John Law is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by writer-artist Will Eisner

Will Eisner

William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...

 in 1948. Law is an eyepatch

Eyepatch

An eyepatch or eye pad is a small patch that is worn in front of one eye. It may be a cloth patch attached around the head by an elastic band or by a string, or an adhesive bandage. It is often worn by people to cover a lost or injured eye, but it also has a therapeutic use in children for the...

ed, pipe smoking Crossroads Police Department detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

, who, with his shoeshine boy

Shoeshine Boy

"Shoeshine Boy" is a 1975 R&B/pop single by Eddie Kendricks. The single was the last of his three number-one U.S. R&B hits and one of his final crossover singles, peaking at number eighteen on the Billboard Hot 100.-References:...

 sidekick

Sidekick

A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...

 Nubbin, is featured in several adventures planned for a new comic series. These completed adventures were eventually adapted into Spirit stories, with John Law's eyepatch being changed to The Spirit's mask and Nubbin being redrawn to be Willum Waif or other Spirit support characters.

The original John Law stories have been restored and published in Will Eisner's John Law: Dead Man Walking (2004, IDW), a collection of stories that also features new adventures by writer/artist Gary Chaloner

Gary Chaloner

Gary Chaloner is an Australian comic book artist and writer. Born in Sydney in 1963, he began self publishing in 1985 with David de Vries, Glenn Lumsden and Tad Pietrzykowski under the Cyclone Comics imprint. He has collaborated with Ashley Wood, Ben Templesmith, Kurt Busiek, Stephen Jewell and Tim...

 starring John Law, Nubbin, and many other Eisner creations including Lady Luck

Lady Luck (comics)

Lady Luck is a fictional, American comic-strip and comic book crime fighter and adventuress created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner with artist Chuck Mazoujian . Through 1946, she starred in a namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert colloquially...

and Mr. Mystic

Mr. Mystic

Mr. Mystic is comics series featuring a magician crime-fighter, created by Will Eisner and initially drawn by Bob Powell. The strip featured in four-page backup feature a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, known colloquially as "The Spirit Section"...

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