Random Comics Theatre
This series of Will Eisner's creation lasted for 87 issues from 1983 to 1992 and reprinted all of the syndicated comic stories from Eisner's post-WWII return in 1945 to its ending in 1952 in slightly less than real time. The first year is reprinted in colour, and then the rest in black and white.
This issue reprints stories 552 to 555, covering the end of 1950 and start of 1951. By this time Jules Feiffer was deeply involved in the creation of the strip, as well as doing his own "Clifford" strip for the Spirit Section.
552 is "The Christmas Spirit", December 24, 1950. As per tradition, the Spirit doesn't fight crime on Christmas, so he and the other regulars only appears in a brief cameo on the final panel greeting. The story this time is about a rich girl, Darling O'Shea, trying to get a gift from Santa, and learning the meaning of Christmas, in a way.
553 is from January 7, 1951, and is the closest to a standard strip in this particular stretch, and even it is unusual. "A Time-Stop" features a meteor freezing time right at the stroke of midnight for everyone but one criminal, Marc Tymely, who's just about to be killed. The Spirit only appears as one of the frozen figures Tymely encounters and then at the end. An interesting experiment, but a little bit confusing.
554, January 14, closes off the issue, with another story that required a little less Eisner effort, as he was really starting to be busy with other assignments. This is "Rife Magazine", a parody of Life Magazine, with a brief look at some of the characters in the Spirit's world.
As is typical for this series, there are extensive notes on each story, written by Tom Heintjes. There's also an ad for a VHS copy of the live-action short "Ten Minutes" based on the classic 1949 Spirit story.
No comments:
Post a Comment