Episode 17: The Spectre’s Origin: Jim Corrigan’s Nightmare Death

Simon Carver

Welcome to the show everybody! I am Simon Carver, reporting to you once again from a cold, blacked-out London. It is Sunday, March 9th, 1941, and I must tell you, the skies here have been heavy. Just tonight, the Luftwaffe dropped bombs that damaged Buckingham Palace itself, but we keep our chin up and our candles lit. Joining me from our warm New York studio is my pragmatical partner, George Wilson. George, how is the home front?

George Wilson

We are freezing our socks off over here in New York, Simon. [chuckles] The wind coming off the Hudson is like a straight left to the jaw. But the town is still buzzing about the thirteenth Academy Awards they held last week at the Biltmore Bowl. Bob Hope was cracking jokes, but everybody was talking about those new sealed envelopes from Price Waterhouse to keep the winners secret. No more leaks! But if you want a real secret, Simon, you don't look to Hollywood. You look at the newsstands. We are talking about the debut of the most terrifying, cold-blooded crime-buster in the history of paper: the Spectre.

Simon Carver

The Spectre! [excited] Making his grand entrance in More Fun Comics number 52, dated February 1940. It is a absolute masterpiece written by Superman's own co-creator, Jerry Siegel, and drawn by a young twenty-three-year-old New York artist named Bernard Baily. Baily has this heavy, shadow-drenched style that looks like a German expressionist film printed on cheap pulp paper. And it all begins with a hard-boiled police detective named Jim Corrigan.

George Wilson

Jim Corrigan is a tough customer, Simon. Red hair, square jaw, a real street-level cop who doesn't mind using his fists. He is getting ready for his own engagement party to a beautiful high-society girl named Clarice Winston. But before he can put on his tuxedo, he gets a tip from a stool pigeon named Louie Snipe about a big caper at the Westmore Warehouse.

Simon Carver

The Westmore Warehouse tip! [reflective] Jim tells Clarice's father he has to pass on the party because "this tip is too important to pass up!" He goes to the waterfront alley, stakes out the place, and sure enough, a truck rolls up. It is the gang of a brutal racketeer named Gat Benson. Jim climbs onto the roof of the moving truck, drops down into the cargo bed, and starts throwing punches like a wild man, shouting, "Trying to ruin my tuxedo, eh? I'll stand for anything but that!"

George Wilson

A tuxedo in a warehouse brawl! [laughs] That is class. But Gat Benson is a rat. He tracks Jim down, captures him, and takes him to a deserted warehouse on the waterfront. And this is where the comic book turns into a genuine nightmare, Simon. Panel five on page seven: they put Jim into a wooden barrel. They pour wet, gray cement and water right over his head, completely filling the barrel. Gat Benson stands there with this hideous, toothy grin and tells his thugs, "Get some more men and roll this thing into the wharf!"

Simon Carver

"Roll this thing into the wharf." [shudders] Baily draws that barrel plunging off the wooden pier. A massive "SPLASH!" in big red letters. And then we see the barrel sinking down, down, down to the dark riverbed, settling placidly on its side. It is incredibly claustrophobic. But then, Jim's soul exits his body. He finds himself floating in a void of white clouds, with horizontal telegraph-like lines of force. He looks up and sees a patch of light. A caption reads: "Up toward the streaming light ahead, streams Jim's figure at infinite speed..."

George Wilson

"Infinite speed" into the Great Beyond. And as a Catholic fella, Simon, this next part really grabs me by the collar. Jim meets the Voice. It is not drawn as a person -- just a massive, blinding ray of light cutting through dark, boiling clouds. The Voice has this booming, majestic presence. It tells him, "Your mission on Earth is unfinished... You shall remain earthbound battling crime on your world with supernatural powers, until all vestiges of it are gone!"

Simon Carver

"Until all vestiges of it are gone!" [nostalgic] That is a eternal sentence! Jim actually protests, crying out, "But I don't want to return to Earth! I want eternal peace!" But the Voice has spoken. Jim is hurled back down through space, past stars and enfolding darkness, until he wakes up sitting on the very bottom of the riverbed, right next to the cement barrel, completely unharmed. He looks at his own hand protruding from the cracked cement and realizes, "Good lord! I must be looking at my own body!"

George Wilson

He is looking at his own corpse! That is some heavy, macabre business for a ten-cent funny book. Jim swims to the surface, flies up into the air, and realizes he can turn invisible at will. He rushes back to the warehouse where Gat Benson is still holding Clarice. He walks right through the wooden wall like a ghost! And when the thugs try to shoot him, the bullets pass straight through his chest. Jim just smiles and says, "If you've got any more bullets to waste -- go right ahead!"

