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| The story THE EYES HAVE IT was ripped off by the Bowery Boys in their film MR. HEX. |
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| "The Spirit" is also known and popular in Germany. The stories have been published by Salleck Verlag Germany since 2002, so far 24 books are available. Each book has 200 - 230 pages and is a hardcover. The price per book is approx. € 45 - 50, who should pay this? Not me! :-) |
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| Great to read as always - lovely clean compositions and the images tell most of the story. I learned something too - never knew about the Jefferson dollars. Good to see Ellen getting a workout but such a shame that Ebony is such an awful caricature. |
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| Replying to previous post: The Spirit: The Eyes Have it, first published April 1943. The Bowery Boys: Mr. Hex movie first came out in 1946 |
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| I love the expressions on character’s faces in Eisner’s work. He does interesting things with shading (love the shadow on Tony Zacco’s face in “Wanted for Murder” seen in the center left panel of PDF page 14 (p. 12 of original)) and offers a better variety of hairstyles than many artists of the era (witness PDF page 10 (p. 8 of original) with the Spirit’s perfectly coiffed hair versus the assassin’s disarray in the upper-left panel and the wild cowlicks of Chief Dolan in the central panel, as well as the loose forelock on Zacco and slicked back hair of the commanding officer on that same PDF p. 14). I also noticed the waves in Ellen’s hair versus the relatively straight coiffure of the villainess and the part in the middle of the bad guy’s hair in “Dressed to Kill.”
The big shock to me was the wording in the upper right panel (PDF, p. 14) when Zacco says, “Those Nazis have a smart, fast outfit, but we won’t let ‘em muscle in on our territory.” This may well have been damning with faint praise or offering begrudging praise, but it sounded a little too much like certain U.S. citizens who have spoken admiringly of both historical fascists and current dictators. In proper context (publication date), it was probably a way of saying not to underestimate an enemy that was all too successful in the early part of WWII, but the wording sure unnerved me.
Of course, I’m sure more people would be offended at the anachronistic, racist portrayal of Ebony than the comment which I addressed in the previous paragraph. It’s interesting that one simply expects the minstrel-show caricatures in that era while other things jar one’s sensibilities even further. I try to look at these differences as history lessons, much like the endpaper assurance that the book was printed within the guidelines of government rationing. There are so many things we take for granted.
Since boxing is no longer as popular as a sport as it was even when I was young, it’s fascinating to see how many comic book stories, movies, television shows, and detective novels used the fixed fight tropes even up through the 1960s. Of course, that makes sense because the old Gillette Cavalcade of Sports television show that featured boxing on Friday nights ended in 1960. Still, it’s a comfortable trope to deal with as the observation by another poster about the Bowery Boys movie makes clear.
I have some reprints of iThe Spirit/i but this was the first time I’ve read this volume. Thank you for the experience. |
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| Hi Johnny, not wanting to detract from your enjoyment of this comic, or your thoughtful assessment of it's contents, but most of the art here is credited to Lou Fine, with only the final tale's pencils attributed to Eisner himself. Still classy stuff though! |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | 1944 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 |
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| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Pencils: Lou Fine | Inks: Lou Fine |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Ebony White |
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| Comic Story | Wanted for Murder (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | The murder of a Secret Service Operative leads the Spirit into the den of a gang counterfeiting 1804 silver dollars. |
| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Script: Manly Wade Wellman? | Pencils: Lou Fine [as Will Eisner] (signed) | Inks: Quality staff | Letters: Martin DeMuth |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Ebony White; Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan; Ellen Dolan (Commissioner's daughter, cameo); Grace Gilbert (Secret Service agent, death); Y. Brambro (villain) |
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| Comic Story | Tony Zacco, Public Enemy #1 (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | Commissioner Dolan sends the Spirit to Europe to track down a wanted felon, Tony Zacco, whom he finds serving honorably in the U.S. military....and he dies in that role....as a hero! |
| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Script: Manly Wade Wellman? | Pencils: Lou Fine [as Will Eisner] (signed) | Inks: Alex Kotzky | Letters: Martin DeMuth |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan; Colonel Evers; Tony Zacco [aka Sergeant Zaccarelli] (villain, death); unnamed Nazi Captain (villain, death); Karl (villain, Nazi soldier, death) |
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| Comic Story | Dressed to Kill (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | Dolan informs the Spirit that he is creating a new force of policewomen, over whom Ellen has been appointed as the Sergeant in Charge! |
| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Script: Bill Woolfolk | Pencils: Lou Fine [as Will Eisner] (signed) | Inks: Alex Kotzky | Letters: Martin DeMuth |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Ebony White; Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan; Ellen Dolan (Policewoman Sergeant in the story); unnamed female kidnapper (villain); Culley (villain) |
| Notes | Story title taken from the Millennium Edition. |
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| Comic Story | A Clock Stops (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | Dolan, the Spirit and Ebony look into the murder of a watchkeeper, who had a grandfather clock that is involved in a mysterious legend, and nearly results in more deaths. |
| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Script: Manly Wade Wellman? | Pencils: Lou Fine [as Will Eisner] (signed) | Inks: John Belfi? | Letters: Martin DeMuth |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Ebony White; Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan; Father Time (cameo); Olsen (clock dealer, death, mention only); clock collector (villain) |
| Notes | The DC Millennium Edition reports the story as being illustrated by Jack Cole. |
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| Comic Story | The Eyes Have It (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Spirit investigates not only the fight game, but the machinations of Evil-Eye Manders, whose stare causes strange things to happen to people....including the Spirit! |
| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Script: Manly Wade Wellman? | Pencils: Lou Fine [as Will Eisner] (signed) | Inks: Alex Kotzky? | Letters: Martin DeMuth |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Ebony White (cameo); Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan; Kayo Harrigan (boxer); Sailor Brown (boxer); Evil-Eye Manders (villain); Lefty Lewis (villain); McGuire (villain, fight manager) |
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| Comic Story | Yellow Eyes Janus (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | Jason Broadway and soldier Joe Dulan....two people so well liked and popular that no one would ever think of killing them...end up dead, and Dolan & the Spirit investigate a lead, a lead that almost leads to their deaths! |
| Featuring | The Spirit |
| Credits | Script: Will Eisner | Pencils: Will Eisner (signed); Lou Fine | Inks: Robin King? | Letters: Martin DeMuth |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Spirit [Denny Colt]; Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan; Jason Brodway (death); Joe Dulkan (soldier, death); Harry Saunders; Ruth Malone (Dulkan's one-time girl); "Yellow-Eyes" Janus (villain, death) |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
