Lady Luck (comics) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lady Luck is a fictional

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...

, American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

comic-strip and comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

crime fighter and adventuress created and designed in 1940 by 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...

with artist Chuck Mazoujian (1917-2011). Through 1946, she starred in a namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday-newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

comic-book insert colloquially called "The Spirit Section". The feature, which run through November 3, 1946, with one months-long interruption, was reprinted in comic books published by Quality Comics

Quality Comics

Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....

. A revamped version of the character will soon appear in publications from DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

, including Justice League
Justice League
The Justice League, also called the Justice League of America or JLA, is a fictional superhero team that appears in comic books published by DC Comics....

.

Publication history

Created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner

Will Eisner

(who wrote the first two Lady Luck stories under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

"Ford Davis") with artist Chuck Mazoujian, Lady Luck appeared in her namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday-newspaper

Newspaper

comic-book insert colloquially called "The Spirit Section". This 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book, sold as part of eventually 20 Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million, starred Eisner's masked detective the Spirit and also initially included the feature 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"...

, plus filler material. Writer Dick French took over scripting after these first two episodes. Later, writer-artist Nicholas Viscardi (later known as Nick Cardy

Nick Cardy

Nick Cardy , a.k.a. Nick Cardi, is an American comic book artist best known for his DC Comics work on Aquaman, the Teen Titans and other major characters....

) took over the feature from the May 18, 1941 strip through Feb. 22, 1942, introducing Lady Luck's chauffeur

Chauffeur

A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.Originally such drivers were always personal servants of the vehicle owner, but now in many cases specialist chauffeur service companies, or individual drivers provide...

and assistant, Peecolo. Though his Lady Luck stories were credited under the house pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Ford Davis, Viscardi would subtly work in the initials "NV" somewhere into each tale. Writer-artist Klaus Nordling

Klaus Nordling

Klaus Nordling was a Finnish American writer-artist for American comic books. He is best-known for his work on the 1940s masked-crimefighter feature "Lady Luck", and as co-creator of the Marvel Comics superhero the Thin Man. Some of Nordling's earliest comic books are signed F...

followed, from the March 1, 1942 to March 3, 1946 strip, when "Lady Luck" was temporarily canceled. After briefly being replaced by the humor feature "Wendy the Waitress" by Robert Jenny, "Lady Luck" returned from returned from May 5 to November 3, 1946, under cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

Fred Schwab

Fred Schwab was an American cartoonist whose humor panels and short features were published in a wide variety of comic books from at least 1938 to 1950, during a period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. His notable comic-book appearances include Timely Comics' Marvel Comics...

.

"Lady Luck" stories were reprinted in the Quality Comics

Quality Comics

Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....

comic book Smash Comics
Smash Comics
Smash Comics is the title of an American Golden Age comic book anthology series, published by Quality Comics for 85 issues between 1939 and 1949...

#42-85 (April 1943 - Oct. 1949), whereupon the series changed its title to Lady Luck for five more issues. Nordling providing new seven- to 11-page stories in Lady Luck #86-90 (Dec. 1949 - Aug. 1950), with Gill Fox

Gill Fox

Gilbert Theodore "Gill" Fox was an American political cartoonist, comic book artist and editor, and animator.-Biography:...

drawing the covers. Occasional backup features were "Lassie

Lassie

Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...

" by writer-artist Bernard Dibble and the humor features "The Count", by Nordling, and "Sir Roger", by Dibble or, variously, Bart Tumey.

Lady Luck was revived alongside Eisner characters John Law, Nubbin, 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"...

in IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...

's Will Eisner's John Law: Dead Man Walking, a 2004 collection of new stories 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...

.

On July 23, 2011, writer Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics, where he has been Chief Creative Officer since February 2010, in particular for characters such as Green Lantern, The Flash and Superman...

announced that a new version of the character would be featured in his upcoming revamp (with artist Jim Lee

Jim Lee

Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...

) of DC Comics

DC Comics

' Justice League
Justice League
The Justice League, also called the Justice League of America or JLA, is a fictional superhero team that appears in comic books published by DC Comics....

.

Character description

Lady Luck is the alter-ego of Brenda Banks, a young Irish-American socialite heiress, daughter of a mine-owner. Her costume consists a green dress, a large green hat, and a green veil in place of a mask. In some early versions representations of lucky charms hang from her hat brim. Like Denny Colt, hero of The Spirit, she does not possess any supernatural abilities

Superpower (ability)

Superpower is a popular culture term for a fictional superhuman ability. When a character possesses multiple such abilities, the terms super powers or simply powers are used...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.