John Law (comics)

Last updated
John Law
Publication information
Publisher Will Eisner Studios, Inc
First appearance 1948
Created byWill Eisner
In-story information
Full nameJohn Law
Team affiliationsCrossroads Police Department
PartnershipsLady Luck, Mr. Mystic

John Law is a fictional character created by writer-artist Will Eisner in 1948. [1] Law is an eyepatched, pipe smoking Crossroads Police Department detective, who, with his shoeshine boy sidekick Nubbin, was featured in an adventure planned for a new comic book series, but never published. The backup story was drawn by André LeBlanc. These completed stories were eventually adapted into Spirit stories, with John Law's eyepatch being changed to The Spirit's mask and Nubbin being redrawn to be Willum Waif, a Spirit supporting cast character.

The unpublished John Law story and the André LeBlanc backup were discovered by Catherine Yronwode among Eisner's original art files, and first saw print in 1983 from Eclipse Comics, under her editorship. They were next published in Will Eisner's John Law: Dead Man Walking (2004, IDW), a collection of stories that also features new adventures by writer/artist Gary Chaloner starring John Law, Nubbin, and many other Eisner-associated characters, including Lady Luck , created by Nick Cardy and Klaus Nordling, and Bob Powell's Mr. Mystic .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Eisner</span> American cartoonist

William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Cole (artist)</span> American cartoonist

Jack Ralph Cole was an American cartoonist best known for birthing the comedic superhero Plastic Man, and his cartoons for Playboy magazine.

<i>All-American Comics</i> American anthology comic book series

All-American Comics was a comics anthology and the flagship title of comic book publisher All-American Publications, one of the forerunners of DC Comics. It ran for 102 issues from 1939 to 1948. Characters created for the title, including Green Lantern, the Atom, the Red Tornado, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Sargon the Sorcerer, later became mainstays of the DC Comics line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spirit (comics character)</span> Fictional character

The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday edition of Register and Tribune Syndicate newspapers; it was ultimately carried by 20 Sunday newspapers, with a combined circulation of five million copies during the 1940s. "The Spirit Section", as the insert was popularly known, continued until October 5, 1952. It generally included two other four-page strips, plus filler material. Eisner, the overall editor, wrote and drew most Spirit entries, with the uncredited assistance of his studio of assistants and collaborators, though with Eisner's singular vision a unifying factor.

Amazing Adventures is the name of several anthology comic book series, all but one published by Marvel Comics.

"Brothers of the Spear" was a long-running backup feature in the Tarzan comic-book series created by American company Western Publishing and published first through Dell Comics and then through Gold Key Comics. Though published as part of a licensed Edgar Rice Burroughs franchise, this original series was owned by Western.

Notable events of 1959 in comics. See also List of years in comics.

Michael G. Ploog is an American storyboard and comic book artist, and a visual designer for films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheldon Mayer</span> American comic creator

Sheldon Mayer was an American comics artist, writer, and editor. One of the earliest employees of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications, Mayer produced almost all of his comics work for the company that would become known as DC Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomahawk (character)</span> American comic book character

Tomahawk is an American comic book character whose adventures were published by DC Comics during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as a backup feature in Star Spangled Comics and World's Finest Comics and in his own eponymous series. He was created by writer Joe Samachson and artist Edmond Good, and first appeared in Star-Spangled Comics #69. Tomahawk's uniqueness stems in part from the time frame of his adventures: the American Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Luck (comics)</span>

Lady Luck is an American comic-strip and comic book crime fighter and adventuress created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner with artist Chuck Mazoujian. She starred in a namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday newspaper comics insert colloquially called "The Spirit Section", which ran from June 2, 1940, to November 3, 1946. Her adventures were reprinted in comic books published by Quality Comics. A revamped version of the character debuted in 2013 in DC Comics's Phantom Stranger comic.

<i>Star Spangled Comics</i> American comic book anthology series

Star Spangled Comics was a comics anthology published by DC Comics which ran for 130 issues from October 1941 to July 1952. It was then retitled Star Spangled War Stories and lasted until issue #204.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crestwood Publications</span> Defunct American publishing company

Crestwood Publications, also known as Feature Publications, was a magazine publisher that also published comic books from the 1940s through the 1960s. Its title Prize Comics contained what is considered the first ongoing horror comic-book feature, Dick Briefer's "Frankenstein". Crestwood is best known for its Prize Group imprint, published in the late 1940s to mid-1950s through packagers Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who created such historically prominent titles as the horror comic Black Magic, the creator-owned superhero satire Fighting American, and the first romance comic title, Young Romance.

<i>Mr. Mystic</i> Comics series created by Will Eisner

Mr. Mystic is a comics series featuring a magician crime-fighter, created by Will Eisner and initially drawn by Bob Powell. The strip featured in four-page backup feature a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, known colloquially as "The Spirit Section". It first appeared in 1940, distributed by the Register and Tribune Syndicate.

Howard Purcell was an American comics artist and writer active from the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books through the 1960s Silver Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midnight (DC Comics)</span> Comics character

Midnight is a fictional character owned by DC Comics. A masked detective, he was created by writer-artist Jack Cole for Quality Comics during the 1930s to 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Bernstein (comics)</span> American writer (1919–1988)

Robert Bernstein, sometimes credited as R. Berns, was an American comic book writer, playwright and concert impresario, notable as the founder of the Island Concert Hall recital series which ran for 15 years on Long Island.

Notable events of 1946 in comics. See also List of years in comics.

<i>Crack Comics</i>

Crack Comics was an anthology comic book series published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books. It featured such characters as The Clock, Black Condor, Captain Triumph, Alias the Spider, Madame Fatal, Jane Arden, Molly the Model, and Red Torpedo. The title "crack" referred to "being at the top of one's form", like a "crack sharpshooter".

<i>Western Comics</i>

Western Comics was a Western comic book series published by DC Comics. DC's longest-running Western title, it published 85 issues from 1948 to 1961. Western Comics was an anthology series, featuring such characters as the wandering cowboy the Wyoming Kid, the Native American lawman Pow Wow Smith, the Cowboy Marshal, Jim Sawyer, showman Rodeo Rick, and Matt Savage, Trail Boss. The masked Vigilante Greg Saunders appeared in the first four issues of the title, but was soon replaced by itinerant fix-it man Nighthawk.

References

  1. Markstein, Don. "John Law". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.