In Excerpt

  • The Spirit (January 19, 1941) “Pancho de Bool and Peppi Tamale”

    Eisner wastes no time getting this strip started—the first panel has Commissioner Dolan asking daughter Ellen what ever happened with her former beau, Homer Creep (né Creap). She hasn’t seen him since he was last in the strip, getting some loving attention from a nurse after Ellen threw him over for the Spirit; she never… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #68

    Writer Paul Levitz makes a twelfth-level intelligence move with this issue; it’s not a great script—Wildcat’s “docks” accent is forever obnoxious—and the stakes are haywire, but the reveal is about the only way All-Star could move forward. Psycho-Pirate has been micro-dosing the Justice Society with negativity for ages. How long? Long enough to cover all… 📖

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  • The Spirit (January 12, 1941) “The Silk District Beat”

    The strip’s a simple outing—Spirit helps young copper Dan Gorman, who runs afoul of the hoods on his new beat. There’s a great action sequence with the Spirit and Dan knocking heads; lots of great movement. Otherwise, the most interesting thing about Silk District is how little the Spirit’s in it. He’s around a bit… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #67

    For this issue of “your favorite Golden Age superheroes hate working with each other and helping people in general,” the bickering is once again the main plot. The story opens with Power Girl trying to convince Wildcat and Star-Spangled Kid to investigate a giant hole in the Earth where the supervillains were suspiciously hanging out.… 📖

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  • The Spirit (January 5, 1941) “The Black Bow”

    Eisner and studio start the new year one big change for the strip—The Spirit now takes place in “Central City,” and has always done so. Then there’s also the approach to the war in Europe; Eisner’s still not using the proper nouns, but this strip’s all about the influx of European refugees fleeing from the… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #66

    Paul Levitz (script) Joe Staton (pencils) Bob Layton (inks) Elizabeth Safian (colors) Joe Orlando (editor) If I take back the things I said about Wally Wood being mid last issue, can he come back retroactively and save me from Joe Staton and Bob Layton? We can keep Paul Levitz finding his sexism towards Power Girl… 📖

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  • The Spirit (December 29, 1940) “The Leader”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The Spirit gets his first mission as a special government agent: identifying enemy powers’ fuel depots on the Mexican coastline. The military doesn’t want to let the Mexican government know about it because then they’d want to investigate and they don’t want to… 📖

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  • The Spirit (December 22, 1940) “Christmas Spirit of 1940: Black Henry and Simple Simon”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) For Christmas, the strip does a story without the Spirit. He shows up in the bookends; at the beginning—with some lovely art—Spirit and Ebony discuss Christmas plans. Ebony had been expecting Spirit to go after some known crooks, but instead, Spirit’s going to… 📖

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  • The Spirit (December 15, 1940) “Slim Pickens”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) This strip’s an incredibly (and intentionally) didactic tale. A young prisoner is about to be paroled and plans on joining the Slim Pickens gang. But just before his parole, wouldn’t you know it, he’s got a new cellmate… Slim Pickens. Pickens regrets his… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #65

    Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg (script) Wally Wood (pencils, inks, plot) Al Sirois (inks) Elizabeth Safian (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) I spoke too soon. Paul Levitz is back to solely dialogue this issue, with artist Wally Wood contributing to the plot. Presumably, then, it was Wood’s idea to do this issue of The… 📖

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  • The Spirit (December 8, 1940) “The Haunted House”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) For a relatively simple strip—the Spirit and Ebony go to investigate a supposedly haunted house—there’s a lot of exposition involved. We get a history of the haunted house—owned by a guy who has disappeared, the bank is about to foreclose, and it’ll go… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #64

    Paul Levitz (dialogue, co-plot) Wally Wood (pencils, inks, co-plot) Al Sirois (inks) Elizabeth Safian (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) Wally Wood takes over the full art duties and eighty-sixes Power Girl’s cleavage window, making All-Star immediately feel a little more grown-up. Helping set it back—writer Paul Levitz now makes special time to gripe… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #222

    Cary Bates, Jim Shooter (script) Mike Grell, Michael Netzer (pencils) Bob Wiacek, Bob Layton (inks) Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) Murray Boltinoff (editor) Mike Grell gets an inker for his pencils on the feature, but Bob Wiacek doesn’t bring anything to improve on them. In fact, the figures might be worse. Some of the close-ups,… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #62

    Gerry Conway (editor, plot) Paul Levitz (assistant editor, script) Keith Giffen (layouts) Wally Wood (pencils, inks) Al Sirois (inks) Carl Gafford (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) If the scripter weren’t Paul Levitz, I’d almost wonder if he were making fun of (plotter and editor) Gerry Conway’s take on All-Star to this… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #219

