Print

[K1ngcat]

Greetings readers, allow me to wish you all a Merry Mayday!

Jack Cole was an artist and writer whose style changed considerably over the years until his tragic suicide in 1958. Plastic Man is probably his best known creation, but he also turned out countless one-page humour strips and a lampoon of Blackhawk called Death Patrol, as well as working on Crime and Horror titles, before becoming a regular contributor to Playboy magazine.

Here are three examples of his work which I hope some of you will enjoy. From Police Comics #11 comes a 1942 Plastic Man adventure, The Brain of Cyrus Smythe:
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=19820

From 1947's Smash Comics #72 comes a Midnight story, Angela the Beautiful Bovine featuring the hero's usual sidekicks Doc Wackey and Gabby the talking monkey, plus a would-be Sherlock and his pet Polar Bear Cub, who got thrown into the mix when Paul Gustafson wrote the long-running feature. Midnight's similarity to The Spirit is entirely deliberate, and as Cole contributed to the Spirit daily newspaper strips, I'm guessing Eisner didn't mind too much!
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20032

Finally from 1953's Horror title Web of Evil #3, the classic Killer From Saturn plus Goddess of Evil,
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=71513

Let me know what you think, and don't be afraid to read the other stories in the three comics, there's a Spirit origin story and other delights which await those who delve deeper.

All the best
K1ngcat

[Quirky Quokka]

Some interesting selections there, K1ngcat. I'll start the ball rolling with a few comments about the Jack Cole stories in Police Comics and Smash Comics, and will come back to the others later. I remember last year we had a comic that included Plastic Man and Midnight, but apart from that, I am a newbie to Jack Coles' art. I'll look forward to being enlightened by everyone's comments.

Police Comics - The Brain of Cyrus Smythe

A great splash page. Really catches the eye with some innovative work. There's interesting artwork throughout, with lots of detail (e.g., the ship image in the binocular lenses on p. 2). However, I found I had to go back and look at some of the pics again to make sense of the story because there were details I missed. For example, in panel 3 on the bottom of p. 2, I couldn't for the life of me see a soldier who was going off to war. Eventually I realised that the form in the middle is actually the girlfriend hugging/kissing the soldier. LOL But that's probably my fault for not looking properly. The story had a few twists and turns for a brain-in-wrong-body story. Plastic Man certainly had an odd case with this one.

Smash Comics - The Beautiful Bovine


A fun story, with some interesting twists and turns. I remember reading one of these Midnight stories before, and I still wonder why no one can work out that the radio announcer and Midnight are the same person except for the domino mask. They're even wearing exactly the same suit. Lots of interesting artwork, like the 'POW' panel on p. 2. Lots of expressiveness and different postures in the characters, which gives it a unique 'feel'. I completely missed the white polar bear cub until I re-read K1ngcat's comments. Then I went back and saw he was in tons of panels. Lots of detail. You almost need to read the story and then go through a second time to look at the art. Very entertaining.

I'll post about some of the other stories later.

Cheers

QQ

[K1ngcat]

Wow, QQ, you're very quick off the mark! Thanks for your comments, there is certainly a lot of detail in Cole's art and a lot of movement too. Usually comic art is drawn larger than it appears and reduced for print, though Cole's earlier work often contained lots of very small panels as in the Plastic Man story. I don't know whether Cole hadn't yet got the hang of drawing things larger than they would appear in print, or whether he was determined to use all the space available to get the whole of his story in.

As you see in the Midnight story, he later got used to the constraints of the printed page, but his panels still often contained a lot of detail, and forms were often stretched beyond their normal shape to convey movement and action. Yes, that darned Polar bear cub did get around!

Hope you don't find Web Of Evil too upsetting..

All the best
K1ngcat

[Quirky Quokka]

Wow, QQ, you're very quick off the mark! Thanks for your comments, there is certainly a lot of detail in Cole's art and a lot of movement too. Usually comic art is drawn larger than it appears and reduced for print, though Cole's earlier work often contained lots of very small panels as in the Plastic Man story. I don't know whether Cole hadn't yet got the hang of drawing things larger than they would appear in print, or whether he was determined to use all the space available to get the whole of his story in.

As you see in the Midnight story, he later got used to the constraints of the printed page, but his panels still often contained a lot of detail, and forms were often stretched beyond their normal shape to convey movement and action. Yes, that darned Polar bear cub did get around!

Hope you don't find Web Of Evil too upsetting..

All the best
K1ngcat

Thanks for the extra info, K1ngcat. That makes sense about drawing in the larger format first. I guess it's hard to imagine exactly how it will look in reduced format until you really get the hang of it.

