Air Hawk, a.k.a. Air Hawk and the Flying Doctors, was an Australian adventure strip created by John Dixon. After the daily version was started the Sundays were handled by Mike Tabrett, Hart Amos and Keith Chatto.
I didn't have the opportunity to follow the strip as a kid, but I learned about it from John Ryan's Panel by Panel: a History of Australian Comics, which has daily and Sunday samples. These show it to have been on the top level of adventure strips, art-wise. This page has an illustrated account of the strip.
The National Library of Australia has placed a story online, beginning here. It's from the 80s, a few years from the strip's end, so I wouldn't assume it represents the strip at its very best. And I don't know if Dixon was still drawing the dailies at that stage. But all the same: it's an Air Hawk story! Reading one has been one of my life's ambitions.
I thought this might be in your line, Jeff.
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Looks great. This story looks to be set in Australia. Hopefully I'll get the time to read it later.
Great Phantom-esque art.
There was an Australian Ned Kelly comic strip that I've heard about. It was supposed to be top notch. Are there any collections of it that you've heard of?
That might be Monty Wedd's newspaper strip account of Kelly's life for the Sunday Mirror. There are examples of the strip here. I've posted this link before, and that might be where you heard of it. (Kelly's armour is on display in the State Library of Victoria. I'm not an admirer, myself.)
I wouldn't know if Wedd's strip was collected. It's not impossible - apparently, another strip Wedd did for the paper was - but if there was a collection, you could have a hard time finding it.
Yeah, that's the one. My Aussie Father-in-Law pointed me towards that Iron Outlaw website when I got interested in Ned. I'm fascinated by him myself, but I can see why others don't like him at all.
Given that he's such a divisive figure, (and a cop-killer from quite recent history to boot!), I was quite surprised that the Sydney Olympics had big puppet dancing Neds in their opening ceremony.
I wonder would it take a lot of effort to produce a new collection of those Ned Kelly strips? They're beautifully drawn, if the reproduction is a bit off there. I suppose they might all be on microfiche somewhere?
Probably more than one library holds the Sunday Mirror on microfilm - the State Library of New South Wales does. And an archive of the paper might turn up online one day.
I don't know Kelly is divisive. He's remembered romantically, as some American outlaws were. One of the world's first feature films was about Kelly - some of the surviving footage can be seen here.
You could say the first Westerns were about Bushrangers. Think they showed them robbing a train in an early film.... Apparently it was the authorities who stamped down on the making of bushranger movies as they glamorised 'enemies of the state'.
Given how much entertainment westerns have given people over the last century, it should be more widely known that they originated in Australia.
That might be going too far. Westerns were a literary genre before they became a film one, and go back to the 19th century. I think the film you have in mind is The Great Train Robbery, from Edison. (The bit with the gun fired into the camera is famous among cineastes.)
Bushranger novels were a genre in 19th century Australia. One famous one is Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood - I've not read it.
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Great Phantom-esque art.
There was an Australian Ned Kelly comic strip that I've heard about. It was supposed to be top notch. Are there any collections of it that you've heard of?
I wouldn't know if Wedd's strip was collected. It's not impossible - apparently, another strip Wedd did for the paper was - but if there was a collection, you could have a hard time finding it.
I've added another link to the post.
Given that he's such a divisive figure, (and a cop-killer from quite recent history to boot!), I was quite surprised that the Sydney Olympics had big puppet dancing Neds in their opening ceremony.
I wonder would it take a lot of effort to produce a new collection of those Ned Kelly strips? They're beautifully drawn, if the reproduction is a bit off there. I suppose they might all be on microfiche somewhere?
I don't know Kelly is divisive. He's remembered romantically, as some American outlaws were. One of the world's first feature films was about Kelly - some of the surviving footage can be seen here.
Given how much entertainment westerns have given people over the last century, it should be more widely known that they originated in Australia.
Bushranger novels were a genre in 19th century Australia. One famous one is Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood - I've not read it.
That's something.