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[Morgus]

The film is part of a series of nine Bela did for Monogram. At their best, they are just SURREAL. At the top of my pick, you have BLACK DRAGONS where Japanese spies are made to look 'just like us' by plastic surgery and are being hunted down by Bela. BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT has Bela as a college professor/soup kitchen operator/gangland chief. VOO DOO MAN has Bela getting new brides from a helpful George Zucco's gas station. He can make your car conk out with a neat-o gizmo of some sort. I don't know if the writers had the audience in contempt, or if it was like when Big Daddy Bill Gaines and the gang made those EC comics to amuse THEMSEVLVES. Maybe a bit of both. But I CAN almost hear a writers meeting like crash suggests; "Hey, wanna know what would be fun??" The casts are always a surprise so I won't ruin it for you. (Tom Neal from DETOUR, John Carradine looking like he's having the time of his life, a pre-Lone Ranger Clayton Moore, Dave "Play it faster' O'Brian. Lots of B movie greats. The best seem to have either Wanda McKay or Joan Barclay as the lead ladies. Happy hunting.

[The Australian Panther]

All nine of them are on YouTube with quite a few more Lugosi movies.
The one that intrigues me, and its link is saved for me to watch when I have time,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oetP5BY59tc 
Murder by Television (1935) BELA LUGOSI

The prints are reasonable, but they all look like they were saved from Television screens.

[gregjh]

Well I really enjoyed the three tales in 'The Spirit'. The obvious theme was good being able to balance or overcome bad. The warm colouring and the brief but cogent storytelling was intriguing and different to the usual type of GA comic I enjoy. I know I've read the spirit before but I don't remember much about him. I also enjoyed his (very short) story in his own comic though.

Thank you for these choices TAP. They got me in the Christmas...Spirit. I will be enjoying my usual red wine and reading of Batman Noel on Chistmas Eve, when I will also return here to read more.

[Morgus]

A.P., MURDER BY TELEVSION isn't too bad, but like a lot of the serials that they made back in the day using TV as a plot element, they were a little shaky on how it all worked.
Another unique one is THE THRITEENTH CHAIR. One of those drawing room murder mysteries that are like a Tier Two Agatha Christie. You know, exotic locations and everybody in a tux. Tod Browning, the guy who did Dracula two years later and a lot of other neat films is behind the camera. It's a bit slow and clunky because it was early sound and everybody was figuring out where to stand and what to do, but it's worth a look. Bela got type cast as a horror hero, but could have been an exotic detective like Moto, Chan, or any of the rest.

[Quirky Quokka]

Hi all

Since I seem to be the only one who'd never read a Spirit comic, I thought I'd have a look at one of the regular ones. I went to #22 from 1950, and I can see what you're talking about in terms of stories and originality. But I have a couple of questions from the first story in the book:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20425

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? I don't know much about him, but this story doesn't seem to fit. 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've just finished reading a volume of Flash comics I have from 1956-1960 and the name was fresh in my mind.

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

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!

[SuperScrounge]

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?

Reused the name. IIRC Solomon Grundy was the title of a children's poem "Solomon Grundy was born on a Monday..."

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?

Generic city name is generic.  Central City was also the original city that Marvel's Fantastic Four was based in before it was made into New York City. Heck even DC used Central City a few times before they created the Silver Age Flash.

[Morgus]

It all reminds me of that line from BLAZING SADDLES. When Governor Lepetomane says to Hedley Lamarr; “What the hell are you worried about? It’s 1874. You'll be able to sue her.”
A.P.: You want a fast tribute to the genius of Eisner? I would love to know the exact number of times the 3 covers for the collections you’ve posted have been used over and over. The effectiveness of art, huh?

By the way, can’t fail to mention P.S. magazine, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly magazine that Eisner did when he was in the army. It’s here on the site and is a joy to read. What to know what life was like for the American GI back in WWII? These give you a great look. The cover art you can stare at for hours.
Right up there with PRIVATE SNAFU training films that Chuck Jones made for the US army during the war.

[The Australian Panther]

Morgus my man!
I chose PS magazine for a Reading Group slot some time ago. We had a good old chinwag about it!
Here tis!

CB + Reading Group - # 220 - P.S. Magazine 1
https://comicbookplus.com/forum/?topic=17475.0


Actually, its surprising how many of the golden age creators who were called up towards the end of WWII and Korea , ended up doing similar work - cartooning, magazine production, even map-making, for the services.   

Cheers!

[Quirky Quokka]

Thanks Panther and SuperScrounge. I know DC continuity ranges between nonexistent and extremely convoluted - LOL - but was just wondering about the similarities. They've dug up quite a few old characters and names and have given them new stories.

And thanks for the links, Panther. I had already looked at Spirit #22, but will check the others.

Cheers

Nola

[SuperScrounge]

I know DC continuity ranges between nonexistent and extremely convoluted - LOL - but was just wondering about the similarities.

Yeah, there's a variety of reasons for that, multiple writers on the same character, writers & editors who don't think it matters because who's gonna buy every issue and pay attention to minor details. Also writers taking rejected scripts to another editor and rewriting a bit.

City names kind of amuse me as they can sound both specific and generic, Central City, Coast City, Big City, Empire City, Capital City, Metropolis, Smallville, etc., etc. TV Tropes has (or had) an entry called City of Adventure which pointed out how every superhero city tended to have certain features in common, a shipping port, a big lake, they are near the shore, the mountains and the desert, a lot of them have European style castles somewhere nearby (very big in Golden Age stories for some reason, I think I've read three Batman stories with a different castle near Gotham).

