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The Spirit (August 10, 1941) “The Element of Time”
Element of Time starts as a mad scientist strip and fairly quickly becomes a “thug of the week” strip. Just as Professor Corda completes his life’s work to condense time into a physical form–in this case, a liquid–Tommy Moran decides to plug Nick Ennis for snitching. Moran’s got a girlfriend who wants him to reconsider and think about their future together, but toxic masculinity; no one snitches on Tommy Moran. Tommy and the Professor happen…
The Spirit (August 3, 1941) “Wanted Dead or Alive: The Spirit”
From the splash page, Wanted Dead or Alive promises a lot and delivers very little. Spirit is indeed wanted, and apparently dead or alive, but the police manhunts never give him the slightest trouble. Not even when he breaks into the police station and kidnaps Dolan and the Mayor. Spirit’s very cocky this strip, and oddly self-destructive. He’s wanted because he’s broken a murder suspect out of jail. The murdered is a foreign general who…
The Spirit (July 27, 1941) “Pink Perkins”
Pink Perkins brings back the two kid characters—revealed here to be the Tidewater children–who previously appeared in the “Hitler Goes Good” strip. They don’t get first names here; the family name matters because their dad is initially in trouble. He runs the Tidewater grocery chain, and the mob is shaking him down for protection money. It just happens the mobsters in the Spirit comic strip use similar threats as the mobsters in the Gumshoe Gus…
The Spirit (July 20, 1941) “The Jewel of Death”
The Spirit heads to Syria for a Middle Eastern-tinged adventure in Jewel. He’s there to find the only doctor who can cure a disease back in Central City, but the doctor has married a beautiful local woman and doesn’t want to return. Except this beautiful local woman seems to be a dark figure of legend—any man who marries her dies within twenty-four hours. Perhaps The Jewel of Death has something to do with it. The…
The Spirit (July 13, 1941) “Stolen Squad Cars”
Like last week, Stolen Squad Cars brings back another recurring Spirit character to involve them in war-related intrigue. This strip it’s Squire Samson, a corrupt political operator who’s been a thorn in Commissioner Dolan’s side for ages. Last time the Squire appeared, Spirit outed him as a criminal. Unfortunately, the Women’s Civic Club—and its twenty thousand voting members—didn’t read the Spirit that week; they still think the Squire’s a saint, which will eventually be very…
The Spirit (July 6, 1941) “Agent 24”
Agent 24 is an espionage thriller; Spirit goes over to occupied France on an impromptu rescue mission—one with many surprises in store. The strip itself sets a few precedents, including the first direct use of Germans as Spirit fisticuffs villains. A couple strips ago, Eisner and studio did a fable about Hitler finding his humanity and, while the Germans were villains there, Spirit didn’t interact with them the same way. It’s no longer vague European…
The Spirit (June 29, 1941) “The Balkan Ball”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Balkan Ball is an Ebony strip, which means there’s lots of racist caricature to negotiate, amplified by Ebony getting a sidekick, Pierpont, who is also visualized in racist caricature. Scarlett appears, too. So it’s three… well, it’s actually more, but only for what ought to be a delightful sight gag. As usual, Ebony’s strengths as a character work against the weaponizing visualization. Last…
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #243
Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Jack Abel (inks) Cory Adams (colors) Jean Simek (letters) Al Milgrom (editor) It’s one issue-long story this time, no backup, which is both good and bad. It’s bad because this issue’s a letdown from the previous two “Earthwar!” entries, but it’s good because after an issue of Joe Staton penciling instead of James Sherman… It’s okay if the issue is over. Writer Paul Levitz carries on as though nothing’s…
The Spirit (June 22, 1941) “The Tale of the Dictator’s Reform”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The Tale of the Dictator’s Reform is not Spirit’s biggest creative swing to date, but the strip is definitely the wildest. Hitler coming to the United States on a fact-finding mission—only to have a change of heart thanks to Spirit’s intervention—will forever be singular. Eisner and studio know the strip won’t age well, with the ending acknowledging certain inevitables, but it’s also a…
The Spirit (June 15, 1941) “Dusk and Twilight”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Dusk and Twilight is, no pun, a dark strip. The splash page introduces us to Dusk, who may look like he’s in a carnival act, but he’s actually a murderer with hands of steel and a gentle disposition. We learn these two details on the second page, when he goes to a famous brain surgeon’s house, asks the little daughter to show him…
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #242
