Origin

Jon Dart was the crusading editor of the Weekly Star when he decided on a costumed identity to allow him to go out and fight crime. A criminal came to the offices of the paper and wanted to confess that had murdered Thomas Finchley, a local prominent citizen. But he was being haunted by the man's ghost, who appeared and claimed he'd never been killed. When Dart asked the killer who had hired him to do the crime, the thug was about to reveal the name when he was shot dead. The police were taking Jon Dart away to be arrested for the thug's death, the editor broke free and fled to a museum, where he found a crossbow and a costume and decided to find out what was behind the events. He discovered that Finchley was in his home, claiming that there was never any murder, but Swiftarrow proved to the police that this man was an imposter, after Finchley's money, who had killed the thug to eliminate any proof of Finchley's death.

Creation

Swiftarrow first appeared in Spark Publications' Golden Lad #1 story written by Joseph Greene under Larry Verdi pseudonym and drawn by George Roussos under Perry Williams penname. Swiftarrow appeared in three more issues of Golden Lad comics in 1945-46, but with more colorful costume compared to his first appearance. He was one of a multitude of comic book archers, but he was a little different in that he used a crossbow in his adventures.