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Hard Case Crime Comics #33
The Collected Will Eisner's John Law
Wherever men live, be they nomads or city dwellers, there they must have law and a man to enforce it.
Meet Detective John Law of Crossroads City. Strong, decent, hardworking and hard-nosed. He’s a man who believes in the law and order. He’s the last of a dying breed.
In 1948, Will Eisner produced the first issue of “John Law Detective”, which he intended to add to a line of self-published comics. However, after Eisner’s “Baseball Comics,” “Kewpies,” and “Pirate Comics” failed to find an audience, John Law never made it to the newsstand and was quietly dropped, with much of the original artwork reworked in 1950 for his most famous creation, The Spirit.
Featuring original stories by Will Eisner, Gary Chaloner’s award-winning reboot from 2004, including a previously unpublished John Law story and a foreword by long-time Eisner publisher Denis Kitchen, this is a must-have for not just Eisner fans but comic collectors of all ages.
Meet Detective John Law of Crossroads City. Strong, decent, hardworking and hard-nosed. He’s a man who believes in the law and order. He’s the last of a dying breed.
In 1948, Will Eisner produced the first issue of “John Law Detective”, which he intended to add to a line of self-published comics. However, after Eisner’s “Baseball Comics,” “Kewpies,” and “Pirate Comics” failed to find an audience, John Law never made it to the newsstand and was quietly dropped, with much of the original artwork reworked in 1950 for his most famous creation, The Spirit.
Featuring original stories by Will Eisner, Gary Chaloner’s award-winning reboot from 2004, including a previously unpublished John Law story and a foreword by long-time Eisner publisher Denis Kitchen, this is a must-have for not just Eisner fans but comic collectors of all ages.
- GenresGraphic NovelsComics
152 pages, Hardcover
Published March 4, 2025
2 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Will Eisner
761 books534 followersWilliam Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 12, 2025
I've been a big fan of Will Eisner's 'Spirit' for over 50 years since I learned of the strip in a History of Comics clas in high school. It was a great pleasure to learn that the Eisner character that evolved into the Spirit has been salvaged from the scrap heap of history and compiled into an almost complete collection of stories. I'm very grateful to the folks who have done this and hope that they consider creating new stories using these characters.
November 6, 2025
“Wherever men live, be they nomads or city dwellers, there, they must have a law and a man to enforce it who is strong, decent, and believes in the rules he defends.”
“John Law is an honest cop in a town that lives on lies. An honorable man in a town built on corruption. A tough man in a town that feeds on the weak.”
Will Eisner is a legend in comics primarily on the strength of his crime serial The Spirit which ran in Sunday newspapers across America from 1940--52. This hardcover from Hard Case Crime collects two of his lesser-known creations, the one-eyed marshal John Law and his sometime-sidekick, the shoeshine boy Nubbin.
From 1946-47, Eisner attempted at least three times to develop the cherubic Nubbin character as the star of his own comic vehicle. He was intended to be funny and lovable, sort of like Dennis the Menace, sometimes getting out of scrapes by assisting local law enforcement.
In 1948, Eisner reworked the concept to make John Law the main character and reduce Nubbin's role to occasional informant. He wrote three stories and penciled them in black and white, faithfully reproduced in this volume:
"Sand Saref"
"Nubbin and the Strange, Ghastly Affair of the Half Dead Mr. Lox"
"Ratt Gutt"
These stories are not my favorites. While I enjoy the violent pre-Code comics such as Pete Morisi's Johnny Dynamite, the original John Law stories tend towards "cutesy" in a Norman Rockwell sort of way. There's never any real sense of danger, not when Law is on the case.
The John Law comic book never got off the ground and Eisner eventually turned all three stories into Spirit adventures instead.
