Recently an Air Hawk Fan suggested I do this. And, to be fair, I do think I promised to do it a while ago. I'll later re-post it on the John Dixon tab. So, without further ado....
TITLE DATE WEEKS 01. Hyjack 11th May 1963 12 02. Lizard Man August 1963 10 03. Bullion Hunters October 1963 13 04. Beauty and the Beast January 1964 14 05. Arsenals Inc. April 1964 16 06. Barnstormers July 1964 17 07. Man from the Exosphere November 1964 15 08. The Assassins March 1965 14 09. Witch of Alawoona June 1965 15 10. The Diviner October 1965 18 11. Assignment Unipurge February 1966 17 12. The Inheritors June 1966 21 13. The Foxtrot Delta Juliette Affair October 1966 14 14. Ride a Wild Wind March 1967 13 15. Requiem for an Iron Shark June 1967 16 16. Counterfeit September 1967 13 17. Flashpoint December 1967 13 18. The Gravy Plane March 1968 14 19. The Time Pod July 1968 16 20. By the Seat of his Pants October 1968 14 21. The Fugitives February 1969 11 22. The Ansoe Charter May 1969 15 23. The Ghost of Herbert J. Fogg August 1969 17 24. A Bird in the Hand December 1969 12 25. Vetol March 1970 14 26. The Brolga Story June 1970 15 27. Anarchists October 1970 12 28. Kadaitcha December 1970 11 29. The Con Merchants March 1971 20 30. Ingot August 1971 14 31. Wildcat November 1971 15 32. Jetnappers February 1972 12 33. A Bag Full of Wallabies May 1972 16 34. The Revenge of Johnny Rainbow September 1972 20 35. Kamikaze January 1973 14 36. The Prodical May 1973 15 37. Jackaroo August 1973 15 38. Early Birds December 1973 15 39. The Dream Maker March 1974 15 40. The Sleeper July 1974 18 41. The Stunt November 1974 14 42. Taboo February 1975 13 43. The Legion May 1975 16 44. Thunderhead September 1975 21 45. The Contract February 1976 22 46. Boatman of the Dead July 1976 14 47. The Danzig Incident October 1976 14 48. Rip-Off January 1977 16 49. Yowie May 1977 20 50. The Lame Duck September 1977 18 51. The Black Triangle February 1978 14 52. The Sandman May 1978 15 53. The Lady in Waiting August 1978 18 54. The Vultures December 1978 14 55. Min-Min April 1979 16 56. Finders Keepers July 1979 12 57. The Drafus Affair October 1979 11 58. Finnegan's Fortress January 1980 15 59. Foxy Lady April 1980 17 60. The Beast of Bantry Wells August 1980 19 61. Death Song December 1980 12 62. King Sound Caper March 1981 15 63. The Queen Bee July 1981 14 64. The Icarus Project October 1981 13 65. Point of No Return January 1982 14 66. Agent Alpha April 1982 13 67. Hot Spot July 1982 17 68. King of the Castle November 1982 15 69. Purelko March 1983 17 70. Nest Egg July 1983 13 71. Station Echo October 1983 14 72. The Couriers January 1984 13 73. Code Delta April 1984 12 74. The V.I.P. July 1984 12 75. Dakota Run September 1984 17 76. Decoy January 1985 10 77. Time Bomb April 1985 14 78. Return of the Giants July 1985 14 79. Shuttle Bug October 1985 13 80. The Great Comet Caper January 1986 13 The Australian government is about to consider making significant changes to copyright that would threaten the future of Australian publishing. We're writing to let you know how you can help.
