The Longbow Hunters

 

The Longbow Hunters

Mike Grell (Author and Illustrator)

DC Comics (Publisher)

Green Arrow started out as one of the lamest characters in the DC Universe, a Batman knock-off with a bow and arrow.an Arrow car, an Arrow plane, an Arrow cave and a kid sidekick. In the socially conscious early 70’s he was recast as the DCU’s resident leftie. And then in 1987 along came writer-artist Mike Grell. Grell was already a fan favorite, the creator of two popular series, Warrior, a sword and sorcery series, and Jon Sable, Freelance, tales of a mercenary bounty hunter. Starting with The Longbow Hunters, Grell began changing everything about Green Arrow.  Gone were all the super hero accruements. Gone was the spiffy plumed cap replaced by a green hoodie. Gone was the domino mask. He moved Green Arrow and his lover, Diana Prince, the former Black Canary, to the very real city of Seattle. Grell made two very major changes. He  replaced GA’s quiver of trick arrows (how he ever got the boxing glove arrow out of his quiver without dumping all the other arrows was never adequately explained) with the real thing, deadly sharp broad head arrows. And he brought Oliver Queen, Green Arrow’s alter ego, firmly into middle age subject to the crises faced by a man in his forties.

 

As both writer and artist, Grell was employed dramatic layouts to tell his story. Each page was an artwork in itself.

The Longbow Hunters was the equivalent of a pilot episode. Its immediate success quickly lead to a monthly series. Grell penned eighty issues in which he chronicled the lives of the characters he had introduced in Long Bow Hunters, none more so than the brave but conflicted Oliver Queen.

Over three decades the Longbow Hunters has never been out of print.

Mike Grell will be the very special guest at the Buffalo Comicon, September 17^th and 18^th.