I'm going away for a few days at the end of the week, so I thought I'd at least get in some early comments on a couple of the stories. I had a quick flick through the Web of Evil one and it doesn't look too bad. In fact, I've already read the Killers of Saturn one and it was okay. Comments later. It's mainly the ones with really gory art that creep me out.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Okey dokey, just a few thoughts about the two Jack Cole stories K1ngcat mentioned from 'Web of Evil'. As you know, horror is not really my bag, though these ones didn't freak me out as much, so I decided to plough on

The Killer from Saturn

There were a few plot holes in the story for me. I'll try not to give spoilers for those who haven't read it yet, but I couldn't work out how the creature managed to kill all of those people over a period of time without anyone spotting him until towards the end. An 8-foot tall creature is kind of hard to conceal (though something towards the end gives a bit of a clue). There's also one point where it says that he 'switched his diet to the police', but he had already killed a cop a couple of pages earlier. Of all the planets, I wonder why it was assumed he was from Saturn? Did I miss something? The comments on the last page really made me think how far we've come in how we label and treat those with mental illness, though we still have a long way to go. Not my favourite story, but okay.

Regarding the art, is the limited colour palette used on purpose or was it just an artifact of the printing process? I guess it adds to the noir feel.

Goddess of Murder

I'm not a fan of vengeance stories, so I didn't really like this story. Very grim, and I didn't think the twist was all that believable. I can appreciate the talent of the art, but it's not the kind of art I like to look at.

I liked the first story a little better, but preferred the other comic books more. Thanks for an interesting selection though, K1ngcat. I probably won't read any more of the 'Web of Evil' one, but I'll try to read some more of the stories in the other two.

Cheers

QQ

[K1ngcat]

The Killer from Saturn

There were a few plot holes in the story for me. I'll try not to give spoilers for those who haven't read it yet, but I couldn't work out how the creature managed to kill all of those people over a period of time without anyone spotting him until towards the end. An 8-foot tall creature is kind of hard to conceal (though something towards the end gives a bit of a clue). There's also one point where it says that he 'switched his diet to the police', but he had already killed a cop a couple of pages earlier. Of all the planets, I wonder why it was assumed he was from Saturn? Did I miss something? The comments on the last page really made me think how far we've come in how we label and treat those with mental illness, though we still have a long way to go. Not my favourite story, but okay.

Regarding the art, is the limited colour palette used on purpose or was it just an artifact of the printing process? I guess it adds to the noir feel.

Cheers

QQ

And cheers to you QQ, for steeling your nerves enough to attempt Web of Evil!  You make some interesting points about the credibility of the "creature," and they're not wrong. Who (or what) could make the pose in panel #1 page #8  if the truth of the creature's origin is correct? But I'm content to put that down to artistic license. One of the things that I like most is the creature's appearance in the background in the last three panels on page #6 and the first panel of page:#7, just a reminder to the viewer of the killer's constant threat.  I gather the suggestion that the killer is from Saturn is reliant on an explanation put forward by an "expert" in panel #5 page #8, and you know how reliable expert opinions are!

What interests me is the fact that you'd challenge the plot holes in this story without questioning the Plastic Man story, which is basically one plot hole after another. But I can't say more without setting up a whole sequence of spoilers for those who haven't read anything yet!

Anyhow thanks again for taking the time to explore Jack Cole's work.  I'm such a fan, and there are so many differing examples in CB+, that I hardly knew which tales to choose. Glad you found some things to interest you, and I look forward to hearing more from you later.

All the best
K1ngcat

[Quirky Quokka]

What interests me is the fact that you'd challenge the plot holes in this story without questioning the Plastic Man story, which is basically one plot hole after another. But I can't say more without setting up a whole sequence of spoilers for those who haven't read anything yet!

K1ngcat

Good question, K1ngcat. I'm a writer and editor (though not of comic books) and people pay me to do assessments of their novels and find plot holes. Actually, they don't think they're hiring me to find plot holes, but I often do - LOL It might be because the Plastic Man one is clearly in the fantasy realm. He literally stretches reality, so I'm not expecting it to fit together as logically as a more realistic story, as long as it's true to the genre. But you're right. I probably could have picked up plot holes. I guess I just went with the flow because my expectations were different. With the Creature from Saturn one, it starts out like sci-fi, but is set in a contemporary (for then) city and has more of a noir feel with a killer on the loose and the police trying to find the killer. So maybe for that reason, I was expecting it to be more logical. Or maybe my brain cells were just firing better when I read that one 

Cheers

QQ

[crashryan]

Police Comics #11 and Web of Evil #3

I seem to be the only one getting these vibes...so maybe I'm totally off-base. But--

QQ talks about being creeped out by horror comics. Well, I'm creeped out by the three non-Midnight stories. I know one usually can't analyze an artist's personality just by looking at his work. There are exceptions, though. Fletcher Hanks comes to mind. When I'd finished these three stories I had the queasy feeling that Jack Cole was a seriously tortured soul.

