Hawkshaw the Detective was a comic strip character featured in an eponymous cartoon serial by Gus Mager from February 23, 1913, to November 12, 1922, and again from December 13, 1931, to 1952.

At various times, however, the different Marx Brothers provided different reasons for the names, so Knocko the Monk may not, in fact, have been the inspiration.

In 1912, the comic strip was adapted in two live-action comedy films, The Robbery at the Railroad Station and The Henpeckos.

[6]The character was also referenced in two of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels: Unnatural Death (1927)[7] and Busman's Honeymoon (1937).

[8]Included amongst Robert E. Howard's earliest published works were three stories featuring Hawkshaw the Detective and the Colonel.