Author: Andrew Wickliffe
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) After her most recent experience in the workforce as a boxing manager, Ellen Dolan has moved on to running her own Detective Agency, presumably under the assumption if her father and the Spirit can do it, she’s got to be able to do…
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Behind the Mask (1932) D: John Francis Dillon. S: Jack Holt, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Bertha Mann, Edward Van Sloan, Willard Robertson. Tedious–at under seventy minutes–thriller about the Secret Service trying to track down “Mr. X,” without realizing they just need to look for the credited actor in a bunch of makeup. Karloff’s…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The Spirit has had a wider narrative scope as of late, but never before have Eisner and studio attempted anything like S.S. Raven. It’s a phenomenally weird strip, all about a killer Navy boat, with an ornery, lovable sea captain narrating the tale…
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Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Bob Layton (inks) Adrienne Roy (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) This issue is another strong one for All-Star. Very strong. It gets there a tad cheaply—Golden Age Flash villain Thorn is now aggressively lethal, bumping off Keystone City randos for kicks. She’s also no dummy, knowing the…
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Croaky‘s tale is Spirit at its most didactic: crime does not pay. It’s also the strip stretching to center other characters, in this case Croaky and his best gal, Poison Mag. The Perfect Crime title is a tad misleading; Croaky’s crime is robbing some guy of a hundred thousand dollars and killing the poor sap.…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) If you want to explore the peculiarities of Spirit’s characterization and visualization of Ebony White, Introducing Scarlett Brown is probably the most fodder the strip’s seen to date. Ebony, of course, is the Spirit’s only confidant, best friend, assistant investigator, and occasional savior.…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The title gives everything away in this strip: the Central City underworld teams up (principally three gangsters) and successfully captures the Spirit. Not a particularly difficult feat, it turns out. They give Spirit some bad intel, and he walks right into a trap.…
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Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Bob Layton (inks) Adrienne Roy (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) Even leaving aside the delightful implication Green Lantern and the Flash are sharing a bedroom as part of GL’s rehabilitation (Joan does not appear, wink wink), this issue of All-Star once again succeeds thanks to the absence…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The Dolans—both Commissioner and Ellen—are back this strip after a few weeks off. The Commissioner’s sick of Ellen just going to teas or dances; it’s high time she settles down with a husband or gets herself a job. Ellen’s already ahead of Dolan…
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Paul Levitz (1), Gerry Conway (2) (script) Mike Grell (1), George Tuska (2) (pencils) Vince Colletta (inks) Jerry Serpe (colors) Milt Snapinn (1), Ben Oda (2) (letters) Al Milgrom (editor) Joe Orlando (managing editor) Hang on, it’s Vince Colletta inking both stories? I knew he was on the strange backup from Gerry Conway and George…
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Down Cemetery Road (2025) s01e05 “Slow Dying” D: Sam Donovan. S: Emma Thompson, Ruth Wilson, Darren Boyd, Adeel Akhtar, Adam Godley, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sinead Matthews. Sometimes bewildering (the quirky walking theme amid disintegrating flesh and child murder), sometimes bad (Wilson’s maybe, maybe not trigger warning backstory somehow equivalent to actual years of torture). Thompson’s great.…
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Ben-Hur (1959) D: William Wyler. S: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell. Most of the three and a half hours is an excellent historical adventure epic about Judean Heston trying to avenge himself upon former best friend Boyd, now a Roman thug. Along the way, there’s shoehorned…
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All Creatures Great & Small (2020) s06e05 “Fixes” [2025] D: Andy Hay. S: Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Anna Madeley, Callum Woodhouse. Excellent episode for Woodhouse, West, and Ralph. Madeley gets a couple good scenes but the spotlight is on the boys. Particularly since the show didn’t follow Rachel Shenton and Imogen Clawson to London. Instead,…
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Appointment with Murder (1948) D: Jack Bernhard. S: John Calvert, Catherine Craig, Jack Reitzen, Lyle Talbot, Peter Brocco, Ben Welden, Robert Conte. Better than last time “FALCON” entry has Calvert (sans cute dog and magic tricks) trying to unravel an art fraud deal gone wrong. Luckily for the film, director (and producer) Bernhard’s inventive on…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Satin is an incredible strip. It’s a mostly action strip, with three master thieves planning a team-up heist in Central City. They’re all displaced from Europe: Cedric’s British, Anton’s French, and Satin’s… Satin. They’ve also got an American sidekick monikered “Asphalt,” who doesn’t…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Spirit and Ebony are on the job for the G-men, trying to crack a spy ring planning on destroying munitions factories with “robot planes.” The robot planes, as the Spirit will later explain, are really aerial torpedoes. The villains launch them from Europe…
