Will Eisner Original Spirit Art 7pg story: Junior President Election 8-15-1948

As the real-life Thomas E. Dewey/Harry S. Truman presidential election approached, Eisner distracted his readers with underage counterparts. Youngsters mobilize behind either Ebony's candidate, P.S. (Peppermint Stick") Smith, or Scratchie Parlay, the honest son of one of Central City's notorious gambling czars. The Spirit sees the Junior Presidential Election as an angle to finally nail Parlay & Odds.

The nice convention splash page is followed by a page that may have a higher head count of characters in it than any other Spirit page Eisner ever did. It, in turn, is followed by page 3, with the largest lettering of "Meanwhile" in comics history. "Meanwhile" there's Lieutenant Entry, in the Dolan's White Collar Crime Dept., whose accounting pencil-in-mouth (even when on undercover duty) is the adult equivalent of P.S.'s perpetual peppermint-stick-in-mouth. A light-hearted story with obvious good citizen role-models and action... but with a rather surprisingly ambiguous ending (just like most politics).

Medium/size/condition/price: Brush & pen inks on Bristol board 16 1/4 inches wide x 22 5/8 inches high. Most pages have white tape at the top and bottoms, presumably covering up original dales and pencil notations. The "429. Originally published August 15, 1948" banner is a photostat waxed (by Kitchen Sink Press when it published the story) on to the mechanical lettering title that is itself a paste-over, as is The Spirit's face under the splash's Spirit logo. There are no other paste-ups and relatively little white-out. Overall, very clean. Excellent condition.

Provenance: Warranted to be from the private archives of the Will Eisner estate (exclusively represented by this agency) and further warranted to be authentic. The art comes with a descriptive Bill of Sale from the estate and agency.

We are willing to make special payment arrangements on high dollar art. Contact us directly for more information.