For those in the know, are these characters usually humorous?
Interesting selections, Panther. Here are my thoughts on the first of The Spirit ones from the Parkchester Review:
The Christmas Spirit
Interesting the way the tales weave in amongst each other. A bit reminiscent of A Christmas Carol, with hardened hearts finding redemption at Christmas, but this time through kindness. Though I did get a little confused a couple of times, and it ends quite abruptly.
Lady Luck
I wasn’t familiar with this character, so I was thinking it was going to be more serious. I guess ending with a Merry Christmas bomb is more fun than a real bomb, but it didn’t really work for me.
Mr Mystic
Mr Mystic and the Spirit team up to free a boy who was framed for murder and they all live happily ever after … except for the crooks.
Overall
I’ve never read any Spirit comics, so these characters are all new to me. If I was already familiar with them, I probably would have enjoyed it more. But it was a nice upbeat comic for Christmas. Good to see some of the heroes and heroines spreading the Christmas cheer. For those in the know, are these characters usually humorous?
Cheers
Quirky Quokka
Thanks for choosing the Christmas Spirit, Panther. I've responded to them in chronological order, starting with the 1940 entry.
So the Spirit believes that the Christmas Spirit fights crime and evil? (1) It's interesting that a Jewish writer would espouse such a theory, though it may just be an example of Eisner knowing his audience. My beloved late wife was Jewish and she couldn't wait to move out from her parents so she could have an Xmas tree in the holiday season like "everyone else." Her Uncle also sat shiva for her when she married me. It's complicated stuff.
(2) It does raise questions about the Spirit's origin - I wouldn't espouse the theory that he was a Christ-like figure though he did "rise again" with a power of self regeneration that suggests he may have become literally immortal. (3) More revealing is the fact that he dug himself free from his own grave, meaning his body was never embalmed, strongly suggesting Denny Colt was Jewish.
As with much Eisner art there's a lot of fairly fussy detail and a good few distance shots, I note that Simple Simon bears a close resemblance to Mr Dusk (though I can't say who came first!) The crux of the story is that even the most black-hearted villains can have a soft and sentimental side that will prompt them to act against their worst intentions (though I wouldn't recommend trying this theory out on The Red Skull or Dr Doom! Maybe you'd have more success with Magneto, who is also, coincidentally, Jewish?)
Whatever one's beliefs, Eisner's Spirit stories so often possess a sense of warmth and humanity (okay, and whimsy!) that shine through and set the character apart from the host of costumed do-gooders inhabiting the "funny papers." (4) In spite of Eisner's collection of racially stereotyped sidekicks like Ebony, I'm still convinced they were intended to be somehow more inclusive than divisive, though maybe I can only say that because I'm white. I invite opposing opinions.
I'm more worried about how things turned out for the caged kangaroo!
On Lady Luck, I'm not familiar enough with Agatha Christie to appreciate the parody, and I'm not familiar enough with Chuck Mazoujian's art to say for certain whether or not Eisner did the layouts, though I have my suspicions. I enjoyed the strip much more when it was in the hands of Klaus Nordling, but this is still good.
Most disturbing is Mr Mystic. This is NOT a tale full of Xmas spirit, humour, and whimsy. This is a tale of the frightful misunderstandings that can blight human relationships, and which the Shadowman is plainly only too happy to take advantage of. Has Elena really loved and courted death all her life? Or is she just so mad with her human beau that she'll set all else aside to hurt him? Will Penny let her true feelings for Mr Mystic be known in later episodes, and will he be able to accept them? Or, like a Cornell Woolrich novel, will everything turn to crap before our eyes? These four short pages are pumped full of incredibly strong and conflicting emotions which are anything but Christmassy, and more power to Powell for unleashing them upon us. It's heartbreakingly sad, but it affects me far more than all the Santas and Xmas trees you could shake a stick at. Maybe that's just me.
I'll take a look at the next one another night.
K1ngcat
: "In Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and protestant Christian traditions, do ALL believers have to be embalmed?" I don't know very much about Christian religious rites and traditions.
