The debut of Jack Cole’s Midnight in Smash Comics #18, Up for Auction

Quality Comics was reportedly reluctant to publish a comic book version of The Spirit at first because the character was creator-owned by Will Eisner. If something happened to Eisner during WWII, the thinking apparently went, the character could not be continued by someone else. Jack Cole, best remembered for his creation of Plastic Man, was directed by Quality Comics publisher Everett M. “Busy” Arnold to create a similar character. The result was Midnight, a masked detective that made his first appearance in Smash Comics #18. The character went on to a long run in Smash Comics, and was later acquired by DC Comics along with much of the rest of the Quality Comics IP. A female version of Midnight has even appeared as a villain on the fifth season of the Supergirl tv series. An underappreciated character in the context of comic book history, there’s a copy of the first appearance of Midnight in Smash Comics #18 (Quality, 1941) Condition: Apparent VG- along with a bunch of other issues of Smash Comics up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.

While Midnight may have been created as a response to The Spirit, and he certainly looks the part with his virtually identical appearance plus a domino mask, his backstory was also inspired by Street & Smith’s The Shadow. As Don Markstein noted, “Midnight was radio announcer Dave Clark, a minor local celebrity in the big city where he operated, which was called Big City. One night, Dave was substituting for the narrator of The Man Called Midnight, about a masked crime fighter who used that name, and was unexpectedly thrust into a crime-fighting situation on the way home from the studio. When mob bosses he confronted pressed him for a name, Midnight was the one he gave them, and from that moment forward Midnight was a ‘real’ masked crime fighter as well as a fictional one.”

Midnight ran in Smash Comics #18-85 and was featured on the covers of the title beginning with issue #28. A successful, long-running character from the Golden Age, there’s a copy of the first appearance of Midnight in Smash Comics #18 (Quality, 1941) Condition: Apparent VG- up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.

Quality Comics was reportedly reluctant to publish a comic book version of The Spirit at first because the character was creator-owned by Will Eisner. If something happened to Eisner during WWII, the thinking apparently went, the character could not be continued by someone else. Jack Cole, best remembered for his creation of Plastic Man, was directed by Quality Comics publisher Everett M. “Busy” Arnold to create a similar character. The result was Midnight, a masked detective that made his first appearance in Smash Comics #18. The character went on to a long run in Smash Comics, and was later acquired by DC Comics along with much of the rest of the Quality Comics IP. A female version of Midnight has even appeared as a villain on the fifth season of the Supergirl tv series. An underappreciated character in the context of comic book history, there’s a copy of the first appearance of Midnight in Smash Comics #18 (Quality, 1941) Condition: Apparent VG- along with a bunch of other issues of Smash Comics up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.

While Midnight may have been created as a response to The Spirit, and he certainly looks the part with his virtually identical appearance plus a domino mask, his backstory was also inspired by Street & Smith’s The Shadow. As Don Markstein noted, “Midnight was radio announcer Dave Clark, a minor local celebrity in the big city where he operated, which was called Big City. One night, Dave was substituting for the narrator of The Man Called Midnight, about a masked crime fighter who used that name, and was unexpectedly thrust into a crime-fighting situation on the way home from the studio. When mob bosses he confronted pressed him for a name, Midnight was the one he gave them, and from that moment forward Midnight was a ‘real’ masked crime fighter as well as a fictional one.”

Midnight ran in Smash Comics #18-85 and was featured on the covers of the title beginning with issue #28. A successful, long-running character from the Golden Age, there’s a copy of the first appearance of Midnight in Smash Comics #18 (Quality, 1941) Condition: Apparent VG- up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.