The Spirit Section was a stand-along comic book circular that was syndicated to newspapers all across the country that could be included with the rest of their Sunday editions. It was designed to be a pushback against the rising popularity of comic books–comics, “funny pages”, had long been a sales driver for newspapers. So the idea was that each newspaper could advertise that their Sunday release would include a complete original 16-page comic book. The contents were created by Will Eisner and his studio, and the deal was set up and managed by “Busy’ Arnold of Quality Comics
The lead feature in the section was Will Eisner’s The Spirit, about a supposedly dead criminologist battling the underworld from a graveyard headquarters. The middle strip was Lady Luck, often produced by Nick Cardy, about a socialite who would dress in a green gown to battle criminals. And the final strip every week was Bob Powell’s Mr. Mystic, one of a number of magic-based heroes of the early Golden Age. It was a high quality package, with Eisner quickly realizing that he had access to not only an audience of children but their parents as well, and so steadily pushing the material to be oriented towards a more general audience.
The three characters in the Spirit section only met one time, in a Mr. Mystic story produced as part of 1941’s Christmas release. In it, the Spirit, Lady Luck and Mr Mystic (the first two mostly hidden in shadow for most of the story) all get involved in the case of a boy convicted of murder who is set to be executed the day after Christmas. Working in tandem, the trip produces a Christmas miracle, proving the boy’s innocence and saving his life.
The story appears to be entirely the work of Bob Powell, though Will Eisner would have had oversight on it. Nick Cardy appears to have been the odd man out here.
Consequently, this is a rare appearance by the Spirit that wasn’t included in DC’s expansive line of chronological Archive reprint volumes.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Nice little crossover. Nice art, too.
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WOW! Just … Wow! Never knew this existed. Thanks for this!
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The question I have is, did no one back then not like this crossover ( or was it the fact that 3 people didn’t want to spill the money ). Will Eisner could have done the following year’s crossover and Nick Cardy the one after that. They could have used the year to turn a news event ( bet there were a number of them to pick from ) into a story for the crossover.
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Sorry, I meant — split the money ( not spill the money ).
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The Liberian for the upstate NY library I frequent is a comics fan. She acquired the various Spirit hardcovers for the Library.
The stories and art is of very high quality and are very eclectic.
Looking at that work (and even more minor stuff, like the Kanigher/Krigstein Wildcat) you have to say that comics were reaching a high level of sophistication even before EC reached its full potential in the early 1950s.
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Any idea how this tale came to not be included in the DCArchives ? I think that you’re implying that Eisner did not do the story ? I am under the impression maybe incorrectly other other stories in the archives were not Eisners ? Thanks
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I’m guessing it’s just because DC didn’t have the rights to use Mr. Mystic or Lady Luck, and didn’t think it was worth the time or effort to get permission just for the sake of one story.
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Thanks; I also never heard of this story!
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Along with his artistry as a comics creator, I’m constantly impressed by Eisner’s business acumen. According to one of the Kitchen Sink reprint text pages, he knew this was his career niche and treated it accordingly, hanging on to his original art for instance.
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