Simon Carver

"Go right ahead!" And then we get the first display of his terrifying astral wrath in issue fifty-three. A thug named Ricky tries to tackle Jim, but as soon as he touches Jim's ghostly flesh, Ricky's skin starts wrinkling and shrinking. In four panels of sheer body horror, Ricky is reduced to a bare, grinning skeleton that collapses into a pile of bones on the floor! Gat Benson is so terrified he goes completely insane, screaming "Don't touch me!" before collapsing into unconsciousness.

George Wilson

A pile of bones on the floor! [sighs] My God, Siegel and Baily did not pull their punches. But the real tragedy of this origin isn't the horror, Simon. It is what happens next in that red coupe. Jim rescues Clarice, drives her away in her car, but as they are driving, Jim idly notes that his breath is not leaving any moisture on the window glass. He touches his own chest and gasps, "Good lord! I don't breathe!"

Simon Carver

"I don't breathe!" [reflective][pauses] It is a chilling realization of his own non-existence. He looks at Clarice, who is looking at him with so much love, and he realizes he has no right to marry a living human being. He tells her, "The engagement is off!" Clarice is heartbroken, crying, "But Jim -- we mean so much to each other... you can't discard our love like an old sock!" And Jim has to play the cold, unfeeling brute, saying, "I simply have ceased to care!" But in his internal monologue, he's weeping: "I can't keep this up any longer! I still love her -- I...!"

George Wilson

"Discard our love like an old sock." That line is pure street poetry, Simon. But Jim's face in that panel is drawn with these heavy, dark lines of despair. He goes back to his boarding room, pack his things, and tells his landlady he is moving out. Then, in his new, lonely room, he sits under a single bare lightbulb and sews together a strange costume: a green cowl, a green cape, white skin-tight trunks, and dark gloves. He stands on a cliffside under a full moon, looking like a lonely, tragic phantom, and vows to hunt the underworld forever.

Simon Carver

That lonely vow is quickly put to the test in More Fun Comics number 54 and 55, which introduces a villain who is the absolute dark mirror to the Spectre's cosmic power. We are talking about Zor! He is drawn as this elegant, sinister figure in a black tuxedo and a high silk top hat, with a pointed goatee. He looks like a classic stage magician, but his power is terrifyingly real.

George Wilson

Zor is no cheap hood, Simon. He is a "spirit confined to Earth -- only, who thru' the centuries has spread evil upon this world!" He starts out working with a fake spiritualist named Rhani Set, who is trying to swindle Clarice's mother, Mrs. Winston. When Jim tries to investigate, Zor sends his thugs to kill Jim. They stab Jim in his bed, but of course, Jim is already dead! The Spectre rises up and chokes the attacker with "invisible hands."

Simon Carver

"Invisible hands" in the dark! [excited] But Zor is a master of dimensions. In issue fifty-five, Zor actually kidnaps Clarice, putting her in a red coupe and driving her straight off a cliff! The driver is frozen with horror, the truck loses control, but Zor uses his mental telepathy to keep the vehicle suspended in mid-air above the chasm. The Spectre flies in to save her, but Zor blocks him with an impenetrable "invisible wall" of raw force!

George Wilson

An invisible wall in the sky! And this leads to the bullet-stopping climax of issue fifty-four that really sets the stakes for the whole series. Zor's assistant, Pedro, has a pistol pointed right at Clarice. The Spectre leaps through a metal wall to stop him, but Pedro pulls the trigger. The bullet is flying toward her chest. In that split-second, the Spectre's physical form is suddenly snatched away by a brilliant burst of energy. He is pulled back up to the gates of eternity!

Simon Carver

Hurled back to the celestial plane at infinite speed! [gasps] The Voice of destiny speaks to him again: "Jim Corrigan -- once again judgement is to be passed upon you! We have relented -- your mission is to gigantic for one individual -- you shall be permitted to pass on to eternal rest!" But Jim looks down through the dimensions and sees the bullet inches from Clarice's heart. He cries out, "But I can't pass on now... Clarice is in danger! She needs my help!" He chooses to doom his own soul to remain earthbound forever just to save her!

George Wilson

He dooms his own soul for her survival. [measured] That is a heavy, beautiful sacrifice. The Voice says, "So shall it be!" and the Spectre plunges back down to Earth like a meteor. He arrives back in the metal room just as the bullet is about to strike her, points his finger, and causes the bullet to explode into nothingness before it can touch her skin. It is a stunning display of temporal control.

