592 SPIRIT, THE
Th e Spirit included lovingly depicted femmes fatales, notably P’Gelle, a dark-haired
international adventuress; Dr. Silken Floss, a medical doctor and humanitarian; and
Sand Saref, a blonde criminal mastermind. Villains included the Cobra, and the Oc-
topus, a vicious gang lord who combined with former Nazis in violent criminal enter-
prises in Europe and America. Th e Spirit was set in Central City, which was clearly
a version of New York, with subways, skyscrapers, and identifi able neighborhoods in-
cluding the Lower East Side. Eisner told urban stories in the Spirit, exploring the world
of machine politics and ward heelers, corrupt contractors building schools, and petty
criminals captured through police work. Th e Spirit had no superpowers, and often took
the kind of beatings more characteristic of a Philip Marlowe novel than the comics.
Eisner also incorporated fantasy and the supernatural in Th e Spirit, from Mr. Car-
rion and his love, the buzzard Julia; to eerie ghost ships; and even a refugee from Salem,
Witch Hazel, featured in Halloween stories. Eisner felt that the circulation of the
supplement in newspapers meant he had to do seasonal stories, including a series of
Christmas Spirit stories that combined comedy with seasonal sentiment. In addition to
villains and beauties, Eisner’s recurring characters included the spoiled rich girl, Darling,
whose stories were both humorous and refl ected on the transience of wealth; Sgt. Grey,
a competent, articulate, and professional African American police detective; the silent,
baseball-capped P. S. Smith, who embodied anarchy and disruption; and several at-
tempts at replacements for Ebony, including Binky and Bunky.
Th e stories Eisner created before he was drafted in 1941 were enjoyable and engag-
ing, but when he returned from military service in 1944, he began to experiment with
narrative and artistic eff ects in ways that are generally credited with expanding the aes-
thetic horizons of the comic art medium. Deeply shadowed narratives, which Eisner
called “two bottles of ink” stories, jarring viewpoints and striking angles resonated with
the eff ects of movies like Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941). Among Eisner’s narra-
tive experiments were the story “ Ten Minutes” (September 11, 1949), multilayered
storytelling that elapsed in the time it took to read it, and, most famous of all, “Th e
Story Gerhard Shnobble” (September 5, 1948), the ironic story of a man who could
fl y, and dies aloft and unnoticed in the crossfi re as the Spirit apprehends some small-
time crooks. Eisner also experimented with longer continuities, including a six-part
story in which the Spirit goes blind and has his sight restored by Dr. Floss. Eisner’s
women characters were beautiful, some based on movie stars, such as Skinny Bones,
drawn from Lauren Bacall. However, unlike most popular culture beauties, all were
professionally accomplished. P’Gell was a business woman and professional, including
serving as headmistress of a girl’s school. Ellen Dolan was an outspoken and strong
female character, as often saving the Spirit or herself as being rescued. She success-
fully ran for mayor of Central City, over the opposition of the Spirit, in a series of
linked stories that can only be described as proto-feminist. Eisner had a variety of
talented and accomplished assistants on the Spirit. Th e polished superhero artist Lou
Fine and the fantasy writer who would later become a noted regionalist, Manley Wade
Wellman, produced Th e Spirit during Eisner’s World War II service, but unfortunately
