JOHNNY HAZARD

Johnny Hazard is an adventurer.

Sufferin' Susie! That is one heckuva understatement, looking at the impressive number of escapades that this man will get into, activities that start being recorded for our entertainment near the end of World War II and continue for over three decades. By the way, that exclamation at the beginning of this paragraph is a particular favorite of Hazard and one he uses quite a bit. "Jumpin' Catfish" is another he likes but Susie is the name he will call when he is really surprised.

At just over halfway through the recorded adventures of his extremely active life (Daily Arc #83, Eyes in the Sky), Hazard will become an agent with an "extra-national combine", a private intelligence agency named the World Intelligence Network Guardian, or WING.

WING is run by its founder, a man who known at the agency as Mr. Alpha who is said to have been one of the world's leading aviation magnates. Alpha explains to Hazard the reason for WING's being: "Despite many noble gestures for global unity, our sad planet remains a hotbed of injustice, inequality, inequity. Until such time as men can solve their differences honorably, the need foe WING exists!"

Alpha further explains that WING has "no borders, no red tape, and no limits, except illegality" though he then does hedge that a tad by adding "we violate no laws, other than those imposed by tyrants and violators of law". Thanks for Mr. Alpha's position "as a leading designer in space-age technology", WING possesses advantages undreamt of by its oppositions, such as our own private TV relay satellites, permitting us to maintain contact with all the men and women of good will who compose our organization." This tech will include a VTOL supersonic jet, just one of several held inside a huge flying nuclear-powered 'mother' craft with "unlimited flight capability". 

Working for WING, Hazard will take part in enough exciting and thrilling adventures to warrant being labeled at the top of this report as being an agent but since there are so many equally exciting escapades taking place all over the globe before his enlistment into that organization, I have chosen to associate him with WING but label him as an adventurer.

We meet Hazard when he and two colleagues are in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the last year of the Second World War. We learn that he was a bomber pilot and had been taking part in a bombing raid on Nazi facilities over Paris in 1944 when his plane was shot down and he and his two teammates, Scotty and Loopy, ended up behind enemy lines (likely on or about April). They were reported captured but on our initial contact with him, they had either escaped or evaded capture because we find them sneaking up on a German airfield to 'borrow' their own way home.

In what will often prove to be a typical Hazard situation, after he was able to commandeer a fighter to then use it to destroy many of the other fighters who would likely pursue them before the three of them head home in a bomber, the group will realize they are heading towards an Allied airfield in a German plane, not the most welcomed sight there. They found a solution and made it back safely and for his heroics, Lt. Hazard is promoted to Captain.

Several more adventures will follow with Hazard being sent from the soon concluding War in Europe to the ongoing one in the Far East but it will be when the Pacific Theater comes to an end that the huge majority of exciting and fascinating exploits will get their start.

When we meet Hazard, he is likely around 25 years old. He could be considered reasonably handsome though it is doubtful anyone would be found gushing over his looks. He has curly light brown hair and an almost baby face, although the glint in his eyes when around lovely ladies would remove any consideration of naivety or excessive innocence.

As it pertains to the opposite sex, Hazard walks a delightful line between brass and crass, between bold and boorish. He never steps over the line but he brushes it a time or three. He has considerable respect for women but he also respects his desire to kiss them perhaps a tad sooner than he ought to. He will learn his lessons as he gets older but his flirting nature will never leave him.

Good Lines:
- Said by a strange orchid-loving desperado about the fairer sex, "So many women have beauty ... but poisoned tongues! They provoke destruction!"

I first encountered Johnny Hazard a few decades ago and thought he was a character in a comic book series. When I learned a bit later that he was in fact from the comic strip pages of the newspaper, though none I had read, I was very intrigued but lacked the ability to get hold of any.

Now with the Internet and a couple of great sites like newspapers.com and newspaperarchive.com, I have been able to collect and enjoy just about every story in this man's very long and very impressive career.

33 years of daily and Sunday strips is one heckuva lot of enjoyment. Through these pages and these years we can watch Hazard age a fair amount, though not 33 years worth!) and mature a whole lot but whether he is a brash young pilot chasing every enemy plane or gorgeous female in a skirt or the more knowing and intelligent WING agent jetsetting around the world, Hazard is still a great man to know for adventure and excitement.