Seen In: Many adventures of The Spirit from the 1940s and some of his many revivals. Quote: "Sorry, boss, dis car jes' nachelly speeds up when Ah drives past Wildwood Cemetery!" Comics fans love to talk about The Spirit. They love the character and his nuanced, slightly overwhelmed attitude. His dynamic with the ladies is old-fashioned but charming (they crawl over him like Beatlemaniacs, hes definitely hetero but not easily impressed). Most of all, they love the artistry that Will Eisner poured onto the pages, regularly comparing his work to Orson Welles Citizen Kane. And then, sooner or later, somebody brings up Ebony White. On the one hand, the Spirit's cab-driving confidant seems to have been actually praised by black activists of the day, and if you can overlook his speech pattern and comic fumbling, you may notice he performs some impressive feats of intelligence and often spots things the Spirit has missed. But talk about a character who hasn't aged well. Even his name is kind of embarrassing: This is a black kid! Ebony means black! Not white black! Although DC Comics has tried, theres really no way to reinvent Ebony that feels true to the original character. At this point, you just have to view him historically, like Mammy in Gone with the Wind, and accept that not everything is going to make it into the 21st century.
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.