In 2004, an aging Eisner commissioned Gary Chaloner to reboot the John Law series, which resulted in six new stories:
“Meet John Law”
“The Opal Skull”
“A Family Concern”
“Law, Luck, and a Dead-Eyed Mystic”
“What Nubbin Knew”
“The Half Dead Nubbin Butts”
Chaloner made a valiant effort to expand the John Law universe. He retconned the backstory of Law’s early life. He reintroduced several minor Eisner characters that had never crossed paths with Law before, notably Lady Luck and The Mystic. He expanded the use of supernatural elements, which had previously been only a minor element in “Nubbin and the Strange, Ghastly Affair…”
The series did not last long enough to pay off all the foreshadowing and dangling plot threads. The new stories are all over the place tonally. There is a social justice story, a Christmas story, a ghost story, a hardboiled story…
The series never settles on what it is trying to be. Ultimately, it just trades Eisner’s kitsch for the saccharine stench of nostalgia.
Skip this one. 2 stars
“John Law is an honest cop in a town that lives on lies. An honorable man in a town built on corruption. A tough man in a town that feeds on the weak.”
Will Eisner is a legend in comics primarily on the strength of his crime serial The Spirit which ran in Sunday newspapers across America from 1940--52. This hardcover from Hard Case Crime collects two of his lesser-known creations, the one-eyed marshal John Law and his sometime-sidekick, the shoeshine boy Nubbin.
From 1946-47, Eisner attempted at least three times to develop the cherubic Nubbin character as the star of his own comic vehicle. He was intended to be funny and lovable, sort of like Dennis the Menace, sometimes getting out of scrapes by assisting local law enforcement.
In 1948, Eisner reworked the concept to make John Law the main character and reduce Nubbin's role to occasional informant. He wrote three stories and penciled them in black and white, faithfully reproduced in this volume:
"Sand Saref"
"Nubbin and the Strange, Ghastly Affair of the Half Dead Mr. Lox"
"Ratt Gutt"
These stories are not my favorites. While I enjoy the violent pre-Code comics such as Pete Morisi's Johnny Dynamite, the original John Law stories tend towards "cutesy" in a Norman Rockwell sort of way. There's never any real sense of danger, not when Law is on the case.
The John Law comic book never got off the ground and Eisner eventually turned all three stories into Spirit adventures instead.
In 2004, an aging Eisner commissioned Gary Chaloner to reboot the John Law series, which resulted in six new stories:
“Meet John Law”
“The Opal Skull”
“A Family Concern”
“Law, Luck, and a Dead-Eyed Mystic”
“What Nubbin Knew”
“The Half Dead Nubbin Butts”
Chaloner made a valiant effort to expand the John Law universe. He retconned the backstory of Law’s early life. He reintroduced several minor Eisner characters that had never crossed paths with Law before, notably Lady Luck and The Mystic. He expanded the use of supernatural elements, which had previously been only a minor element in “Nubbin and the Strange, Ghastly Affair…”
The series did not last long enough to pay off all the foreshadowing and dangling plot threads. The new stories are all over the place tonally. There is a social justice story, a Christmas story, a ghost story, a hardboiled story…
The series never settles on what it is trying to be. Ultimately, it just trades Eisner’s kitsch for the saccharine stench of nostalgia.
Skip this one. 2 stars
May 27, 2025
Written originally for Eisner's comic book line in 1948 but never published, the art and stories were amended and published as Spirit sections for the newspapers. The artwork has now been remastered back into it's original form and the tales are enjoyable reads as well as historical curiosities. Gary Chaloner has also added a nice feature length story of John Law (and others from the same city, Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic) to the canon. While Chaloner is not the draughtsman that Eisner was his art does capture the 'spirit' (sorry) of Eisner, and his story telling is endearing. Add a few historical essays and we have an entertaining book that is a welcome addition to any Eisner library. Recommended.
June 19, 2025
John Law was a character Will Eisner created back in the 40's when The Spirit was going strong in newspapers. He wrote 3 stories with the character but they never saw the light of day because his publishing side venture folded first. Then in the aughts, Eisner decided to hand the character over to Gary Callander. This collection collects the 3 original Eisner stories and Callander's contributions a half century later. There are also a bunch of essays from Denis Kitchen about the character. Law was the only honest police detective on the force, often helped by an orphan who shined shoes. It's good stuff.
November 17, 2025
This wonderful book is Hard Case Crime doing for comics what it has been doing for paperbacks for years - digging up old, forgotten noir gems and introducing them to a new generation. The backup material, spelling out the history of the characters, is at least as much fun as the comics themselves, both Eisner's original work and the modern take by Chaloner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews