The Scarlet Hawk

Here is one of the last treats I am going to offer as standing over a scanner not trying to break a book and then no one comments is a tad tedious.  

Here I present The Scarlet Hawk from D. C. Thomson's The Hotspur Annual 1977. The character last appeared in the 1979 annual and has an interesting (but almost standard) past in British comics.

Scarlet Hawk was originally a criminal known as The Black Hawk (I am saying nothing) who was relentlessly hunted by private detective Calvin Crisp -again in many cases there was a private eye chasing a villain or a lone "going round the twist" obsessed police detective. The character was known for his gadgetry and a secret hidden base under Dorset cliffs. He also had an assistant Strogo, an ex circus strongman,

The question is how did he turn into a crime fighter? Well, that is easy: initially they simply re-lettered Black Hawk strips (again nothing new in British weekly comics).

Who was the artist? You tell me. This is not my editing by the way it just seems that for some reason the annual editor forgot panel borders and page margins😂