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Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Bob Layton (inks) Jerry Serpe (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) Last issue, writer Paul Levitz found a Hallmark moment amid the chaotic infighting of quinquagenarian white male superheroes and their surrogate daughter (Power Girl), whom they all berate or dismiss. Sole exception: Dr. Fate; respect. Though maybe…
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All Creatures Great & Small (2020) s06e03 “Captain Farnon?” [2025] D: Stewart Svaasand. S: Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Anna Madeley, Rachel Shenton. The show feels comfortable enough after the season jump ahead–with Shenton finally getting down to the village for a bit–it’s a surprise when the episode slows down in real time. Ralph’s got the…
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) D: George Roy Hill. S: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones, Jeff Corey, George Furth. Superlative Western about outlaws Newman and Redford’s luck running out as the world’s changing and they aren’t. Spectacular filmmaking–Hill’s direction, Conrad L. Hall’s photography, John C. Howard and Richard…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Argos is a singular Spirit strip. Not because of its formal artistic qualities, which are strong in places, particularly in the establishing shots, and altogether perfectly fine. Rather, its content and connotations. The strip’s about a regular Joe who encounters a space alien…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Argos is a singular Spirit strip. Not because of its formal artistic qualities, which are strong in places, particularly in the establishing shots, and altogether perfectly fine. Rather, its content and connotations. The strip’s about a regular Joe who encounters a space alien…
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Alien: Earth (2025) s01e07 “Emergence” D: Dana Gonzales. S: Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav, Erana James. Lawther once again fails to deliver, dragging an already wobbly episode down at the finish. Everything is full red alert, moving pieces in place for the season finale. Ceesay also stumbles, while…
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Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) D: Simon Curtis. S: Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, Paul Giamatti, Hugh Bonneville, Alessandro Nivola, Phyllis Logan. Dockery’s divorce sends shock waves through London society and even follows her back to DOWNTON. Meanwhile, Giamatti’s over from the States with some bad news for McGovern. And Bonneville doesn’t want…
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Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Bob Layton (inks) Elizabeth Safian (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) This issue’s writer Paul Levitz’s magnum opus on the book so far. It’s an action-packed issue—most of the pages are just Justice Society members fighting, whether amongst themselves in the Batcave (holy set-piece, Batman!) or against the…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) WLXK is a beautifully plotted strip, with lots happening in a very short amount of time. A rather unlikely amount of time, actually, but considering part of the plot has kids listening to the Spirit kick ass on the radio and cheering along……
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Bob Rozakis (script) Don Heck (pencils) Joe Giella (inks) Jerry Serpe (colors) Milt Snapinn (letters) E. Nelson Bridwell (associate editor) Julius Schwartz (editor) Writer Bob Rozakis—and I mean this statement as a compliment—has a wonderfully juvenile vibe for Teen Titans. Their dialogue is very groovy, maybe a little too groovy for 1977 (though they are…
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A week has passed since last strip, and the Spirit still hasn’t let Commissioner Dolan know he’s alive. Ebony points out he’s being unkind to a friend, and Spirit’s surprised to realize he’s got affection for Dolan. Now, despite Dolan constantly trying to pull one over on Spirit, Dolan’s always concerned for him. They’ve been…
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Paul Levitz (script) James Sherman (1), Michael Netzer (2) (pencils) Jack Abel (inks) Elizabeth Safian (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) The Legion of Super-Heroes had cover title billing with Superboy for over thirty issues before this issue. It’s one officially titled Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the indicia. Even more—literally—they’re going…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Davy Jones’ Locker is a straightforward strip, but only because Eisner doesn’t allow it to get bogged down. There’s plenty of potential for it to drift, and Eisner doesn’t want any of it; any tangents would affect the verisimilitude. The strip opens with…
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This special is the result of a letter to All-Star Comics about the origin of the Justice Society. Someone wrote in wondering about the canon, and, after diligently doing some research, DC staffers discovered the 1940 comics didn’t come with an origin issue for the Justice Society. The team was already together in their first…
The Stop Button 