Lost Crossovers: UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY #2

Quality Comics was one of the best and most consistent publishers of comics books during the years of the Golden Age. The firm is largely forgotten now, but in its heyday, it featured a whole line of memorable characters such as Plastic Man, Blackhawk, The Ray, Doll Man, Phantom Lady, the Human Bomb, Quicksilver, the Black Condor and Uncle Sam. Run by owner Everett “Busy” Arnold, much of Quality’s earliest output was packaged for the outfit by the Will Eisner/Jerry Iger shop, meaning that Eisner had a hand in many of these features. The eventual deal to syndicate the Spirit as a newspaper insert was made through Arnold, and he held a portion of the rights to the strip while it was in publication. This is why the strip was reprinted in POLICE COMICS each month.

As with most publishers of this era, the assorted costumed characters published by Quality never much interacted outside of the occasional cover–with one exception. That’s this fanciful story that ran in the pages of UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY #2. The writing is clearly the work of Will Eisner, who takes the opportunity to tell the entire story in verse, as he’d do occasionally in THE SPIRIT. The artwork was provided by a young Dave Berg, who’d later become better known as the artist behind MAD Magazine’s “The Lighter Side Of…” feature.

In this wacky little tale, after taking it on the chin for so long, the villains of the comic books decide to go on strike–an action that puts all of teh heroes immediately out of work. Represented throughout teh course of this short story are Hercules, Neon the Unknown, Quicksilver, The Ray, The Black Condor and of course, Uncle Sam himself, who steps in to deal with the villains’ complaints.

Refusing to recognize collective bargaining, Uncle Sam attempts to break the strike by force, smashing his way into teh hall where the striking villains have penned up all of their artists and demanding their release. of course, a fight breaks out.

Sam winds up erasing the unruly villain who stirred up all of this Anti-American striking sentiment, then gives the others a thorough talking to about knowing their place and not talking back. So all of the villains go back to work, as do all of the artists and heroes. And everything is returned to normal. I don’t know that justice was done, but really, I also don’t know if that was really the point.