A good example of this is seen in the fact that most of the most famous and popular American secular Christmas songs have been written by Jews (many of them devout in their Jewish beliefs). Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, and many other Tin Pan Alley songwriters, etc. They were not converts to Christianity, or Jews who had a Christmas tree in their homes. They were Jews who wanted Christmas to become a more secular, National holiday, concentrating on good feelings towards all Mankind,
(4) I agree 100% with you on this. I don't believe Eisner was trying to poke fun at Ebony for being a so-called Black person. I think he was trying to be inclusive by making a person of African heritage (African-American) his sidekick. And he made him funny-looking for the general comedy effect - not specifically to denigrate him. He could have denigrated other African American characters, not associated with The Spirit, if that were his purpose. I think that the fact that he looks like a stereotyped Black character, that happened to have been invented by people to belittle Africans is just a coincidence of osmosis and the drawing style of the times. I don't think Eisner had the slightest intention to denigrate Ebony. It's a case of doing what everyone else is doing, because you've seen it all your life, and without thinking about it, you internalise the "feeling" "THAT is the way it is done".
There's a book out that says just that, A.P. How the modern idea of Christmas was pretty much shaped by guys like MGM's Louis Mayer and the Warner Bros celebrating a more tolerant culture. All of this also reminds me of Big Daddy Bill Gaines, the man who said he was an atheist Jew who believed in Santa Claus.
King Cat, I know what you mean. I was lucky and had friends with a broader view, though. We'd all say "Keep Saturn in Saturnalia" and celebrate at the local Chinese restaurant, along with the divorced dads, the Asians, and the Jews. One time the owner put on John Fahey's Christmas album...just him doing acoustic guitar. A lovely moment. I had to leave early and an Asian girl who had a crush on me gave me a big hug and kiss and said; "Drive carefully. It's Christmas and this is a Christian country. That means half the folks on the road are going to be bombed out of their minds."
Interesting observations, Robb!Quote: "In Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and protestant Christian traditions, do ALL believers have to be embalmed?" I don't know very much about Christian religious rites and traditions.
in this article, note that it says, 'Allowed'' not mandatory.
https://www.everplans.com/articles/religious-perspectives-on-embalming
I do know that in the past, in wars that involved notions or groups that pitted Protestant against Catholic, like the English civil wars, both sides had strict different burial practices to carry the distinctions to the grave.
In Christianity, cremation traditionally has been a no-no, since the traditional belief is that all will be raised for judgement, so you didn't cremate a body.
So both cremation and embalming have crept in in more secular times.
1/ So, my inquiring mind has two thoughts.
Perhaps embalming, in particular, became acceptable for the following reason. From the time Magellan circumnavigated the world, and a a little earlier, men and women often died thousands of miles from their families and their homes. And many wanted the bodies of their loved ones taken home for burial in the family plot, town or village. Embalming would have been necessary for preservation during long voyages.
I know for sure, that this was traditionally the case for the Chinese who always shipped their dead home from the goldfields to be buried with their ancestors.
2/. I don't know the reason for the Jewish ban on embalming. However the Jews were living in Egypt and persecuted by the Egyptians. Embalming is crucial to the traditional Egyptian way of life, so I have to wonder if the association of embalming with Egypt was a mitigating factor?QuoteA good example of this is seen in the fact that most of the most famous and popular American secular Christmas songs have been written by Jews (many of them devout in their Jewish beliefs). Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, and many other Tin Pan Alley songwriters, etc. They were not converts to Christianity, or Jews who had a Christmas tree in their homes. They were Jews who wanted Christmas to become a more secular, National holiday, concentrating on good feelings towards all Mankind,
I had never thought about that, so thank you.
I would include in that, the older films that Hollywood made about Christmas, given that many of the Movie Moguls, directors, writers and producers were also Jewish.
cheers!
With this being the first time I have read these comics, these characters were all new to me and I actually thought Ebony was a talking monkey
some of the cast face the 'camera' and talk to the reader.
The "fourth wall" is the invisible barrier between the fictional world and the real world, the thing that separates the characters in a comic from the people reading the comic. The term comes from stage plays, where every room has only three walls, because the fourth wall is the one we look through to watch the show. The actors in the play always ignored the fourth wall, unless they were talking to the audience.
Before I started reading British school comics the only time I ever heard the word "jape" was in the title of a Philip K Dick novel, The Man Who Japed. But I never read that novel, only admired its Ed Emshwiller cover, so I'd no idea what the word meant. Schoolgirls' Picture Library writers love "jape." They use it over and over in this story. I suspect this is merely sloppy writing. The girls in one SPL story used the expression "to bowl [him] out" so often in a single story that it became tedious. I'm sure there's more than one way to say that in England. After all, these girls are the cream of educated British not-quite-womanhood.
