There was a tale that floated around at cons for years is that Republic Pictures was going to call the hero The Spirit, based on Will Eisner’s character then appearing in both comics and the newspaper, but Eisner wouldn’t go for their gimmick and so said no, so they just grabbed name the Masked Marvel out of the air. (although there had been a comic book character by that name around 1940, he just didn’t last long
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Thanks for the link. I've poked around there once or twice, but I hesitate to dive in because suddenly sunlight will be coming through the window and my boss will be on the phone asking if I'm coming to work or not. I can see getting lost in there.
It would also be way too easy to just start posting stories from there every day, and although there's a lot of great stuff, I want to put up my own scans as much as possible (especially if the material is obscure).
I find the story about Republic intending to do THE SPIRIT dubious, if only because there's no documentation. With all the interviews Eisner did, it would have come up. Most likely, the idea came from hearing that Republic did intend to do a Superman serial and, when that fell through, changed it to Captain Marvel. I think THE MYSTERIOUS DR SATAN was also supposed to star Superman and the rather lackluster Copperhead was created to substitute.
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It would also be way too easy to just start posting stories from there every day, and although there's a lot of great stuff, I want to put up my own scans as much as possible (especially if the material is obscure).
I find the story about Republic intending to do THE SPIRIT dubious, if only because there's no documentation. With all the interviews Eisner did, it would have come up. Most likely, the idea came from hearing that Republic did intend to do a Superman serial and, when that fell through, changed it to Captain Marvel. I think THE MYSTERIOUS DR SATAN was also supposed to star Superman and the rather lackluster Copperhead was created to substitute.
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