I admit that my judgement is colored by my knowing his biography and about his suicide for reasons unknown. Nevertheless his scripts for "Killer from Saturn," "Goddess of Murder," and yes, even "The Brain of Simon Smythe," have a ferocious nihilism that other, gorier writers didn't. Harvey's stores were gross but mostly  hack jobs. Feldstein's scripts offered gruesome images but they were tempered by a macabre sense of humor that suggested he didn't take them seriously. Cole took his stories very seriously.

Two of Cole's infamous crime stories, "Murder, Morphine and Me" and "Meet the Split," pair the same manic fury with even gorier scenes than those in these three stories. Cole is rightly honored for his storytelling innovations and wild imagination. But once having read these three stories, all I could think was, "This was one screwed-up dude."

[FraBig]

Wow, Jack Cole at Quality Comics! Truly a great selection, Kingcat!
If I manage to find the time I'll be glad to read those issues. Plenty of good stuff from Quality.

[Morgus]

Alright, Kingcat! Jack Cole! I waited until I had an afternoon off (today) so I could sit back and savour the stories. It was worth it.
Q.Q.: I didn’t read your comments until after, and I didn’t see the polar bear either. But, like you and Kingcat both say, there is so much going on during any story of Cole’s that you are dragged in whirlpool style until the end. Cole was always so intense that the panels in comic art barely seemed to be able to contain his action. And in action he excelled.
It’s really hard to demonstrate movement, kinetic force and speed in the comic format. A lot of times the attempts come out looking like still pictures.
Cole always could.
‘Crash, I agree with you. I think there was a tension in his life that translated to the page and I don’t know how or why somebody didn’t just put the paper down and ask; “Are you okay?”
I didn’t read ‘Murder, Morphine and Me” until the early 90’s, and I was still blown away by it’s emotional force. Can’t imagine what someone in the 50’s thought of it. Dr. Wertham went for that panel of the hypo going for the girls eye. But the people doubling over from gun shots like they had just been hit in the gut by a baseball bat also made you wince.
Okay, lets talk the three masterpieces we have today;
MIDNIGHT;
‘Animal husbandry pavillon’? Assorted G-strings? Cracked me up. And the old guy who wants to ‘take her out of this sort of life’. Priceless. Q.Q.; Eisner built in the teeny tiny mask as an inside joke about super heroes when he started The Spirit. His way of making fun of the fact that anybody with half a brain would be able to figure out Clark Kent and Superman were the same. Since this is Sprit 2.0 the gag goes with them.
PLASTIC MAN;
Holes in the plot? Who cares?? Cole straps you in the backseat, hits the gas, and just GOES. ‘Panther, as another fan of H.P. Lovecraft, this has to be one of the best answer stories to ’The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’ I ever read. Love the Wilkins/Smythe insults to the girls. Maybe Preston Sturges had weirder dialogue, but it would be close (“Meet Tad Wilkins, future ruler of the universe”, “Shake, what th’ racket?”) I think it was Sergio Aragones who used to go up to the Mad offices with the guys after a night out and take a magnifying glass and look at the lines on the old art by Wood and the rest. I wound up doing the same thing here.
KILLER FROM SATURN
Alright, TOP NOTCH horror comics! Nice art, nice delivery, and do you think Cole identified with the murderer? I don’t think I reading too much into that. “Goddess of Murder” was a nice second feature. The gnarly critter made-up for the screwball ending.
Great selections, KingCat. Really enjoyed them all.

[K1ngcat]

Good question, K1ngcat. I'm a writer and editor (though not of comic books) and people pay me to do assessments of their novels and find plot holes. Actually, they don't think they're hiring me to find plot holes, but I often do - LOL It might be because the Plastic Man one is clearly in the fantasy realm. He literally stretches reality, so I'm not expecting it to fit together as logically as a more realistic story, as long as it's true to the genre. But you're right. I probably could have picked up plot holes. I guess I just went with the flow because my expectations were different. With the Creature from Saturn one, it starts out like sci-fi, but is set in a contemporary (for then) city and has more of a noir feel with a killer on the loose and the police trying to find the killer. So maybe for that reason, I was expecting it to be more logical. Or maybe my brain cells were just firing better when I read that one 

Cheers

QQ

Well thanks to confirming that, QQ, I had an idea that the semi-real, noir approach of the Killer from Saturn set it aside from the wild ride that Cole gave Plastic Man. I was just trying to choose examples that showed how much his style changed over the years and as I'm a gigantic fan it was a difficult choice. If anything that I chose appealed to you, I'd heartily recommend following it up, his talent was gigantic IMHO.

