Johnny Hazard: The Newspaper Dailies 1944-1946 Vol. 1

Johnny Hazard: The Newspaper Dailies #1

by Frank Robbins

Frank Robbins' masterpiece, one of the all-time greatest action/adventure newspaper comic strips, Johnny Hazard, is back When Johnny Hazard first saw newsprint it was near the end of the Second World War. The first storyline in the feature finds Johnny escaping from a Japanese prisoner of war camp by stealing an enemy airplane. From there his adventures were packed with never-ending action, Veronica Lake-esque women, and classic bad guys. Now you can see it all from the beginning, complemented by the work of one of the master artists of the comic strip medium, Frank Robbins. Reproduced entirely from original King Features press proofs.

Genres: Comics

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1944

Reviews

[Sean O · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve long been a fan of Frank Robbins, especially his work for Marvel in the 70s. His birthday was a few days ago and somebody on Twitter recommended Johnny Hazard. A quick search of ComiXology, and presto, here I am.

Johnny Hazard is a WW2 flyer, and between D-Day and VJ Day, he manages to escape from the Nazis, deliver supplies to French partisans, fly to Iran and Tibet ferrying a VIP to the Chinese. And by the time he escapes from being captured by the Japanese, he meets with a warlord who is already dealing with the end of the war.

Oh, and Johnny end up with two Beautiful blondes in the war zone. The ace Photographer/Girlfriend and a mysterious blonde Chinese woman named “Sun Tan.”

The stories are action packed and full of air plane action. There’s a lot of cartoony characterization of soldiers, officers, Germans, Chinese, Japanese. Robbins does a fair job treating the allies fair. The Chinese people may have funny names but they’re honorable and heroic.

The Germans and the Japanese fair a lot more poorly. To be honest, there’s a lot of racist caricature and slurs that are offensive today. Like really offensive. However, it’s done toward the enemy during wartime. It’s not an excuse, but an explanation. If this is a deal breaker for you, take note.

I’m interested in seeing where this will do after the WW2 years. Will the Commies become the baddies? Probably.

The stories are the sign of the times, but I’m here for the art which is roughly 60% Terry and the Pirates and 40% The Spirit. And Frank Robbins delivers good art.

[Al Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, how Comics should be; excellent black and white art thrilling stories with interesting characters.

Hazard starts off escaping from a German POW camp, and this title ends with him returning home after the war, with many neat adventures along the way.

The book is misleading though as it isn’t 1944-1946, as the last strip is from November 1945.

[Hassanchop · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes you forget how racist the United States was. This is a good reprint of Fransk Robbins' Johnny Hazard. Not a good as the great Fantagraphics reprints and the format is a little strange. The strips are good but a little jarring reading some of these reprints of strips from the 40's. Never liked Robbins' Batman art but loved his Invaders work. This strip is beautiful to look at but be ready to see Chinese people called chinks and the Japanese called Japs.