So, that kind of language is part of their upbringing, and probably accurate for the stories they are telling, where the characters are usually girls from boarding schools.
would 1950s boarding-school girls make cricket references in everyday conversation? I thought cricket was the exclusive domain of The Lads.
The first recorded match of women's cricket was reported in The Reading Mercury on 26 July 1745, a match contested "between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white."[5] The first known women's cricket club was formed in 1887 in Yorkshire, named the White Heather Club. Three years later a team known as the Original English Lady Cricketers toured England, reportedly making substantial profits before their manager absconded with the money. In Australia, a women's cricket league was set up in 1894, while in South Africa, Port Elizabeth had a women's cricket team, the Pioneers Cricket Club.[6] In Canada, Victoria also had a women's cricket team that played at Beacon Hill Park.[7]
In 1958 the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) was formed to co-ordinate women's cricket around the world, taking over from the English Women's Cricket Association, which had been doing the same job in a de facto role since its creation 32 years earlier. In 2005, the IWCC was merged with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to form one unified body to help manage and develop cricket.
Do you mean to tell me that girls in the US wouldn't know Baseball terminology?
henever I see the Title "Schoolgirls Picture Library" I picture a disreputable looking guy in a raincoat rushing home from a magazine stand hiding said book under his coat, then being massively disapointed when he opens it.
The Spirit stories are so well done and hugely enjoyable. Eisner's work is a feast for the eyes and, in these cases, a mood lifter.
The SPL has a lovely cover. From time to time SPL came up with really good cover illos.
As for the story, well, it's pretty typical of the series and of the serials in many of the girls' comics and story papers of the time. Not sure about some of the art though. That train, and the engine on the splash page, simply looks wrong. I have no problem with the use of jape and japers. Not words I have often used but i accept them as my biased view is they were used by by privileged students at private school.
(1) The haggis is a wonderful beast and I quite like a helping now and then. Real or veggie? Take your pick. But I think the veggie version would be anathema to many Scots. As I also enjoy Stornoway black pudding and the occasional andouillette, I prefer the "real" haggis.
(2) Women's cricket was a team sport in a number of British private (public) schools and nowadays women's cricket is very popular.
Morgus,
my introduction to the Spirit was the two giant-size colour reprint comics that Harvey released, I think in the late 60's (?) At the same time they reprinted a Fighting American anthology, which was my introduction to that character.
And the attempt to manufacture a crime, criminal, and bad feelings among a family, when there is really none of that, and it is all based on a set of coincidences, and resultant misunderstandings, is easily seen through by the reader.
The MacGuffin is an element which orders the structure of the narrative and motivates the characters to indulge in their activities on screen. Its presence ensures the Aristotelian continuity in narrative action and provides a causal link between corresponding events. However, the significance of the ‘MacGuffin’ is played down by Hitchcock. He insists that it is, ‘something that the characters worry about but the audience does not’.
the mysterious figure in the distance who seems to disappear all the time, is a red herring
Quotethe mysterious figure in the distance who seems to disappear all the time, is a red herring
Your comment reminds me of a mystery I've never solved.
I clearly remember one of these B-minus Sc-Fi clinkers in which a mysterious stranger is constantly seen lurking about. He appears throughout the movie but never seems to take part in the story. At the end of the movie, all the loose ends are tied up except for this guy. In the final scene we see the mysterious man sitting in a car. He breaks the old fourth wall by addressing the camera, saying, "I bet you're wondering who I am. I'm the guy who wrote this picture!" Then he rolls up the car window, on which is painted "The End." The sound of my brother and I crying "Whaaaaat??" could be heard halfway across Snohomish, Washington.
I have never been able to identify this movie. ProfH? Panther? Anyone?
We have boarding school in Australia, of course, but my impression is that it's mainly students from rural areas who go there because they don't have a high school in their area (or because Daddy is an old boy at such and such a college and they have to follow in Daddy's footsteps). Am I right in assuming it was a more widespread practice in the UK during a certain time period?