Thanks for biting the bullet and reading Web Of Evil, Cole had quite a number of stories in that title too.

All the best
K1ngcat

[K1ngcat]

Alright, Kingcat! Jack Cole! I waited until I had an afternoon off (today) so I could sit back and savour the stories. It was worth it.
Q.Q.: I didn’t read your comments until after, and I didn’t see the polar bear either. But, like you and Kingcat both say, there is so much going on during any story of Cole’s that you are dragged in whirlpool style until the end. Cole was always so intense that the panels in comic art barely seemed to be able to contain his action. And in action he excelled.
It’s really hard to demonstrate movement, kinetic force and speed in the comic format. A lot of times the attempts come out looking like still pictures.
Cole always could.
‘Crash, I agree with you. I think there was a tension in his life that translated to the page and I don’t know how or why somebody didn’t just put the paper down and ask; “Are you okay?”
I didn’t read ‘Murder, Morphine and Me” until the early 90’s, and I was still blown away by it’s emotional force. Can’t imagine what someone in the 50’s thought of it. Dr. Wertham went for that panel of the hypo going for the girls eye. But the people doubling over from gun shots like they had just been hit in the gut by a baseball bat also made you wince.
Okay, lets talk the three masterpieces we have today;
MIDNIGHT;
‘Animal husbandry pavillon’? Assorted G-strings? Cracked me up. And the old guy who wants to ‘take her out of this sort of life’. Priceless. Q.Q.; Eisner built in the teeny tiny mask as an inside joke about super heroes when he started The Spirit. His way of making fun of the fact that anybody with half a brain would be able to figure out Clark Kent and Superman were the same. Since this is Sprit 2.0 the gag goes with them.
PLASTIC MAN;
Holes in the plot? Who cares?? Cole straps you in the backseat, hits the gas, and just GOES. ‘Panther, as another fan of H.P. Lovecraft, this has to be one of the best answer stories to ’The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’ I ever read. Love the Wilkins/Smythe insults to the girls. Maybe Preston Sturges had weirder dialogue, but it would be close (“Meet Tad Wilkins, future ruler of the universe”, “Shake, what th’ racket?”) I think it was Sergio Aragones who used to go up to the Mad offices with the guys after a night out and take a magnifying glass and look at the lines on the old art by Wood and the rest. I wound up doing the same thing here.
KILLER FROM SATURN
Alright, TOP NOTCH horror comics! Nice art, nice delivery, and do you think Cole identified with the murderer? I don’t think I reading too much into that. “Goddess of Murder” was a nice second feature. The gnarly critter made-up for the screwball ending.
Great selections, KingCat. Really enjoyed them all.

Thanks Morgus, I'm glad you did. I figured someone had to introduce Jack to the reading group, and I drew myself the short straw!

Yes I have a suspicion that Cole might've identified with the murderer in The Killer From Saturn. He was a four-eyed nerd with a stutter who suffered the burden of infertility in an age before IVF and Surrogacy gave more choice to childless couples. I know suicide was a theme that came up in many of his stories, and I know I remember a Plastic Man story where Plas was left alone musing over what it would be like to have a child (maybe someone can pinpoint it for me?)

I was already aware of Murder, Morphine and Me, thanks for suggesting Meet The Split, which has the same manic energy.  Maybe Cole was bipolar? As crash points out, he may have been a sick puppy, but he was also a tremendous innovator who brought a whole new kind of talent to the "funny papers" and he was keen to improve and hone his abilities. Perhaps he needed the validation of popularity and praise to keep his negative feelings at bay?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes the contents of his suicide note had been made public, it was a tragedy that may have been averted if anyone had asked. "Yeah, Jack, but how do you feel?"

Hadn't considered the Lovecraftian tendencies in The Brain Of Cyrus Smythe, tho as a Lovecraft fan perhaps I should've. Thanks for your insight, glad you enjoyed my choices.

All the best
K1ngcat

[SuperScrounge]

Police Comics #11

Plastic Man
Fun, zany story.

