), who disappear after their initial appearances in the original 1940s issues. Lt. Theodore Gaynor, USMC (American) is a short-term member of the team introduced in the 1980s series, which takes place early in World War II. Another significant character is Miss Fear, who never formally joined the team but appeared repeatedly as an ally in the 1940s.
The Blackhawks are each depicted in ways that are very stereotypical for the 1940s.
Andre, wearing a thin mustache and speaking with a strong French accent, is renowned for his love of beautiful women.
Olaf is typically depicted as a big, dumb Swede who speaks English poorly. Hendrickson (sometimes depicted as a German) is heavyset, wears a thick,
Germanic mustache, and speaks with a strong Dutch or German accent. Stanislaus's speech is peppered with Polish epithets.
Blackhawk and Chuck are the least stereotypical, both speaking in ordinary US English. Over the course of the series, each character also developed his own catchphrase.
Chop-Chop is both the youngest member of the team and the most stereotypical. The character is originally the team's cook, depicted as fat, buck-toothed, and comical, wearing a knot-top hairdo and stereotypical coolie garb instead of the Blackhawk Squadron uniform and speaking in broken English. This original version of the character is essentially Blackhawk's sidekick, riding in his plane instead of piloting his own like the other Blackhawks. A popular character at the time, he also appears in his own humor feature in the Blackhawk series from 1946 to 1955. His initial depiction—although now considered offensive by many—was not atypical of World War II-era depictions of Asians. This depiction, which remains the same from his first appearance in 1941 until the mid-1950s, slowly transforms from 1955 to 1964 until he finally becomes a full-fledged member of the team who not only wears a Blackhawk Squadron uniform but also pilots his own plane. Some later stories reference the fact that for decades he is not given enough respect even to wear the same uniform as his teammates. After DC Comics' company-wide crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths revamped and streamlined many of DC's properties, Chop-Chop's old depictions are suggested to be those of a comic-book-within-a-comic-book style format that features the team's adventures, with Chop-Chop playing the role of sidekick. He is subsequently a more realistically drawn character in a standard uniform.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
enter: blackhawk (comics)
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