This is the first comic strip in which Hunter Hank makes an appearance; or at least as much as he makes an appearance in any strip he's featured in.
The notion of including a hostile hunter in the cast really was a no-brainer. Vixen Sharpears's primary antagonist was a local forester named Bartos, and of course, Bugs Bunny's most persistent enemy was Elmer Fudd. So Hunter Hank's role as Skippy & Liska's chief foe was pretty much a given.
One of my main inspirations for Hunter Hank's character was the unseen, inhuman, menace presented by the hunters in stories like Bambi and Watership Down. The result was my decision to never, ever show his face. This choice has occasionally inspired a few jokes, and has more often been a real nuisance, forcing me to draw him in creative ways that don't break the rule.
You really don't think about what a constraint you're placing on your artistic options when you first decide to go with an idea like this. It's only after you've had to live with the decision for a while that the implications become apparent. Sometimes I've been unable to draw a comic the way I would have prefered or even had to rethink entire strips in order to make it work. However, even with the benefit of hindsight, I must say that I would have still have chosen to present him in this manner, despite the huge pain in the butt it has sometimes been. It was the right choice for the character even if it is a major inconvenience.
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