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stories weren’t that different from the others, Eisner began to build his readers’ trust. Commissioner Dolan, the father figure, was stern but fair, a man totally dedicated to the law but in need of help in maintaining it, a man who on occasion could get in the Spirit’s way and on other occasions became a strong ally. Dolan’s daughter, Ellen, a beautiful blond “girl next door,” became the Spirit’s love interest, but for Eisner she was a continual work in progress, intelligent enough to eventually run for mayor of Central City, flawed enough to find herself in trouble and in need of rescue. Ebony White, the Spirit’s African-American sidekick, started out as a bit player, a cabdriver who showed up to give the Spirit a ride; but Eisner developed him to the point of his becoming the Spirit’s most trusted assistant, an essential ingredient to many stories—and, in fact, the central character in a handful of them. All three characters began as little more than stereotypes, as figures that needed to be kept simple in order for readers to learn what they needed to know about the Spirit, but all evolved significantly during the Spirit’s newspaper run.

Setting became a vital component to the storytelling. Eisner devoted great care in setting his stories in an environment that his readers could identify with. There was standing water in the streets, paper and other refuse on the sidewalks, elevated tracks and subway cars that represented the constant motion of the city, and people everywhere, all looking as if their biggest accomplishment might be surviving from one day to the next. This was Eisner’s city, the city he had grown up in as well as the city he created for his stories, but it was also the city of his readers, whether they resided in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or Chicago. Astonishing events could occur at any time, day or night, but readers knew to expect the unlikely in their cities. Since this was their reality, why wouldn’t they accept a masked hero coming to their aid?

The Weekly Comic Book, offering the exploits of the Spirit, Lady Luck, and Mr. Mystic, made its debut on Sunday, June 2, 1940, appearing in only five newspapers, but with a circulation of a million and a half readers. Eisner celebrated the occasion by going to Philadelphia and attending a party hosted by the Philadelphia Record, the first paper to pick up the comic book. It might not have been Superman, but in the months ahead, other newspapers, aware of the way the comic book bolstered sales for papers including it, decided to carry the supplement, giving Eisner the largest readership he had ever imagined.

As for the costume, Eisner exacted a small measure of revenge on the man who insisted upon the Spirit’s having one: besides the blue suit, blue gloves, and ever-present mask, the Spirit wore a fedora exactly like the one worn by Busy Arnold. This became a big inside joke around the Tudor City studio. Arnold never noticed.

No one, including Eisner himself, could ever date the exact moment he ceased being “Bill” Eisner and became “Will” Eisner. Nothing in his life—professional or personal—precipitated the change. In all likelihood, the name change became permanent with the arrival of The Spirit or when Eisner entered the service. He’d been called Willie at times as a child, so becoming Will wasn’t a radical departure. As Eisner explained it, the new name sounded more professional.

“It was just an attempt to be arty,” he said. “It’s like using a circle for a dot in the ‘i’ [in Eisner’s signature]. ‘Will’ just sounded better to me.”

Eisner was hitting another creative peak. With no romantic relationships or other time-consuming endeavors to take him from his work, Eisner had no constraints on his time beyond the actual number of hours in a day. He was free to work as he pleased.

The Tudor City studio, although it employed as many artists at any one time as Eisner & Iger did, enjoyed a very productive period. Over the next year and a half, between the opening of the studio and the beginning of the United States’ involvement in World War II,