Hawkshaw the Detective

Gus Mager’s Hawkshaw the Detective debuted in 1917 from Saalfield Publishing Company, introducing a comedic, bumbling sleuth whose misadventures defined an early comic strip. Created and drawn entirely by Mager across its single issue, the series is a charming artifact of early American humor comics, notable for its enduring popularity as a syndicated newspaper feature that ran for decades. Its legacy lies in Hawkshaw’s iconic look—a deerstalker hat and magnifying glass—which helped codify the visual shorthand for a detective in popular culture.