Paul Levitz (script) James Sherman (pencils) Bob McLeod (inks) Cory Adams (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Al Milgrom (editor) Once again, the feature story opens with Wildfire being a jerk. Last issue, he was going to let a Science Police officer die because her spaceship wasn’t well-maintained, and this issue, he’s going off on a fascist rant. At least it’s less life-threatening this time. It’d also be less striking if his girlfriend, Dawnstar, didn’t demand absolute…
The Spirit (June 8, 1941) “Five Passengers in Search of an Author”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Five Passengers opens on a moody airstrip with an unlikely cast. A local schoolteacher’s favorite assignment is to bring the youngsters to watch the flight to Washington D.C. Each student gets to pick one of the passengers they’re watching board and write a fictional biography of the person. Given the strip will eventually involve foreign agents and other ill-intentioned folk, it’s strange no…
The Spirit (June 1, 1941) “Killer McNobby”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) And, now, Killer McNobby takes the crown for most formal flexing Spirit strip. They do the narration entirely in rhyme, with accompanying illustration. It’s almost like Eisner and studio realized if they didn’t do something different with it, Killer would be maybe the fifth “Spirit vs. Titular (asterisk) Criminal” strip. Maybe tenth. It’s kind of a default by now, enough so they’ve been…
All-Star Comics (1976) #74
Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Joe Giella (inks) Adrienne Roy (colors) Ben Oda (letters) For the last few issues, Dr. Fate, then Hawkman, have had C-plots involving shadow messengers who come to collect them for a higher purpose. On the splash page, we discover this higher purpose: to prepare Earth’s heroes to stop the imminent end of the world. Their meeting is quickly completed (just that splash page), as writer Paul Levitz knows the…
The Spirit (May 25, 1941) “Thomas Hawkins”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Spirit’s been overdue for a nice, wholesome story, so when Thomas Hawkins starts the strip getting out of prison and the guard says, “Once a killer, always a killer,” it’s concerning. The strip turns around immediately, however, as Spirit drops in to see Dolan and Dolan’s thrilled to tell him about how Hawkins is on his way up and Dolan’s going to remind…
The Spirit (May 18, 1941) “Marta & the Renaissance Primitive”
After the strip’s big creative adventures last week, Marta is a seemingly more conventional Spirit versus criminal-of-the-week strip. The slight deviations from the norm, such as the Spirit doing Sherlock Holmes-style deduction, actually make the strip feel traditional in its self-contained scope. The action opens with Marta at the museum, leaving for the night. She’s been practicing her own painting by copying a master (a Renaissance Primitive, which either refers to a primitivist Renaissance painting,…
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #241
The opening story, Prologue to Earthwar, is an all-time Legion banger, despite a bit of weaponized misogyny and classism. And Wildfire being okay with manslaughter on his conscience. Oh, and weird racism against the bad guys. They’re green and slimy, so the Legionnaires call them slime-related slurs. Is it speciesism? Finally, lots of it is definitely fascism. Fascism is okay as long as you were right in the end, says Brainiac 5 with the most…
The Spirit (May 11, 1941) “A Dull Week”
Dull Week is Spirit’s biggest formal swing to date. Ebony, Spirit, and Ellen are all (individually) on the prowl for adventure, and their stories all get tied together, plotting-wise, but also in rhyming, whimsical narration. It’s constantly delightful and Eisner and studio do well in how they dole out the narration (alongside the stylized rhymes, there’s the normal strip narration). They get the reader hooked on the rhymes, then only use them for great effect…
The Spirit (May 4, 1941) “King Kohl, Emperor of the World”
Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) In terms of narrative flexing, King Kohl doesn’t try much. Kohl’s big idea is to use his gang’s criminal might to rob the Central City arsenal and use those weapons to take over the underworld. Kohl’s just out of a year in stir, where he’d been reading of a certain—finally named in the strip—whiny cishet Austrian white man’s perceived struggles. Now, Kohl figures,…
All-Star Comics (1978) #73
Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Joe Giella (inks) Adrienne Roy (colors) Todd Klein (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) Fourteen issues into the book and–as nearly as they’ve ever come–writer Paul Levitz, penciller Joe Staton, and editor Joe Orlando have figured out All-Star. Some of it’s very intentional: Levitz keeps Wildcat unconscious for the entire issue, so he can’t be an asshole, and neither Flash nor Green Lantern says anything shitty to Huntress. They’ve learned since…
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