Hawkshaw the Detective was a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

character featured in an eponymous cartoon serial by Gus Mager from February 23, 1913, to November 12, 1922, and again from December 13, 1931, to 1952. (The revival was a topper to ''

The Captain and the Kids ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

of the time, in which a ''hawkshaw'' meant a

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

—that slang itself derived from playwright

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literature and language a ...

's use of the name for the detective in his 1863 stage play ''

The Ticket of Leave Man The Ticket-of-Leave Man or The Ticket of Leave Man may refer to: * ''The Ticket-of-Leave Man'' (play), an 1863 play by Tom Taylor * ''The Ticket of Leave Man'' (1912 film), an Australian film directed by Gaston Mervale * ''The Ticket-of-Leave Ma ...

''.

Characters and story

Sherlocko

Hawkshaw the Detective was based on one of Mager's "monk" characters (so called because they looked a lot like

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

s), "Sherlocko the Monk," who made his first appearance in 1910. That name was scrapped after

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

, the creator of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

, threatened legal action over the parodied name. (Sherlocko's bumbling partner Watso did not survive the renaming, either; he became "The Colonel.") Sherlocko used careful examination of clues and his knowledge of human nature to solve the crimes. Almost invariably they were done by some other "monk" character in the course of his regular activities (Groucho, Forgetto, Henpecko, Nervo ...). On 12-1-1911, a genuine criminal, Black Pete, makes his first appearance. Sherlocko the Monk - the Mystery of the Many Fires

Sherlocko the Monk - the Mystery of the Many Fires

Knocko

Groucho

An earlier version of Sherlocko, entitled ''Knocko the Monk,'' spawned a fad of nicknames ending in O, which prompted a vaudeville

monologist A monologist (), or interchangeably monologuist (), is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature, for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also refer to a person wh ...

named Art Fisher, while playing poker with four brothers who performed together, to give them all such names.Joe Adamson, ''Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers '' New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973. One of the brothers got a name that belonged to one of the characters in the strip:

Groucho Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

, one of the monks. Fisher named the other brothers Harpo, Chicko (later re-spelled "

Chico Chico () means ''small'', ''boy'' or ''child'' in the Spanish language. It is also the nickname for Francisco in the Portuguese language (). Chico may refer to: Places *Chico, California, a city *Chico, Montana, an unincorporated community *Chic ...

") and Gummo. At various times, however, the different Marx Brothers provided different reasons for the names, so ''Knocko the Monk'' may not, in fact, have been the inspiration.

Hawkshaw

Hawkshaw the Detective, played originally by Horace Wigan, debuted in the 1863 play of Tom Taylor, ''The Ticket of Leave Man''. His character was taken up by the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' on February 23, 1913, and continued for many years in various

Pulitzer Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 20th century media magnate *Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) * Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pro ...

-owned newspapers. In 1917, some of Hawkshaw and the Colonel's newspaper antics were republished in book form by the Saalfield Company.

Film adaptation

In 1912, the comic strip was adapted in two live-action comedy films, ''The Robbery at the Railroad Station'' and ''The Henpeckos''.

Robert E. Howard

Included amongst

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...

's earliest published works were three stories featuring Hawkshaw the Detective and the Colonel.

References

External links

Hawkshaw
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia * {{cite web, last=Lambiek, first=Zoek , title=Gus Mager , url=http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mager_g.htm , work=Comiclopedia , publisher=Lambiek.net , access-date=2019-06-17 , location=

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, language=nl, en, year=2004 1913 comics debuts 1922 comics endings 1931 comics debuts 1952 comics endings American comics adapted into films American comics characters American comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1913 Comics spin-offs Crime comics Detective comics Fictional male detectives Humor comics Male characters in comics Sherlock Holmes pastiches Comic strips started in the 1910s