Dewey Drip
While I'm tempted to call this bad it's probably more below average. The art's okay. Some of the humor bits are trying to be funny and seem a little different from similar things I've read, but even if it had worked it wouldn't have been very funny.

711
Eh, the premise of this series tends to hold back the stories. Maybe if it were just a story of a guard trying to stop the Runt it would work better, as it is the guards look incompetent as a costumed guy runs through the halls without being seen or questioned. As it is it might have been more dramatic if the Runt hadn't died, but used his knowledge of 711's identity as a form of blackmail in future stories. Ah, well. So-so story.

The Human Bomb
Ummmm, interesting, but while I did laugh at the punchline the switch of the guy from villain to potential hero really seemed to come out of nowhere. He should pay the price for destroying those buildings.

Steele Kerrigan
Not bad. By the way, how strong is Kerrigan and/or how light were tires in those days? He tosses those things like they were hula hoops, whereas a modern day tire is much heavier.

Manhunter
Okay.

Burp the Twerp
Yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh... Easy to see why no one would sign their name on this story.

The Spirit
Pretty good. Admittedly Eisner had been creating comic book characters for comics so making one for a newspaper insert was probably second nature at this point, so he knew what worked.

The Monster of the Swamps
Okay.

Super Snooper
Another example of humor-like product. They were rationing humor during the war, so they created something that looked like humor, but wasn't actually funny. 

Firebrand
Okay.

Produce the Body
Sooooo... none of the people who lived there for years knew about the quicksand??? Maybe if there had been mention of the river recently changing course or something to explain why a natural hazard was unknown to the people who lived there.

The Mouthpiece
A little overly simplistic. Odd to see an actual death by electric chair in a comic (at least, I don't recall seeing it in comics I've read. Maybe it's more common in comics I don't read.)

Phantom Lady
Okay.

It's funny, since this was the first issue to have the Spirit I looked at the previous cover and saw that his headshot replaced Firebrand's. Which is funny because Firebrand was the original star of Police Comics, but also, they left 711's headshot. Are they seriously saying that 711 was more popular than Firebrand??? 

[Robb_K]

One thing I've always hated about The Midnight stories is the fact that the series' creator (or his boss) wanted Midnight's sidekick (as a parody of The Spirit's sidekick, Ebony) to be a talking (erect, Humanlike) monkey.  That is just what the most hateful racist bigots thought of African-Americans, and portrayed them as such, in derogatory cartoons. I can understand a comic book company wanting to run a parody series of a successful newspaper strip in their books.  I wonder if Busy Arnold was a bigot?  And, the ultra-liberal Will Eisner, worked for Arnold, and "The Spirit" comic book series (of newspaper reprints) was even published by Arnold.  I wonder what Eisner thought of that parody series?

[Quirky Quokka]

Police Comics #11 and Web of Evil #3

I seem to be the only one getting these vibes...so maybe I'm totally off-base. But--

QQ talks about being creeped out by horror comics. Well, I'm creeped out by the three non-Midnight stories. I know one usually can't analyze an artist's personality just by looking at his work. There are exceptions, though. Fletcher Hanks comes to mind. When I'd finished these three stories I had the queasy feeling that Jack Cole was a seriously tortured soul.

Hi Crash

You're not the only one getting those vibes. The three non-Midnight stories were all tales of revenge, which I'm never crazy about in any genre. I didn't mind the Plastic Man one because his strange antics added a bit of the ridiculous (in a good way), which took the edge off the dark storyline for me, though not my favourite. The Creature from Saturn had a bit of a noir feel, which I don't mind, but again not a favourite. The Kali one was very dark and I struggled to get to the end of that one. I don't know enough about Cole to know if these are representative of his work. I can appreciate his artistic ability, but it's not the style I would want to spend a lot of time looking at. The Bovine one was more fun and I enjoyed the whimsical art more.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Q.Q.; Eisner built in the teeny tiny mask as an inside joke about super heroes when he started The Spirit. His way of making fun of the fact that anybody with half a brain would be able to figure out Clark Kent and Superman were the same. Since this is Sprit 2.0 the gag goes with them.

Thanks for that, Morgus. That makes sense. I'm currently reading through my 500-page Batgirl omnibus that collects Barbara Gordon comics from the 1960s and 1970s. I'm about halfway through and have just read the one where Commissioner Gordon realises his daughter is Batgirl, but doesn't let on that he knows. My faith in him is restored. How could he not know? Those domino masks don't hide a thing. They even call her the Domino Doll.

