Pappy's Sunday Supplement Number 12: The Spirit

We skipped our monthly Sunday Supplement feature last month. I was busy  hosting out-of-town guests (my grandchildren) all month. I barely got my regular postings done.

Today we have a very early Spirit Section from the Will Eisner studio. It is from June 30, 1940, which makes it the fifth Spirit story to appear. In it we look back at health care in America, 1940-style. It begins with a dose of pathos, a doctor’s pronouncement, “Your wife has a week to live,” and the prescription is to take her to Arizona. The husband is broke, so he gambles to get the money to take her. That turns out bad, so the Spirit steps in. In this early story we see the Spirit clean out the gambling joints with his gambling skills. He apparently has a skill-set we weren’t aware of. He also pulls a gun. We are used to a Spirit who uses his fists.

Chuck Mazoujian, using the name “Ford Davis,” drew the 4-page Lady Luck story. Mazoujian went into the Army, and I found a page of his drawings of soldiers in training in the February 9, 1942 issue of Life. When his time in the Army was done he went into advertising.

Another top artist, Bob Powell, who spent his whole career in comics, did the Mister Mystic story. I confess, I looked at it but didn’t read it.

Another early Spirit Section, #7, from 1940. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 1813: “The Pen is...” nearly as mighty as the policewoman

Both Sally O’Neil, Policewoman, and Pen Miller, cartoonist-detective, debuted in National Comics #1. They were both back-up features, yet both lasted much longer than the lead feature for National, Uncle Sam, who didn’t last through the end of World War II.

Sally is smart, Sally is beautiful, Sally is tenacious, Sally can handle a gun, Sally can handle men. Now that is a great character. According to the website, Public Domain Superheroes, Sally was created by Frank Kearn, Toni Blum, and Chuck Mazoujian.

Pen Miller is a successful cartoonist who lives in a penthouse with a man servant. As Don Markstein remarked on his Toonopedia web page, Pen was the “cartoonist’s ideal self-image.” Indeed. Since cartooning for a living is a full-time job, one would think Pen would not have time to do a successful comic strip and still solve murder mysteries. But that would be part of the “ideal,” or at least a stereotype among non-cartoonists that all cartoonists do is sit around, knock out a few funny pictures, then haul in the big bucks.

Pen also has a name that leads to my speculation that it may be a private dirty joke. The second caption of the story says “‘Pen’ is busy . . .” The letterer must be careful of letter-spacing in a sentence like that. The talented Klaus Nordling, who also did Lady Luck, is the artist.

These are their first stories, from National Comics #1 (1940).

Number 1472: Spirit of the thing...

We’re finishing up our Week of Quality with an early Spirit Section, the 16-page newspaper supplement that Will Eisner produced for Quality Comics publisher Everett “Busy” Arnold. At some point in its 12-year life the Spirit Section became copyright by Eisner, but in this early example Arnold held the copyright.

This section, dated July 14, 1940, was the seventh to appear. It’s early enough that the Spirit has his flying car. I think Eisner made a wise move when he dumped that silly gimmick.

Chuck Mazoujian drew ’Lady Luck.” According to some biographical information Mazoujian left comics when he went into the service during World War II. After the war he went into teaching painting and figure drawing at Pratt Institute. Later Mazoujian went into illustration and commercial art.

Bob Powell did “Mr. Mystic” and had a long career in comic books.