During the ABIAs ceremony last week, the Australian book publishing industry united to launch Books Create Australia - an awareness campaign to fight against the recommendations in the Productivity Commission's Draft Report on Intellectual Property. As well as the APA, the campaign is jointly supported by the Australian Society of Authors, the Australian Literary Agents Association and the Print Industry Association of Australia. A-list Australian and international writers including Jonathan Franzen, Jeannette Winterson, Tim Winton, Richard Flanagan and Book of the Year ABIA winner, Magda Szubanski spoke up about the proposals. Their speeches and the campaign ignited major national attention on the issues. In the two days after the launch, more than 2,500 people have subscribed to the online petition in support of the book publishing industry and the volume of subscribers is rising rapidly each hour. Richard Flanagan's speech has been shared more than 20,000 times. How can you help? Sign the petition; Visit our campaign website bookscreataustralia.com.au. Share it and make sure your authors and colleagues are aware of the issues; Use the marketing kit to create your own material and join the conversation with #BooksCreate. Best Regards, Sarah, Australian Publishers Association. It's been just a little over a year ago now that Air Hawk creator John Dixon passed away. And, even now, there are still some lovely messages coming in about him. Here's one:
My dad Trevor Hensman talked about Mr Dixon frequently. He talked about the day that Dixon got his pilot license and they flew over Sydney. My dad is a Kiwi and met John in Sydney staying at Presbyterian Hostel or maybe it was Baptist, in the late 40's or early 50's. I am very sorry that he has passed on. I will tell my dad in the morning. God be with you all. Sincerely James Hensman I am presently in the (very) early stages of preparing another Air Hawk volume. The adventures have already been announced (on the Air Hawk Facebook page). Here are all the details you may have missed: Story 33: "A Bag Full of Wallabies" (May 1972 - a 16 week story) Story 49: "Yowie" (May 1977 - 20 weeks) Story 56: "Finders Keepers" (July 1979 - 12 weeks) Story 69: "Purelko" (March 1983 - 17 weeks) Story 70: "The Nest Egg" (July 1983) The process of deciding what to include and what to leave out was a difficult one. I am aware that I have selected nothing from the 1960s (although some came close to being selected). I wanted to include stories that were 100% by John, so I had to omit stories that Keith Chatto (in particular) and Phil Belbin had a hand in. I also feel that John's work (especially as an artist) reached his zenith in the 70s. Some of the 60s stories (like "Man from the Exosphere' are well written, but the line work on the printer's bromides are too fine for good reproduction. And that is another matter. Some of the artwork and printers bromides are simply NOT available (which goes for ALL of the Sunday strips). Sadly. And inexplicably. I am also aware that I have already published "Yowie" before (in the "Air Hawk Special" that was distributed in the US by Diamond - and others - in the early late 1980s/early 1990s), but the story is filled with such good Aussie humour that it was hard to leave out. Humour was another reason for selecting "The Nest Egg", as well as the wonderful illustrations of planes (of course). And planes are front and centre in "Finders Keepers" too. The inclusion of Aussie animals made "A Bag Full of Wallabies" a natural selection; and I also wanted one that carried a depiction of Indigenous culture, so I settled on "Purelko". The latter story's original artwork is held by the Australian National Library in Canberra, which perhaps might allow some future potential marketing opportunities by the Library.... I have someone in mind to write an introduction to the book and will soon approach them, And fundraising for the book (and more details of some of the internal pages apart from the "Air Hawk" strips) will be announced in due course. |
Comicoz is Nat Karmichael's publishing imprint. Nat is committed to preserving a permanent collection of Australian comic and comic strips. He feels that there is a need to recognise comics' contribution to and depiction of Australian culture.
Nat Karmichael.
In 2024, the Australian Cartoonists Association bestowed Nat the honour of The Jim Russell Award for his "outstanding contribution to Australian cartooning". He is available for public speaking. Since 2011, Nat has self-published over twelve comic-related books and many more comics. He is presently the Membership Secretary of the Australian Cartoonists Association. He is the Lead Judge in the Ledger of Honour Awards for the Comic Arts Awards of Australia (formerly the Ledgers). Nat has now retired and spends most of his time with his long-suffering wife, occasionally seeing their six children and fourteen grandchildren. He still plans to publish more comics and comic-related books, the details of which you should see here on this website in the coming months... 
Nat by Charlotte
Comicoz acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay respects to elders, past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations peoples.
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