    Jim Shooter (script) Mike Grell (artist) Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) Murray Boltinoff (editor) Ken Klaczak (suggestion) Without getting effusive, this issue might be one of artist Mike Grell and writer Jim Shooter’s best Superboy collaborations. There’s only so much wrong with it; they both keep the comic packed and moving, and none of the… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #61

    Gerry Conway (editor, script) Keith Giffen (layouts) Wally Wood (pencils, inks) Al Sirois (inks) Carl Gafford (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Paul Levitz (assistant editor) Writer Gerry Conway likes deus ex machinas so much, he flies one in on a spaceship for this issue. The issue’s got multiple comes and goings, like there was only so… 📖

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  • The Spirit (September 22, 1940) “Gang Warfare”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The entire strip seems to be just a way to do a panel of Spirit with a Tommy gun taking out the mob. It’s a striking visual, and the strip itself is solid, but Gang Warfare is more like Gang Meddling. The strip… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #218

    Cary Bates (script) Mike Grell (artist) Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) Murray Boltinoff (editor) This issue features Tyroc’s formal admission to the Legion, which will be handled entirely in long shot. Given it’s the ostensible point of the whole issue—the story’s about Tyroc’s last test before membership—the abrupt finish is a little disconcerting. Except it… 📖

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  • The Spirit (September 15, 1940) “Ebony’s X-Ray Eyes”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Ebony’s X-Ray Eyes show the problem with caricature, racist and otherwise. At the start of the strip, Ebony gets some of the Spirit’s x-ray juice in his eyes and can see through things. He quickly happens across some crooks who’ve decided to go… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #60

    Gerry Conway (editor, script) Keith Giffen (layouts) Wally Wood (pencils, inks) Al Sirois (inks) Ben Oda (letters) Paul Levitz (assistant editor) It’s a few weeks after last issue (and adventure) and the doldrums of being a superhero have sunk in. The issue opens on a rainy day at the JSA brownstone, with Power Girl challenging… 📖

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  • The Spirit (September 8, 1940) “The Return of Orang, The Ape That Is Human”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Despite the immediate follow-up to last strip, we still don’t get a big Spirit versus Orang scene. Spirit will track Orang to the ends of the Earth (well, Sumatra), but they never have a real, intellectual or physical showdown. Instead, they’re still in… 📖

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  • The Spirit (September 1, 1940) “Orang, The Ape-Man”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Orang is a Frankenstein story from the monster’s perspective. The Spirit is still around, but he doesn’t have anything to do with the actual action of the strip. Instead, it’s the sad tale of Orang, an orangutan, turned into a being with human-level… 📖

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  • DC Super Stars (1976) #3

    Jim Shooter (script, layouts) Curt Swan (pencils) George Klein (inks) Milt Snapinn (letters) Mort Weisinger (original editor) E. Nelson Bridwell (editor) This issue of Super Stars reprints an eight-year-old Adventure Comics two-parter about Superman visiting the Legion a little further in the future, so they’re all adults. The script is one of those infamous teenage… 📖

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  • The Spirit (August 25, 1940) “The Orphans”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Orphans is about the Spirit taking a young orphan, Billy, slumming in the underworld. Spirit comes across Billy and his friend, Barney, in the cemetery smoking cigars and getting sick from it. Barney’s trying to convince Billy to join a gang with him.… 📖

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  • The Spirit (August 18, 1940) “The Morger Boys”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Morger Boys has maybe one bad moment, some missed opportunities, a peculiar finish, and fantastic action. The strip opens twenty-five years ago—so, you know, 1915–with the execution of a notorious murderer, Morger. Mrs. Morger makes their four sons promise to avenge Papa’s death… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #59

    Gerry Conway (editor, script) Paul Levitz (assistant editor, plot assist) Ric Estrada (pencils) Wally Wood, Al Sirois (inks) Ben Oda (letters) All-Star slightly improves from last time, mainly because Wildcat has fewer opportunities to be a sexist prick. There’s a huge one at the beginning, so much of one the Flash comments on it (internally)… 📖

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  • The Spirit (August 11, 1940) “The Kidnapping of Daisy Kay”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Daisy Kay’s kidnapping involves a lot more action than the setup will imply. The strip opens with Homer Creep (renamed from the previous, presumably French spelling, Creap) bursting into the Spirit’s crypt lair with a pistol at the ready. Spirit handily disarms Homer… 📖

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  • The Spirit (August 4, 1940) “The Devil Dolls”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) While The Death Dolls do play a part, the most impressive element of this strip is the proto-Nazi killer robot. “Proto” because Eisner wasn’t willing to be too explicit in 1940. But there will be a robot shaped like a German soldier (the… 📖

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  • All-Star Comics (1976) #58

