Black and White Wednesday: "The Winnah!" by Eisner w/Feiffer

Whaddya say we truck on back to the Golden Age via the Groovy Age today, Groove-ophiles? This one is a wonderful trip down Memory Lane for Ol' Groove. One of those cold, rainy days just before Christmas back in 1974. A little extra spending money made for a very interesting trip to book section of my beloved Mac's super-store. Yers trooley, mind you, was raised by parents who grew up in the 40s/50s and who had cut their teeth on comicbooks and radio shows. Hearing about the Golden Age of those two media was always a favorite pastime, and any time Young Groove got the chance to actually get his hands on any three-dimensional, real-life forms of those memories, said nostalgic stuff was seized upon with relish. So, on this day of days, I found the second volume of Pyramid's The Shadow reprint series (The Black Master--the first Shadow pb I ever saw--oh, those Jim Steranko covers!) and the sixth (again, the first I'd seen) ish of Warren's b&w Will Eisner's The Spirit reprint series. I don't remember much else about that day except a visit to my maternal grandparents and hearing Neil Sedaka's "Laughter In the Rain" on the car radio...

Being 11 years old, it took Young Groove a while to make it through that Shadow novel, but I devoured that issue of The Spirit right away. (The only Spirit story I'd ever read, up to that point, was the one reprinted in Jules Feiffer's Great Comic Book Heroes, but Ol' Groove doth digress...). That moody cover, perfectly setting up the first story in the ish ("Showdown" featuring a great battle-in-the-dark between The Spirit and his arch nemesis The Octopus) is still an all-time favorite cover (kudos to penciler Eisner and painter Ken Kelly). All the stories in that ish were cool: "The Wedding" and the "Job" being a romantic two-parter featuring supporting characters, "The Lamp", "Glob", "Wild Rice", "Taxes and the Spirit" (stories about a genii, a caveman, a kidnapped-rich-girl-turned moll--right in tune with the then ongoing Patty Hearst saga in the news, and tax collectors). You can see right there that this comic was very, very different than the usual reams of super-heroes and monsters. But my favorite story of the issue (and yes, it's still my fave) is "The Winnah!" by Will Eisner himself (aided and abetted by a young Jules Feiffer--hey, the guy who wrote the book that turned me on to The Spirit--whoa!). "The Winnah!" is the story of two brothers, boxers, the older one worshipped by the younger one, and neither of them very good at making life-choices. It was like watching a classic movie on paper--and the kicker? The Spirit isn't even in the story! He's only mentioned on the last page...

Man, does Ol' Groove ever LOVE The Spirit!

Lois Lane's "Death House Honeymoon"

What? You didn't know Superman is Lois Lane's second husband? I ain't jivin'! Y'see, way back in Lois Lane #105 (cover dated October, 1970), there was this mysterious group of criminals called The 100 that spent their time causing all kinds of trouble for Metropolis in general and Superman in particular. The 100 had made an enemy of not only Superman, but a brand new super-heroine, the Thorn (no relation--besides writer/creator Robert Kanigher--to the Golden Age villainess of the same name), who was making her vendetta against The 100 known by dropping leaflets all over Metropolis. Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois get their hands on one of those fateful fliers, which gives Lois the bright idea of doing a story on the Thorn. Daily Planet editor Perry White, thinking the assignment too dangerous, gives the Thorn story to Clark, assigning Lois to the much safer job of covering the execution of convicted killer, Johnny Adonis. Y'know, 'cause covering a man being dying in an electric chair is more ladylike than trying to get the lowdown on a new super-heroine.

Like any good employee, Lois heads for the state pen, planning to interview Adonis before his execution. During the interview, Adonis pleads innocence (naturally!) and asks Lois to marry him as repayment for a debt she owes him. Seems Lois was drowning in an icy pond and Adonis beat Superman to the rescue. Sure enough, after the rescue Lois did promise, "I'll do anything to repay you!" Being a lady of her word, despite the warden and Superman's protests, Lois goes through with the marriage and is carried across the threshold--into the execution room, giving her a wonderful view of the electric chair. How romantic!

Angry and frustrated, Superman stomps off, and as soon as he leaves, wouldn't ya know it, the prisoners riot and break out, using Lois as their hostage. When the escapees (including Lois' new hubby, Johnny Adonis) arrive at their rendezvous with their outside help, they leave Lois tied up in the escape vehicle--and shove it into the river! Once more, Superman is nowhere to be seen while Lois heads to a watery grave, but the mysterious Thorn is! When Lois and the Thorn surface, the escaped cons open fire. Suddenly, Adonis develops a conscience and starts shooting at his fellow cons, vowing, "I'm not gonna let you blast my wife like she was a fish in a barrel!" As usual, a comicbook crook with a newly minted conscience doesn't last long, and Adonis' buddies plug him. THEN Superman shows up (and people call him a Boyscout?). Superman rounds up the crooks, Adonis dies in Lois' arms, Thorn disappears, and all Lois can say? "And I'm left with a sensational scoop of marriage and murder!" She must've thought someone besides Superman might be listening (and judging her!), so she added, "My fingers will type the story...but every key will tear into my heart...like a dagger!" Yeah, Superman and Lois, our heroes. For this story, they have all the sentiment of the Seinfeld cast!

All in all, it's a fun comic, though, brought from mediocre and maudlin to pretty cool thanks to the back-up origin of Thorn and the terrific art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. Thorn, along with her alter-ego Rose Forrest, became the regular back-up feature, "Rose and the Thorn", for the next two-dozen issues, forcing li'l Groove to buy Lois Lane comics on a regular basis. Eeeww, gross-out!