QQ said,
QQ, I went to a boarding school in Australia - in QLD as a matter of fact,
both before - (Primary school) and after, (After year 10) I went to state schools.
Boarding schools are about class and getting trained to be able to take on a higher level of profession - with the aid, if possible, of networking. Your parents needed to have a certain amount of capital to send you there, although mine didn't. Never appreciated that at the time. There is actually a surprising mix of pupils. There were city pupils, pupils from Stations [Ranches] far out west, and pupils whose families were located in places where there wasn't access to suitable education. We had one girl from an island in the Barrier reef and a boy whose family ran sideshows and so moved constantly around the country. At home, he had his own caravan. We all envied him that. Also there were people there on scholarships and assistance. From places like New Guinea.
My cubicle - areas where we slept -was shared with 7 others who were all from New Guinea. that included 2 Anglos, (one of them Deutsch) two Chinese ( children of NG business-people) and two ethnic New Guinea lads. The lot of them used to converse in NG Pigeon English!
We also had a number of American students.The only other Americans we normally saw were on TV.
I went to a Co-ed boarding school. That was a plus.
Had to wear a culturally inappropriate English-style uniform. complete with tie and hat.
Just to point out that while some of the cliches about boarding schools are accurate, the reality is a bit more complex.
cheers!
QQ said,QuoteWe have boarding school in Australia, of course, but my impression is that it's mainly students from rural areas who go there because they don't have a high school in their area (or because Daddy is an old boy at such and such a college and they have to follow in Daddy's footsteps). Am I right in assuming it was a more widespread practice in the UK during a certain time period?
QQ, I went to a boarding school in Australia - in QLD as a matter of fact,
both before - (Primary school) and after, (After year 10) I went to state schools.
Boarding schools are about class and getting trained to be able to take on a higher level of profession - with the aid, if possible, of networking. Your parents needed to have a certain amount of capital to send you there, although mine didn't. Never appreciated that at the time. There is actually a surprising mix of pupils. There were city pupils, pupils from Stations [Ranches] far out west, and pupils whose families were located in places where there wasn't access to suitable education. We had one girl from an island in the Barrier reef and a boy whose family ran sideshows and so moved constantly around the country. At home, he had his own caravan. We all envied him that. Also there were people there on scholarships and assistance. From places like New Guinea.
My cubicle - areas where we slept -was shared with 7 others who were all from New Guinea, that included 2 Anglos, (one of them Deutsch) two Chinese ( children of NG business-people) and two ethnic New Guinea lads. The lot of them used to converse in NG Pigeon English!
We also had a number of American students.The only other Americans we normally saw were on TV.
I went to a Co-ed boarding school. That was a plus.
Had to wear a culturally inappropriate English-style uniform. complete with tie and hat.
Just to point out that while some of the cliches about boarding schools are accurate, the reality is a bit more complex.
cheers!
'Crash and robb k, the film, I think, is THE APE MAN. Bela Lugosi. Monogram
The baddie is Sol Grundy. Is that the same Solomon Grundy who was a villain in the DC universe, or have they just re-used the name?
Also, The Spirit mentions that he has to get back to Central City. Is that the same Central City where the Silver Age Flash lives?
I know DC continuity ranges between nonexistent and extremely convoluted - LOL - but was just wondering about the similarities.
the biggest howlers they ever did
We used to have contests, my friends and I, and figure out WHEN we lost track of the DC or Marvel universe, or the biggest howlers they ever did. It could go on all night. MAD magazine did a parody of musicals and had comic strip characters of every shape and size for the final curtain number. Continuity wise, the whole thing now reminds me of that.
Q.Q.: We used to have contests, my friends and I, and figure out WHEN we lost track of the DC or Marvel universe, or the biggest howlers they ever did. It could go on all night. MAD magazine did a parody of musicals and had comic strip characters of every shape and size for the final curtain number. Continuity wise, the whole thing now reminds me of that.
QQ, the Spirit has nothing to do with DC continuity.
Even tho DC later brought the rights to the Quality characters, they didn't have the rights to the SPIRIT.
Eisner, who was a canny businessman probably owned the rights himself from the beginning.
The Spirit stories in the Quality comics would have been reprints from the Newspaper inserts.
Here are a few of the better ones.
The Spirit 22
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20425
The Spirit 18
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=19814
The Spirit 20
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=19817
Enjoy!