| "Palyachi,
The Killer Clown"
(July 28, 1940)
Eisner's ninth Spirit story finds him homing
ever closer to the characterizations that he would refine throughout
the feature's run. "Palyachi, The Killer Clown" (July 28, 1940)
takes its inspiration from Pagliacci, the celebrated 1892 opera
by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. It would soon become characteristic
of Eisner to interpolate a theme or motif from another medium into
comics; he would later use poetry, live theater, music, pantomime,
burlesque and other modes of expression. "I enjoyed the challenge
of exploring what comics were capable of expressing, which was the
main reason I wanted to badly to create The Spirit," Eisner said.
The character of Palyachi was in some ways a prototype
for a character Eisner would repeatedly work with: the unremarkable
Everyman who is driven to commit a remarkable act, and how that
character responds to the forces unleashed by that act. "I was,
and still am, fascinated by the idea of one life being affected
by larger events, and I guess this story represents one of the early
expressions of that theme. Every writer has a favorite theme, and
this is one of mine."
To today's reader, the panel construction in "Palyachi"
doesn't seem radical, but in 1940, it was a breath of fresh air.
This was a time when most shops — Eisner & Iger included —
worked from preprinted panel borders to save the penciller time
and trouble, but which tended to smother creative uses of the panel's
shape. Eisner said the unusual shapes of his panels was his solution
to a problem he had confronted at his old shop.
"I was converting Hawks of the Seas from
its original format to a comic book size for its publication in
Jumbo Comics, and in fitting the material, I had to truncate
this and reshape that. I began using circles, diamonds, diagonals,
whatever would accommodate what I was trying to fit in, and I began
to see there was real creative potential here. So when The Spirit
came along, I began using the ideas liberally."
Eisner also used panel construction to fit a great deal of storytelling into seven pages. Citing page 4, he indicated that the lower left panel has a circular inset to save space. "I was writing stories that had their own intrinsic lengths, yet they all had to be exactly seven pages. That was one of the technical challenges I was learning to wrestle with, and each week posed a new one."
Characters like Marka began to prompt letters from
editors that Eisner's women were too sexy. "I never pandered, so
I always turned a deaf ear to that type of complaint," Eisner said.
"It wasn't like I was doing cheesecake." The conclusion of "Palyachi"
had The Spirit perhaps absolving Palyachi of all the guilt for the
murders, although he committed them all singlehandedly and in cold
blood. This is "consistent with the way I perceive these things;"
Eisner said. "I don't believe that things happen in isolation, that
things happen in some sort of vacuum where they are untouched by
other people or events. And this is a way of expressing that idea."
"The Death
Dolls"
(August 4, 1940)
Eisner said his next story, "The Death Dolls"
(August 4, 1940), shows the audacity that marked his writing for
the new feature. "I was really uninhibited in these stories. I tried
things that really reached, especially considering the limited talent
I had at that time. There wasn't anything I wouldn't try."
Part of the enjoyment of reading these early stories in chronological
order is noticing the improvements Eisner is making practically
with each story. Compare the shape of the word balloons in this
story with those in the last. Eisner jettisoned the scalloped look
in favor of the shape he would continue to refine, with the help
of top-notch letterers yet to come.
A minor bit of historical trivia is in order here:
the splash page of "The Death Dolls" contains Eisner's
first use of what would eventually become one of his stylistic trademarks
— the relentless, reflective rain that Harvey Kurtzman
dubbed Eisnershpritz. "Climate is the only
real way that a limited medium, any print medium, can evoke real
reader involvement and reader response," Eisner said. "It's
been an underlying effort all throughout my career, including now,
to make emotional contact with my readers, and to get a sense of
believability is the way to do that.
"Weather is one way to make the reader feel
uncomfortable; you can connect with them on that primal level. Rain,
snow, cold, heat — all of the climatic extremes conjure definite
feelings. You can have two men standing on a streetcorner talking
about anything, but if you add a driving rain, it adds a drama to
whatever they're saying.
"Looking at this, you see someone trying to
push the perimeters of his craft, employing whatever comes to hand,"
he said. "I was young, and I was groping around for anything
that might help me, much in the same way a two-year-old walks around
and picks up anything he can get his hands on to see if it can be
put to any use."
A few references to a villain with a German name
(Emil Rampf) and his Battle Arms Company hint at the rising tide
of anti-German feeling in the United States. "At that time,
the classic enemy was shaping up to be Germany and Hitler; Pearl
Harbor hadn't happened yet," Eisner said.
Weaned on pulp, Eisner tossed in a few of those icons,
the likes of which would appear less frequently as Eisner's own
voice emerged and matured. The large panel on page 6 could easily
be imagined on the cover of one of the early pulp magazines, as
could the death dolls.
At the end of the story, Eisner builds on the cooperative
relationship between The Spirit and Commissioner Dolan. "This
was something that would eventually become like a father-son relationship,
but I was finding that out as I went," Eisner said.
"The Kidnapping
of Daisy Kay"
(August 11, 1940)
Veering from intense drama to screwball comedy,
Eisner wrote "The Kidnapping of Daisy Kay" (August 11,
1940). One reason he wanted to develop the humorous aspect of The
Spirit's character was to have another vein to mine for plot material;
making The Spirit as multifaceted as possible
was beneficial when it came to developing plots that were in character.
"I wanted The Spirit to be a lighthearted guy
who could have fun as he was getting the job done," Eisner
said, citing the panel on page 4 where he makes a "scary"
face at Ellen Dolan. "You can't imagine a superhero doing anything
like that, but it seemed right for The Spirit." Another lighthearted
element that seemed to work in this story is the autoplane, seen
in its glory on page 5. "The autoplane was ultimately something
that didn't have a place in The Spirit, but there were
moments when I didn't regret using it," Eisner said.
In opening the story, Eisner reintroduces the character
of Homer Creep, not seen since The Spirit's second story. What's
remarkable is that a milquetoast like Creep is able to break into
The Spirit's secret crime lab/hideout, armed with a revolver. "Well,
The Spirit's filled with those inconsistencies," Eisner
laughed. "Just chalk it up to artistic license."
The end of the tale is an example of why Eisner wanted
to move from comic books to newspapers. "I could never have
done that ending in comic books because it's not larger than life,"
Eisner said. "It's believable, and believability was not a
commodity in comic books."
"The Morger
Boys"
(August 18, 1940)
"The Morger Boys" (August 18, 1940)
casts The Spirit in a role Eisner was eager to exploit — that
of a hero who prevents crime, rather than one who simply sees that justice is done after the crime has occurred. "I enjoyed Dick
Tracy, but he was alway tracking down guys after they had
committed crimes," Eisner said. "I thought The Spirit
would be different when he headed them off at the pass.
"It was much the same way then as it is now
— the primary motivators in comic books were pursuit and vengeance."
Eisner makes "The Morger Boys" work partly
through creating characters whose personalities are defined by action,
rather than exposition. The Morger brothers are unsettling because
their avuncular appearance belies their murderous intent. Although
their gentle miens might cause the reader to think they will relent
at the eleventh hour, they never do, and they become more heinous
throughout the story.
At the end of this story Eisner again goes for the
subtle touch of having The Spirit feel regret that he couldn't prevent
a crime. "Not everything had to follow the formula of unmitigated
heroism. I was learning more and more that my instincts to create
The Spirit were right."
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