    Gerry Conway (editor, script) Ric Estrada (pencils) Wally Wood, Al Sirois (inks) Ben Oda (letters) Paul Levitz (assistant editor) The issue opens with the JSA reading their email—no joke—and an anonymous sender telling them there will be disasters in three major cities: Seattle, Capetown, and Peking. The heroes split into pairs to investigate. Seattle is… 📖

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  • The Spirit (July 28, 1940) “Palyachi, The Killer Clown”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Since the last strip, when the Spirit confessed to a murder he did not commit to save Commissioner Dolan’s reputation and career, he’s apparently been taking it easy. The strip opens with a gorgeous, gigantic splash of the title character–Palyachi, introduced by a… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #214

    Jim Shooter 1, Cary Bates 2 (script) Mike Grell (artist 1, pencils 2) Bill Draut (inks 2) Ben Oda 1, Joe Letterese 2 (letters Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) Murray Boltinoff (editor) Ah, yes, the valiant superheroes of the future… who are willing to sacrifice a little kid’s life because they don’t like him. Well,… 📖

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  • The Spirit (July 21, 1940) “Eldas Thayer”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Eldas Thayer is the name of a miserly old rich guy who’s refusing to pay for his niece’s medical treatment. Thayer’s doctor has just given him the bad news—he’s got a day to live. The Spirit shows up just after, pleading for the… 📖

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  • The Spirit (July 14, 1940) “Mr. Midnight”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) There’s a lack of consistency to Mr. Midnight. After a gorgeous splash page, featuring the dramatically posed new villain, with the intro text recapping the Spirit’s origin segueing naturally into the exposition’s start, the art seems to go from Eisner’s drafting table to… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #213

    Jim Shooter (script) Mike Grell (artist 1, pencils 2) Bill Draut (inks 2) Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) Murray Boltinoff (editor) Despite a poor opening, the feature’s not terrible. I mean, Mike Grell’s mid-forties-looking Superboy is always a thing, but otherwise—besides the incessant bickering between the Legionnaires—it’s an okay story. Once you get past Superboy’s… 📖

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  • The Spirit (July 7, 1940) “The Black Queen’s Army”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Eisner and studio tell one heck of a full story in these eight pages. The splash panel gives the Spirit origin and shows Wildwood Cemetery very close to New York City proper, with an airplane below the cemetery. But the story of The… 📖

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  • The Spirit (June 30, 1940) “Johnny Marston”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Johnny Marston’s splash panel has a short blurb explaining the Spirit’s origin—of note because it’s a strip standard from now on. It’s also the first strip where the Spirit stumbles into an ongoing adventure. Johnny Marston is a blue-blood fallen on hard times.… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #212

    Jim Shooter (script) Mike Grell (artist) Ben Oda (letters) Jack C. Harris (assistant editor) Murray Boltinoff (editor) Jim Shooter and Mike Grell contribute both stories this issue and offer little quarter. Grell’s art is slightly better than usual (or at least not as obviously deficient), and I guess Shooter could be worse. The first story… 📖

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  • The Spirit (June 23, 1940) “Voodoo in Manhattan”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The strip opens with Ebony and a lodge brother in Wildwood Cemetery looking for the Spirit. They find him, appearing out of smoke, and request his assistance–their lodge building seems to be haunted, can Spirit investigate? After some whinging, the Spirit agrees. The… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #209

    Jim Shooter 1, Cary Bates 2 (script) Mike Grell (artist) Ben Oda 1, Joe Letterese 2 (letters) Murray Boltinoff (editor) The first story, from Jim Shooter and Mike Grell, opens with Princess Projectra’s shuttle crashing as she attempts to land at Legion headquarters. Timber Wolf is there to save the day, complaining about “women drivers”… 📖

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  • The Spirit (June 16, 1940) “The Black Queen”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Zoltan Szenics (letters) The first panel sets up everything in the strip (save formal cast additions)—mobster Grogan on trial for murder, defended by “The Black Queen,” his lawyer, and a side item about the school district running out of money for lunches. Grogan gets off (with… 📖

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  • The Spirit (June 9, 1940) “The Return of Dr. Cobra”

    Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Zoltan Szenics (letters) The strip opens with Spirit dropping into Ebony’s cab. Literally, from a tree. Spirit then pulls a gun on Ebony, demanding a ride to town, while the passengers—Homer Creap and Ellen Dolan—sit terrified. Ellen’s in town to visit her dad, the regular cast… 📖

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  • Superboy (1949) #204

    Cary Bates (script) Mike Grell (artist) Ben Oda (letters) Murray Boltinoff (editor) What a strange comic book. Cary Bates and Mike Grell contribute both parts, feature and backup, though “feature” is a bit of a stretch. The lead story is a retcon. In the farther-flung future than the Legion of Superheroes, future Earthlings are obsessed… 📖

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