Issue No. 265
December 1983What's the Matter with Chop-Chop?: Chop-Chop has become more and more irritable since his return from China. He balks at doing chores. Chuck in particular has short patience for Chop-Chop's surliness. The Blackhawks decide to target Professor Merson by tracking down the money they are sure he has deposited in Switzerland. They find out where the deposits are coming from, which is Merson's lab. While the team relaxes in a bar, a patron does sketches of the Blackhawks. He does Chop-Chop in the stereotype style as he appeared in the original Blackhawk comics, and adds some racial slurs. The other Black Knights take umbrage and, for the first time, Chuck wonders why Chop-Chop doesn't have a uniform like the rest of them. Merson has invented an explosive device that is strapped to bats trained to seek out the vibrations made by aircraft engines. The Blackhawks rig one of their planes so that the engine can be dropped on Merson's lab and the plane glide away. Chop-Chop volunteers to fly the glider. The bats follow the engine down and destroy the lab. They capture Merson running out of the lab with his suit case full of money. Chop-Chop tells Blackhawk that he wants a leave of absence to help the resistance in China. Blackhawk tells him he won't listen to a request from a pilot not in uniform. Chop-Chop finally gets a Blackhawk uniform and flies off. (Dan Spiegle does his first of many Blackhawk covers)
Detached Service Diary - The Big Dealer!: Chuck sets down for some refreshment in a small town and comes out to find his plane missing. He goes to the local black marketeer and finds his plane has been disassembled for parts. Then the Nazis show up and the commander takes Chuck's engine to use in his own plane. Chuck overcomes the guard and cobbles together a jury rig plane from the black marketeer's stock and shoots down the Nazi. Not a bad story, except that throughout the story the dialogue talks about "the" engine from Chuck's plane and the story's outcome hinges on the use of this one engine, only the F5F-1 was a twin engined plane so there should have been two engines available, which makes the whole thing hard to swallow. (illustrated by Pat Boyette)
Back to Blackhawk Index Page
All characters, pictures, and related indicia on these pages are the property of DC Comics. All text is ©1998-2001 Dan Thompson, except where otherwise noted. This homepage is not intended to infringe on the copyright of DC Comics to its characters, but was created out of gratitude to all the wonderful writers, artists, and editors who created the Blackhawks.