The Spirit Section Weekly March 22, 1942 Will Eisner Klaus Nordling Bob Powell

$

22

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Title:

The Spirit or The Spirit Section or The Spirit Weekly

Issue #:

95

Publication Date:

Sunday, March 22, 1942

Publisher:

Eisner Studios and the Register and Tribune Syndicates

Contributors:

THE SPIRIT

Script: Will Eisner

Pencils: Will Eisner

Inks: Will Eisner

Colors: Joe Kubert

Letters: Sam Rosen

LADY LUCK

Script: Klaus Nordling [as Ford Davis]

Pencils: Klaus Nordling (signed)

Inks: Klaus Nordling (signed)

MR. MYSTIC

Script: Bob Powell [as S. R. Powell] (signed)

Pencils: Bob Powell [as S. R. Powell] (signed)

Inks: Bob Powell [as S. R. Powell] (signed)

Contents:

Men Whom Time Forgot (The Spirit) 8 pgs.- A ghost story. A 300 year old pirate ship sails up the Central River.

[No title indexed] (Lady Luck) 4 pgs. - Lizard wants to substitute Miss Tinker for Brenda Banks so she can lead a Ladies Defense Patrol he can use as a front. But Lady Luck beats her to it and forms the Lady Luck Patrol.

[No title indexed] (Mr. Mystic) 4 pgs. - Mr. Mystic meets the Jewel and discovers Penny is now engaged to him!

Char acters:

Denny Colt, The Spirit; Ebony; Don El Lobo Nevarro (introduction); Brenda Banks [Lady Luck]; Lizard; Miss Tinker; Mr. Mystic; Baruk; Karen

Comments:

1st Appearance of Don El Lobo Nevarro in The Spirit

CONDITION NOTES:

THESPIRIT: The Spirit is a fictional masked crime fighter created by cartoonist WillEisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page,tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday edition ofRegister and Tribune Syndicate newspapers; it was ultimately carried by 20Sunday newspapers, with a combined circulation of five million copies duringthe 1940s. "The Spirit Section", as the insert was popularly known,continued until October 5, 1952. It generally included two other four-pagestrips (initially Mr. Mystic and Lady Luck), plus filler material. Eisner wasthe editor, but also wrote and drew most entries—after the first few months, hehad the uncredited assistance of writer Jules Feiffer and artists Jack Cole andWally Wood, though Eisner's singular vision for the strip was a unifyingfactor.

The Spirit chronicles the adventures of a maskedvigilante who fights crime with the blessing of the city's police commissionerDolan, an old friend. Despite the Spirit's origin as detective Denny Colt, hisreal identity was virtually unmentioned again, and for all intents and purposeshe was simply "the Spirit". The stories are presented in a widevariety of styles, from straightforward crime drama and noir to lightheartedadventure, from mystery and horror to comedy and love stories, often withhybrid elements that twisted genre and reader expectations.

LADY LUCK:  Created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner(who wrote the first two Lady Luck stories under the pseudonym "FordDavis") with artist Chuck Mazoujian. Lady Luck is the alter-ego of BrendaBanks, a young Irish-American socialite heiress, daughter of a mine-owner. Hercostume consists of a green dress, a large green hat, and a green veil in placeof a mask. In some early versions representations of lucky charms hang from herhat brim. Like Denny Colt, hero of The Spirit, she does not possess anysupernatural abilities. Lady Luck appeared in her namesake, four-page weeklyfeature published in a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert colloquially called"The Spirit Section" (syndicated by the Register and TribuneSyndicate). This 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book, sold as part ofeventually 20 Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as fivemillion, starred Eisner's masked detective the Spirit and also initially includedthe feature Mr. Mystic plus filler material. Writer Dick French took overscripting after these first two episodes. Later, writer-artist NicholasViscardi (later known as Nick Cardy) took over the feature from the May 18,1941 strip through Feb. 22, 1942, introducing Lady Luck's chauffeur andassistant, Peecolo. Though his Lady Luck stories were credited under the housepseudonym Ford Davis, Viscardi would subtly work in the initials "NV"somewhere into each tale. Writer-artist Klaus Nordling followed, from the March1, 1942 to March 3, 1946 strip, when "Lady Luck" was temporarilycanceled. After briefly being replaced by the humor feature "Wendy theWaitress" by Robert Jenny, "Lady Luck" returned from May 5 toNovember 3, 1946, under cartoonist Fred Schwab.

"Lady Luck" stories were reprinted in theQuality Comics comic book Smash Comics #42-85 (April 1943 - Oct. 1949),whereupon the series changed its title to Lady Luck for five more issues.Nordling providing new seven- to 11-page stories in Lady Luck #86-90 (Dec. 1949- Aug. 1950) with Gill Fox drawing the covers. Occasional backup features were"Lassie" by writer-artist Bernard Dibble and the humor features"The Count", by Nordling, and "Sir Roger", by Dibble or,variously, Bart Tumey.

MR.MYSTIC: Mr. Mystic is a comic series featuring a magician crime-fighter, createdby Will Eisner and initially drawn by Bob Powell. The strip featured infour-page backup feature a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, knowncolloquially as "The Spirit Section". It first appeared in 1940,distributed by the Register and Tribune Syndicate.  

Along with the series Lady Luck, the Mr. Mysticstrip followed the seven-page lead feature The Spirit in a 16-page,tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book sold as part of eventually 20 Sundaynewspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million copies."The Spirit Section" premiered on June 2, 1940 and continued through1952. Mr. Mystic ended May 14, 1944, by which time Fred Guardineer hadsucceeded Powell on the strip.

Unlike the newspaper series The Spirit or Lady Luck,Mr. Mystic was not later reprinted in standard comic books by publisher QualityComics, and considered the least successful; it was the first of the threeseries to end.