Will Eisner's Hawks Of The Sea!

It might well be ideal to read Hawks of the Sea one day at a time to approximate the sense of a comic strip experience, but that's not really feasible when you've got a pretty good story in front of you.

The strip is early teenage Eisner (going by the name of "Willis B.Rensie") and you can see him grow a bit as the strip unfolds. His storytelling is adequate, though there isn't the classic Eisner snap to the visuals. This is a plot-driven affair with a sturdy hero (The Hawk) and some decent sidekicks like Sagua a dour Indian who sadly talks in the cliched lingo often a burden to such characters, but who kicks butt every time he shows up. The Hawk battles slavers, looks for treasure, takes a young lad under wing to raise, and finds romance and even a princess. For more great info on this series check out this link to the Don Markstein 's Toonpedia website. 

It's only for those folks who really like Eisner's work I'd imagine. The strips are clean, but the reproduction is unfortunately too small to do the work full justice. Apparently, the strip was reprinted in tabloid form one time by Kitchen Sink, and that would be interesting to see. All I had was the Dark Horse volume, handsome as it was. The strips too are incomplete with some pages missing and some missing half or so. There is a really nice forward by Al Williamson about this comic strip really influenced him as a young boy in Bogota, Columbia. Trying to read these strips through his eyes was a challenge as I progressed through the storylines.

It's not for everyone, but for an Eisner fan it's a must. 

Next week -- The Spirit! 

This Post is a Revised Dojo Classic. 

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