I also have a Lois Lane compilation, as well as early Superman volumes, and I think she at least suspected Clark and Superman might be one in the same, though the big reveal wasn't until much later. Though Superman's storyline has been re-imagined so many times, I've lost track of what Lois knew in which reincarnation.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

One thing I've always hated about The Midnight stories is the fact that the series' creator (or his boss) wanted Midnight's sidekick (as a parody of The Spirit's sidekick, Ebony) to be a talking (erect, Humanlike) monkey.  That is just what the most hateful racist bigots thought of African-Americans, and portrayed them as such, in derogatory cartoons. I can understand a comic book company wanting to run a parody series of a successful newspaper strip in their books.  I wonder if Busy Arnold was a bigot?  And, the ultra-liberal Will Eisner, worked for Arnold, and "The Spirit" comic book series (of newspaper reprints) was even published by Arnold.  I wonder what Eisner thought of that parody series?

Interesting point, Robb. I remember we did a Spirit one last year and I thought Ebony actually was a stereotypically-drawn African-American. I didn't like the way he was represented, as it seemed very racist, but then I read up a bit on the Spirit and realised he was supposed to be a monkey. Was he drawn that way on purpose? The monkey in the Midnight story for this selection looked more like a real monkey to me, so I didn't occur to me that it might be parody.

Cheers

QQ

[Morgus]

Robb, that just slid past me. Too many years watching PLANET OF THE APES, where the apes had the best lines. And one of my fave youtube videos of all time is the Chimp Channel parody of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. (“...oohh..corn squeezings...”) And between Krypto the dog thinking fully human thoughts, Supergirls cat Mr. Ed, and who knows how many other talking animals, I just went with it.
But yeah, point taken.

By the way folks, disclaimer time. As a psych nurse I probably should have to mention that if you or anybody you know are dealing with suicidal thoughts you should seek help to feel better. One of the nastiest side effects is that you start to feel it’s the normal way to be. Not so. Please seek help. Like they used to say on the late night TV  commercials; ‘operators are standing by.'

We lose about one staff member every other year, give or take. And as in the case of Jack Cole, a lot of times you don’t see it coming. And asking ‘are you alright?’ or the more direct ‘Are you having feelings of self harm?” is not going to make them do it. Modern research indicates it may give them an escape valve and exit ramp off the thought process they don’t think they can escape.

[crashryan]

I remember we did a Spirit one last year and I thought Ebony actually was a stereotypically-drawn African-American. I didn't like the way he was represented, as it seemed very racist, but then I read up a bit on the Spirit and realised he was supposed to be a monkey. Was he drawn that way on purpose? The monkey in the Midnight story for this selection looked more like a real monkey to me, so I didn't occur to me that it might be parody.

To the best of my knowledge Ebony White was never intended to be a monkey. He certainly isn't a monkey in the Spirit strips. He's a racial caricature of a Black person. The resemblance to monkeys was built into the stereotype.

As someone has pointed out, Jack Cole was specifically instructed to imitate The Spirit. The Spirit had a comical Black sidekick; what's the closest we can get to that? I know, a monkey! Make him a talking monkey. Who knows if it was Arnold or Cole who came up with the idea? It probably seemed like a natural choice.

There were those at the time who objected to Ebony's portrayal, but they seldom got a hearing. In his later years Will Eisner tried to rehabilitate Ebony. He softened the physical caricature somewhat. He made Ebony's behavior and speech more normal. But he never could bring himself to admit the truth: Ebony was a racist stereotype that Eisner bears responsibility for creating.

The well-worn "those were different times" mantra has some truth but it only takes us so far. First, it absolves those who produced racist stuff of responsibility for their choices. "Everybody did it, it didn't hurt anybody, things are different now."

Second, the "those were different times" excuse suggests that racism, religious hatred, etc. are all in the past so we don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't know how it is in members' home countries, but here in the US the latest crop of neofascist politicians are aggressively pushing the same old tropes: the evils of commies, Jews, intellectuals, and dark-skinned people. Banning books, kicking out legislators, even criminalizing any suggestion that America has anything in its past for which it should make amends. It would be laughable that all this is being done in the name of Freedom, if it weren't so serious. Meanwhile that the book burners and vote suppressors are the same folk who whine endlessly about "cancel culture" and "censorship from the Left."

[Robb_K]

I remember we did a Spirit one last year and I thought Ebony actually was a stereotypically-drawn African-American. I didn't like the way he was represented, as it seemed very racist, but then I read up a bit on the Spirit and realised he was supposed to be a monkey. Was he drawn that way on purpose? The monkey in the Midnight story for this selection looked more like a real monkey to me, so I didn't occur to me that it might be parody.

To the best of my knowledge Ebony White was never intended to be a monkey. He certainly isn't a monkey in the Spirit strips. He's a racial caricature of a Black person. The resemblance to monkeys was built into the stereotype.[/b]

As someone has pointed out, Jack Cole was specifically instructed to imitate The Spirit. The Spirit had a comical Black sidekick; what's the closest we can get to that? I know, a monkey! Make him a talking monkey. Who knows if it was Arnold or Cole who came up with the idea? It probably seemed like a natural choice.

There were those at the time who objected to Ebony's portrayal, but they seldom got a hearing. In his later years Will Eisner tried to rehabilitate Ebony. He softened the physical caricature somewhat. He made Ebony's behavior and speech more normal. But he never could bring himself to admit the truth: Ebony was a racist stereotype that Eisner bears responsibility for creating.

The well-worn "those were different times" mantra has some truth but it only takes us so far. First, it absolves those who produced racist stuff of responsibility for their choices. "Everybody did it, it didn't hurt anybody, things are different now."

Second, the "those were different times" excuse suggests that racism, religious hatred, etc. are all in the past so we don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't know how it is in members' home countries, but here in the US the latest crop of neofascist politicians are aggressively pushing the same old tropes: the evils of commies, Jews, intellectuals, and dark-skinned people. Banning books, kicking out legislators, even criminalizing any suggestion that America has anything in its past for which it should make amends. It would be laughable that all this is being done in the name of Freedom, if it weren't so serious. Meanwhile that the book burners and vote suppressors are the same folk who whine endlessly about "cancel culture" and "censorship from the Left."

I was around during the late '40s, and even Jews among my family members didn't mind the racist stereotyping.  Being a Mal-treated people for the past 2,000 years +, you'd think they should have known better.  I surmised that Cole was ordered to make Midnight a parody of The Spirit.  He could have done so, without allowing the monkey to talk.  He could have just made him a very intelligent monkey, who could communicate with monkey noises, gestures, body language, and facial expression, like most of the Italian organ-grinder monkeys in comics gags and stories.  Then, The Midnight series could have still been an obvious parody, but not an almost-exact carbon copy.

[SuperScrounge]

Smash Comics #72

Midnight
Funny. 

Daffy
Also funny.

Black X
Even in comics they can't resist fruit cart scenes. (Many years ago film critics Siskel & Ebert complained about film cliches, one was the scene where cars run into fruit carts.) Okay story.

Lady Luck
Did the Treasury Department hire Lady Luck to do their job for them? We don't see one Treasury agent in this whole story. Otherwise okay story.

Batch Bachelor
Okay, but nothing special.

This is the Bird
Eh, not a terrible text story, but nothing special.

Spunky
Humor-like product. How old are Spunky and his friends? It's like the artist couldn't decide if he wanted to draw children or adults and tried to split the difference.

The Jester
How does officer Lane hide that costume under his police uniform without bulges to give it away? Otherwise okay.

How Joe's Body Brought Him Fame Instead of Shame
Or how to impress chicks by beating guys up. 

Outwitting the Kidnappers
Wow, what a bike, jet-propelled, and with a radio, and the guy's got a device that'll stop cars dead (hope those other drivers weren't in a hurry or had pacemakers), but this really could have used more pages to flesh out the story. 

[Quirky Quokka]

To the best of my knowledge Ebony White was never intended to be a monkey. He certainly isn't a monkey in the Spirit strips. He's a racial caricature of a Black person. The resemblance to monkeys was built into the stereotype.

As someone has pointed out, Jack Cole was specifically instructed to imitate The Spirit. The Spirit had a comical Black sidekick; what's the closest we can get to that? I know, a monkey! Make him a talking monkey. Who knows if it was Arnold or Cole who came up with the idea? It probably seemed like a natural choice.

There were those at the time who objected to Ebony's portrayal, but they seldom got a hearing. In his later years Will Eisner tried to rehabilitate Ebony. He softened the physical caricature somewhat. He made Ebony's behavior and speech more normal. But he never could bring himself to admit the truth: Ebony was a racist stereotype that Eisner bears responsibility for creating.

The well-worn "those were different times" mantra has some truth but it only takes us so far. First, it absolves those who produced racist stuff of responsibility for their choices. "Everybody did it, it didn't hurt anybody, things are different now."

Second, the "those were different times" excuse suggests that racism, religious hatred, etc. are all in the past so we don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't know how it is in members' home countries, but here in the US the latest crop of neofascist politicians are aggressively pushing the same old tropes: the evils of commies, Jews, intellectuals, and dark-skinned people. Banning books, kicking out legislators, even criminalizing any suggestion that America has anything in its past for which it should make amends. It would be laughable that all this is being done in the name of Freedom, if it weren't so serious. Meanwhile that the book burners and vote suppressors are the same folk who whine endlessly about "cancel culture" and "censorship from the Left."

Thanks for clearing that up, Crash. I went back and looked at the comments from the earlier Spirit one we did, and I now realise I had misremembered the discussion. Back then, I had thought Ebony was a talking monkey and didn't realise he was meant to be a person until I read other people's comments. That makes it even worse. Even for the time, it was a really derogatory representation. As I'm not as familiar with Spirit and Midnight as some of you, I missed the parody aspect in the Midnight one. I just accepted it as a talking monkey, as lots of comics have talking animals.

Cheers

QQ

[SuperScrounge]

I also have a Lois Lane compilation, as well as early Superman volumes, and I think she at least suspected Clark and Superman might be one in the same

In a 1942 Superman comic strip, a film producer sees the resemblance between Clark and Superman and Lois says, "Well... I must admit there is a slight resemblance, if you stretch your imagination to it's greatest extent."

In the same year in Superman #17 (Man Or Superman) is when Lois first suspects Clark & Superman are the same person.

Personally I like the idea that psychologically Lois doesn't want to believe that that drip Clark Kent could possibly be the exciting Superman which is why she always accepts whatever evidence Superman comes up with to prove he and Clark aren't the same whenever she tries to prove they are. (Whether or not any writer was thinking that, I couldn't say.)

[The Australian Panther]

Personally I like the idea that psychologically Lois doesn't want to believe that that drip Clark Kent could possibly be the exciting Superman which is why she always accepts whatever evidence Superman comes up with to prove he and Clark aren't the same whenever she tries to prove they are. (Whether or not any writer was thinking that, I couldn't say.) 

I think you have hit the nail on the head here, Scrounge.
Unfortunately, that is how the human mind tends to work more often than not.
Which is part of the reason why we can be so easily hoodwinked.

[K1ngcat]

To the best of my knowledge Ebony White was never intended to be a monkey. He certainly isn't a monkey in the Spirit strips. He's a racial caricature of a Black person. The resemblance to monkeys was built into the stereotype.

As someone has pointed out, Jack Cole was specifically instructed to imitate The Spirit. The Spirit had a comical Black sidekick; what's the closest we can get to that? I know, a monkey! Make him a talking monkey. Who knows if it was Arnold or Cole who came up with the idea? It probably seemed like a natural choice.

There were those at the time who objected to Ebony's portrayal, but they seldom got a hearing. In his later years Will Eisner tried to rehabilitate Ebony. He softened the physical caricature somewhat. He made Ebony's behavior and speech more normal. But he never could bring himself to admit the truth: Ebony was a racist stereotype that Eisner bears responsibility for creating.

The well-worn "those were different times" mantra has some truth but it only takes us so far. First, it absolves those who produced racist stuff of responsibility for their choices. "Everybody did it, it didn't hurt anybody, things are different now."

Second, the "those were different times" excuse suggests that racism, religious hatred, etc. are all in the past so we don't have to worry about it anymore. I don't know how it is in members' home countries, but here in the US the latest crop of neofascist politicians are aggressively pushing the same old tropes: the evils of commies, Jews, intellectuals, and dark-skinned people. Banning books, kicking out legislators, even criminalizing any suggestion that America has anything in its past for which it should make amends. It would be laughable that all this is being done in the name of Freedom, if it weren't so serious. Meanwhile that the book burners and vote suppressors are the same folk who whine endlessly about "cancel culture" and "censorship from the Left."

Sorry to say, I think you nailed it there, crash. However benign Eisner's intentions, Ebony White was still a racist stereotype, as was Chop Chop in Blackhawk.  And although that kind of casual racism was a reflection of the times he lived in, the times we live in now aren't necessarily a great deal better. The UK has been learning bad lessons from across the pond, limiting voting by introducing  requirements for photo ID, planning to ship immigrants out to other countries or housing them in giant barges offshore, and trying to pass laws that prevent refugees reaching the UK in small boats from even claiming asylum. Speak out against these wrongs and you're a snowflake, a bleeding heart, or worst of all "woke."

The lesson used to be that if you don't learn from history then you're doomed to repeat it, but nobody seems to be taking any notice.

Thanks for sharing your viewpoint, sometimes it's nice to feel I'm not alone!
All the best
K1ngcat