www. i dwpub l i s h i ng . c om • $21 . 9 9

Will Eisner's The Spirit and Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer are two of the most belovedand revered characters ever to see print in the graphic arts medium. Both creators weremasters of the form—expertly wielding their brushes with exquisite results and spinninghigh-flying adventures that enthralled readers at every turn!

Now these two legendary pulp-inspired heroes meet for the very first time!

A Central City councilman disappears and is found dead in Los Angeles. CommissionerDolan, along with Denny Colt (a.k.a. The Spirit), and his daughter Ellen trek out tothe City of Angels to investigate. Meanwhile, Cliff Secord (The Rocketeer) consoleshis sweetheart Betty who is traumatized after accidentally discovering the politician'sbody. But the real question is… how on earth—in 1941—did the victim arrive in LosAngeles just hours after last being seen thousands of miles away?! This is but one ofthe many mysteries that await our stalwart heroes as they seek answers to riddleswrapped in enigmas, and maintain their wits in the face of grave danger!

Find out in PULP FRICTIONBy Mark Waid, Paul Smith, Loston Wallace and J Bone

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THE ROCKETEER/THE SPIRIT: PULP FRICTION. MARCH 2014. FIRST PRINTING. © 2014 The Rocketeer Trust and Will Eisner Studios, Inc. THE ROCKETEER is a registered trademark of, and all related characters, theirdistinctive likenesses and indicia are trademarks of The Rocketeer Trust. All Rights Reserved. The Spirit © 2014 Will Eisner Studios, Inc. The Spirit and Will Eisner ™ Will Eisner Studios, Inc. ® in the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office. All Rights Reserved. IDW Publishing authorized user. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. The IDW logo is registered in theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted withoutthe permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.

Originally published as THE ROCKETEER/THE SPIRIT: PULP FRICTION issues #1–4.

www.IDWPUBLISHING.com

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Ted Adams, CEO & PublisherGreg Goldstein, President & COORobbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic ArtistChris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-ChiefMatthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial OfficerAlan Payne, VP of SalesDirk Wood, VP of MarketingLorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital ServicesJeff Webber, VP of Digital Publishing & Business DevelopmentIDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins

ISBN: 978-1-61377-881-4 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4Special thanks to Jennifer Bawcum, Denis Kitchen, Michael Lovitz, David Mandel, Kelvin Mao, Michael McCalister and Sandy Resnick for their invaluable assistance.

Cover by Paul SmithCover Colors by Jordie BellaireCollection Edits by Justin Eisinger & Alonzo SimonCollection Design by Tom B. Long

Written by MARK WAID

Art by PAUL SMITH (Issue #1),

LOSTON WALLACE (Issue #2), andJ BONE (Issues #3 & 4)

Additional Inks by BOB WIACEK (Issue #2)

Colors by JORDIE BELLAIRE (Issue #1),HI FI DESIGNS (Issue #2), andROM FAJARDO (Issues #3 & 4)

Letters by TOM B. LONG

Series Edits by SCOTT DUNBIER

THE ROCKETEER created by Dave Stevens • THE SPIRIT created by Will Eisner

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Introduction by Denis Kitchen

Cartoonists Will Eisner and Dave Stevens shared a good deal in common, including movie adaptations with high expectationsthat didn’t exactly set box office records. But first and foremost, the pair stood on a separate plane for their virtuosocontrol over a sable brush dipped in India ink. Their original drawings* are among the most admired and the most highlycollectible among comic art connoisseurs, with Will’s drawing perhaps a little looser, especially in his later period, andDave’s more controlled and precise. Each man, with seeming effortlessness, could layer lines of ink, bold and delicate,with such surety and near perfection, always within inventive page compositions, such that fans would routinely drool andcolleagues were admiringly envious.

Beyond their first rank artistry, both are also remembered for their wonderful storytelling. Dave’s Rocketeer, I’m confident,will remain a genre classic. Though the ability to do so was innate, Dave was never a prolific storyteller, nor was he aquick draw, even during his healthy years. Even if his life had not been cut short far too early, Dave could never haveaccumulated a body of work comparable to Will Eisner, whose career spanned eight decades, more than six hundred Spiritstories and over twenty graphic novels, not to mention a few hundred PS Magazines for the US Army.

The posthumous crossover of the most famous creations of Eisner and Stevens collected here prompts a few interestingparallels between notable elements of their work, starting with the women. Dave, perhaps even more than the Rocketeer,is famous for his delectable drawings of the female form. His sexiest images share the walls of the pin-up pantheon withAlberto Vargas and Gil Elvgren. Dave’s models often didn’t even have to be paid: they vied to be his subject. Dave was alsothe person most responsible for the revival of the ‘50s “Queen of Pin-Ups,” Bettie Page, on whom, of course, Cliff Secord’sgirlfriend Betty is based.

Eisner was certainly no slouch when it came to drawing women. His slinky, sensual femme fatales chased, outwitted, andseduced The Spirit throughout the ‘40s and into the early ‘50s. P’Gell, Silk Satin, Sand Saref, Skinny Bones, and Plasterof Paris were among the most memorable bad girls, though The Spirit’s long-suffering girlfriend Ellen was a beauty aswell. And Eisner’s Spirit section, inserted in family newspapers for a considerably earlier generation, had to incorporatethese alluring sex symbols under the eyes of watchful editors, where lingerie and hints of nudity were verboten.

The Spirit was created in 1940 in a world contemporaneous with its publication and set primarily in Central City, whicheveryone understood to be New York. Stevens, who created his best known character some four decades after The Spiritbegan, chose to set his plots close to very nearly the same time period, and much of its action also takes place in NewYork. The stubby, crazy-cool airplane that Cliff pilots, a 1931 Gee Bee racer, became a distinctive Rocketeer trademark, buteven many Spirit fans may not know that in July 1940, only a month after the strip’s inception, Eisner gave his maskeddetective a strange aircraft of his own: an auto-plane. It wasn’t as stylish as Cliff’s Gee Bee, and Eisner soon discarded theflying vehicle as too gimmicky. But perhaps it needs to be revived as a future plot device if Denny Colt and Cliff Secordshould cross paths again?

Finally, the Rocketeer’s costume, most notable for the twin cylinders on his back and a stylish art deco helmet, wouldhardly seem to have anything whatever in common with The Spirit’s minimal disguise, consisting entirely of a wispy eyemask. And that observation would be true for nearly The Spirit’s entire run. But as the epic approached its end in 1952,Eisner, assisted then by Jules Feiffer and Wally Wood, sent the Spirit to outer space and the moon, where he wore aspacesuit with twin cylinders on his back and donned a stylish, if somewhat bulbous, helmet of his own.

It’s a shame that Eisner and Stevens, who had such strong mutual respect, could not have collaborated during their lifetimes,but I’m confident each would be quite pleased to see their respective two-dimensional characters interacting and buttingheads, helmeted or not, for all the appreciative fans, like me, who can never get enough of their favorites.

—Denis Kitchen, February 2014

*If you aren’t lucky enough to own any of their actual art, see the next bestthing: IDW’s oversize Artist Editions of The Spirit and The Rocketeer.

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Cover by PAUL SMITHColors by JORDIE BELLAIRE

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