For me it's part of the fun.

[Morgus]

Super; Maybe the best take on that whole 'city' shtick is how Springfield on The Simpsons always changes...

A.P: sorry I missed the PS magazine chat a couple of years ago. COVID was in high gear, and we were all working flat out. (In "reality" I'm a psych nurse...) But I enjoyed how he solved problems of putting a lot of info into very little space...and not getting cluttered, either. Was glad to see there's a book out on the subject now, it came up in the quarterly mag he did with Denis Kitchen.

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.

[crashryan]

the biggest howlers they ever did

There have been so many amusing foul ups in comics over the years, but one of my favorites is the Captain America (I think? It's been years) where Cap is involved in a knock-down drag-out fistfight with an enemy. Battered but unbowed, in the last panel of the page he says "Only ONE of us will leave this room ALIVE--"

[Turn the page--Cap attacks]

"...and it won't be ME!!!"

[The Australian Panther]

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.

DC has just about almost completed one more "CRISIS" reset of their 'Universe' - what's that? 5 times at least.
The writing of these things just gets worse and worse. And makes less and less sense.
Marvel has done about 3 EVENTS just this year alone, and they get duller and more uninteresting each time.
I may do an end-of-year sum-up post next week some time, so more then. 
cheers!   

[Quirky Quokka]

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.

Morgus, SuperScrounge, Crashryan and Panther - I'm a late bloomer and only got into DC comic books a few years ago when I discovered a volume of early Superman comics in a bookstore. I loved it. Seems strange now, but it had never occurred to me that DC and Marvel had been making compilations of these old comics (and I didn't know sites like Comic Books Plus existed because I wasn't looking for them). I thought the only way to get these old comics was to pay a small fortune on eBay and similar, which I hadn't done.

I'm gradually building up a collection of compilations, mainly Golden and Silver Age DC, with an Ironman thrown in, and some one-off facsimile comic books that DC and Marvel have been releasing. So it's been a huge learning curve for me. For example, I only realised recently that there have been several Robins and that Nightwing is the original Robin grown up - LOL - so I was way behind. It doesn't bother me too much except when I find a graphic novel I like and then discover there's no follow-on. For example, I really liked 'Supergirl: Being Super', which collected the four comic books by Mariko Tamaki. I liked that version of Supergirl and wanted to read the next in the series, but there aren't any more by Tamaki.

It's great that different writers and artists bring different things to the characters, and I can understand why they may want to revamp some of the backstories and characters from earlier eras. But I don't like it when they keep reinventing the wheel and we have yet another spin on Superman's origin story.

But if you don't expect continuity and just go with the flow, it's dandy 

Cheers

QQ

[K1ngcat]

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!

Thanks Panther I'd forgotten that CB+ hosted these gems featuring some of the best examples of Eisner's Spirit. A timely reminder, much appreciated.
All the best

K1ngcat

[The Australian Panther]

Amazing what a little research will do.
Here is an article on Eisner and another Christmas Story
Will Eisner Returned to The Spirit After World War II Just In Time for a Christmas Classic
https://www.cbr.com/will-eisner-spirit-christmas-return-world-war-ii/

Here's another from right here.
A Christmas Spirit - a trilogy
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=39126   
and,

It seems that Kitchen Sink published a stand-alone collection of Spirit Christmas stories.
The Christmas Spirit
https://www.comics.org/issue/764838/
I'd like to get hold of that one!
Enjoy!

 

[The Australian Panther]

I'm only going to be concerned here with the Christmas theme.   
The Spirit (1941-12-28) - Parkchester Review - A trilogy.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=39126

Eisner used this idea, telling a classic or well-known story in modern guise, more than once.
Lets just look at the first page,
The font creates the Christmas mood.
The top three panels introduce us to 'Bethlehem' and also move the story along and also introduce us to 'the three wise men' Presumably Hobos were still common in 1941.

The next three panels introduce us to the child king and from here we apparently digress.
Note - so far, the Spirit is not present.
The third story is the most interesting,  The dictator is reduced to his childhood and reforms.
Then everything begins to be tied together, the ex-dictator is one of the hobos and uses his Christmas gift to raise money to give the boy king a gift. And the boy king reforms and returns the money to the Spirit, finally in the tale.
Eisner was the master of the visual narrative, but makes it look so effortless that the reader takes it for granted.
Given the three stories were probably all written or plotted by Eisner, and published together as one unit, I like the way he gets all the characters together - like the cast of a play - on the last page, to wish the reader Merry Christmas.       
The Spirit (1940-12-22)
https://comicbookplus.com/forum/?action=post;topic=22909.50;last_msg=88707
Eisner pencils, Joe Kubert inks. This gives the work a quite different look.
The Christmas mood and exposure to poor kids in a church gives two crooks an attack of conscience - and again the Story ties in with the Spirit's actions even though he is entirely outside the narrative until the end. 
My thought is that we live in far too cynical times, I can't imagine anyone today publishing a story as optimistic as this.
The other stories, good as they are, don't tie into a Christmas theme.
I should have reviewed these in reverse order as they show how much Eisner had improved his craft in the intervening 12 months.
Schoolgirls' Picture Library 040 - Christmas in The Highlands
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=76870   
Not much I can say about this one that hasn't already been said.
It's what you expect from those English 'girls' comics from that period.
Your comments and reviews were all excellent and discerning.
I enjoyed it for what it is.
Good Cheer to all!