Forgotten Masterpiece: SMASH COMICS #36 and the Death of Midnight

Quality Comics put out a wide variety of strong, solid material back during the Golden Age of Comics, much of which is largely forgotten today. But they maintained a strong house art style and a commitment to story that made their offerings among the most readable comics of the period. Today, we’re going to look at one such story, from SMASH COMICS #36: the Death of Midnight

Midnight had been started not due to any inspiration but for entirely mercenary reasons. Quality Comics owner “Busy” Arnold held an ownership stake in Will Eisner’s weekly newspaper insert comic book, the Spirit Section. That endeavor rested on the shoulders of Eisner as the central cartoonist, and Arnold was aware that with war looming, his meal ticket was likely to be drafted. So he commissioned a knock-off strip with the notion that if Eisner did have to go into the service, the creators working on Midnight could take over the Spirit for the duration. And indeed, that’s exactly what happened.

The creator in question was Jack Cole, a prolific cartoonist who had been working in the field practically since the advent of comic books. He had a charming cartoonish style and sensibility, and his pages had a lot of life to them. At the time when this story was done, Cole was also working on what would become his signature character, Plastic Man, for Arnold/Quality’s POLICE COMICS. But he also did Midnight, which itself grew in popularity. After debuting in the back pages, it was promoted to the lead feature and expanded to nine pages from six.

Cole, however, wasn’t content to simply follow Eisner’s lead, and so Midnight quickly steered in its own direction. For one thing, Cole gave the crime-fighter a pair of confederates: inventor Doc Whacky and the talking monkey, Gabby. And Cole’s stories weren’t quite so hard-boiled and down-to-earth. Rather, they were often elaborate flights of fancy–such as this one, in which Midnight is killed and battles the devil.

There’s something charming about the deceased Dave Clark choosing to head down to Hades rather than take his well-earned place beyond the Pearly Gates so that he can bust the devil in the face.

This is also a funny bit: Satan himself isn’t such a bad guy, it’s really his wife who’s the evil one. He’s simply coerced to carry out her nefarious wishes. This being a Cole strip, of course she’s also a vamp.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, a mysterious stranger shows up with an offer for Doc Whacky and Gabby: he’s resurrect Midnight in exchange for Doc’s life.

Midnight’s argument to the denizens of the underworld isn’t really all that convincing, but he gets them to work with him to overthrow Satan and the missus and prevent a Nazi invasion of mainland America in the process.

The outcome of Doc Whacky’s deal with the stranger is left as a mystery and a hook to get readers to come back for the following issue.

Cole did wind up working on the Spirit while Eisner was in the service, both the weekly Sunday supplement and the short-lived daily comic strip version.