Blackhawk #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBlackhawk #9 (Winter 1944) is the inaugural issue of Blackhawk's dedicated solo title — the first time Quality Comics' most popular wartime franchise stepped out of the anthology format and anchored its own book. By inheriting the numbering from the cancelled Uncle Sam Quarterly (which ended at #8), the issue also illustrates a defining quirk of Golden Age publishing: the postal-license transfer that explains why so many 'first issues' launched with numbers higher than one. The series that began here ran uninterrupted — first under Quality, then under DC Comics — all the way to issue #273 in November 1984, making this a direct origin point for one of the longest-running war-adventure titles in American comics history. That kind of institutional continuity, spanning two publishers and four decades, puts #9 among a small group of 1940s launches whose lineage is genuinely traceable to the present day.
In "Bait for a Death Trap," the Blackhawks face a chilling new threat in 1944: three Japanese soldiers transformed through science to perfectly mimic American soldiers, sent deep behind enemy lines. With Al Bryant handling both the interior art and the cover, this issue delivers a tense, high-stakes espionage tale rooted in wartime deception.
When Blackhawk crashlands in the jungles of Burma, his comrades Olaf and Andre race to rescue him—only to find Burma Jack already there, eyeing the opportunity to turn his former ally over to the enemy for profit. With danger closing in from all sides, loyalty and survival hang in the balance.
In "The Super-Spies of the Rising Sun," three Japanese soldiers are transformed through secret science to perfectly mimic Caucasian American soldiers, then sent behind enemy lines to infiltrate the Blackhawks. Written by a team of creators from the era, the story unfolds as the Blackhawks must uncover the deception before it's too late.
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The Blackhawk feature had been created by Chuck Cuidera, Bob Powell, and Will Eisner for Quality Comics' Military Comics #1 in August 1941, with Cuidera providing pencils, inks, and letters through the first eleven issues before entering military service. By late 1944, the character's popularity in Military Comics was strong enough for publisher Everett Arnold to greenlight a standalone quarterly title. Quality cancelled Uncle Sam Quarterly after its eighth issue and transferred that book's postal mailing license to the new Blackhawk title — a common workaround in the Golden Age — which is why the debut issue carries the number 9. Editor George Brenner oversaw the launch issue, with Harry Sahle serving as primary writer and co-artist alongside Al Bryant, who supplied the cover; the issue ran a generous 60 pages in full color, packaging multiple Blackhawk adventure stories alongside genre backup features.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Blackhawk #9 (Winter/December 1944) is the first issue of the Blackhawk solo series, published by Quality Comics under publisher Everett Arnold.
- The issue number '9' was inherited from Uncle Sam Quarterly, whose postal mailing license Quality transferred to the new title when that series was cancelled after its eighth issue — a standard Golden Age publishing workaround.
- Cover art is by Al Bryant; interior stories were written by Harry Sahle, with art credits to Al Bryant, Ernie Hart, and Harry Sahle; George Brenner served as editor.
- The issue is 60 pages, full color, and contains multiple Blackhawk adventure stories set in the Pacific theater of World War II, including 'Bait for a Death Trap' (set in the Shan Hills of Burma) and 'The Super-Spies of the Rising Sun.'
- Each issue of the solo title featured three or four Blackhawk stories plus a solo 'Chop Chop' backup strip.
- After this debut, the next issue (#10) did not appear until Spring 1946 — a gap of well over a year — because the series launched as a quarterly and wartime production constraints affected scheduling.
- The Blackhawk series passed from Quality Comics to DC Comics at issue #108 (January 1957), with DC continuing the same numbering sequence, and the title ultimately ran through issue #273 (November 1984).
- The material from Blackhawk #9 onward has been reprinted in PS Artbooks' softcover format, with volume one collecting issues #9–12 alongside the original Military Comics origin story illustrated by Will Eisner and Reed Crandall.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Comic Reprints #[7] (1974), PS Artbooks Softee: Blackhawk #1 (2021), Hit Comics #11
Key issues in Blackhawk
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