Simon Carver

And that leads directly into the colossal battle in issue fifty-five. [excited] Once Jim rejects his eternal rest, he and Zor lock in a struggle that breaks all conventional comic book scale. Bernard Baily draws them growing larger and larger, towering over the city, then towering over the entire countryside! In panel two of page six, they are giant-sized phantoms standing on top of mountain ranges, trading massive blows in the blackness of interstellar space, with Saturn and tiny planets floating right next to their shoulders!

George Wilson

Saturn as a background prop! [laughs] That is what I call a heavyweight bout! Zor is hurling green bolts of occult energy, but the Spectre is fighting for the soul of the woman he loves. Zor eventually tries to trap Jim in a "paralysis ray" inside his dimensional castle, but the Spectre tricks him. Jim offers to trade the "secret of life" formula for Clarice's freedom. Zor takes the paper, but it is a decoy! The Spectre breaks free from the ray and traps Zor inside his own paralysis machine, leaving him imprisoned for all eternity.

Simon Carver

Trapped in his own machine! [laughs] That is classic poetic justice. But what fascinates me about the issues that follow -- specifically More Fun fifty-six through fifty-eight -- is how Bernard Baily begins to experiment with the Spectre's physical size and scale. He doesn't just grow giant; he shrinks down to the most microscopic proportions. It is like an antique radio where you can tune the frequency to be incredibly wide or pin-drop narrow.

George Wilson

Microscopic is right, Simon. In issue fifty-six, there is a crooked wholesaler named Bentley who is hiring thugs to high-jack fur trucks. Jim Corrigan is in Bentley's office, but then the Spectre leaves Jim's body and "creeps into the telephone wires," traveling through the electrical current to trace Bentley's phone call back to its source! He shrinks down so small he actually climbs right into a thug named George's trousers pocket!

Simon Carver

Climbing into a crook's pocket! [laughs] That is a marvelous visual. Baily draws the tiny, six-inch Spectre standing on the edge of the pocket, watching the thugs hijack a fur truck. And then, when the thugs throw the truck driver off a cliff to his death, the Spectre plummets down alongside him, executes a "mystic sign" in mid-air, and makes the driver bounce right back up off the rocks, completely unhurt!

George Wilson

A guy bouncing off a canyon floor like a rubber ball! [chuckles] That is some wild stuff. But then we get the real terror of the Spectre. The thugs are astonished, and the Spectre grows back to his regular size, corners George the high-jacker, and says, "Look into my eyes, George -- what -- do -- you -- see?"

Simon Carver

"Look into my eyes!" [gasps] That is one of the most famous, spine-chilling motifs in the entire run. Baily draws this massive, tight close-up of the Spectre's face, his eyes drawn as these blank, black hollows with tiny, burning pupils. And inside those pupils, the criminal sees a vision of his own death! George screams, "I -- see -- death! YA-A-A!" and he drops dead on the spot from sheer fright!

George Wilson

Dying of sheer fright just from a look. [somber] It is a heavy, Old Testament style of justice, Simon. No courts, no trials, just the raw mirror of your own sins turned back on you. But there is this great thematic contrast in these issues. During the day, Jim Corrigan is still working his regular flatfoot beat at the precinct, dealing with mundane street crimes like insurance fraud and fur thieves. He is smoking cigars, talking to the Chief, getting yelled at. But at night, he becomes this cosmic, ghostly executioner.

Simon Carver

It is a extraordinary double life. [reflective] In issue fifty-eight, a vicious gangster named Nick is cornered by the police in a warehouse. Jim Corrigan arrives, his spirit leaves his body, and the Spectre starts playing mind games with Nick. Nick shoots him, but the Spectre just laughs, bounces up from the sidewalk, and says, "Disappointed?" He then shrinks down to the size of a doll, floats in front of Nick, and makes Nick go completely "batty" until he begs the police to arrest him just to escape the "haunted warehouse!"

George Wilson

"Haunted warehouse" is right! Nick is practically crying for the handcuffs! [laughs] But then the Spectre goes after the big boss, Pete. Pete is trying to set a warehouse on fire with a man tied to a post inside. The Spectre waves his hand, and the torch flame turns into a literal icicle! Pete looks at the ice, sees the reflection of the Spectre's terrifying face in it, and the comic says, "He's melting! Consumed by the villainy within him!" He literally dissolves into a puddle of goo!

Simon Carver

He melts into a puddle! [laughs] My goodness, Jerry Siegel must have been having the time of his life writing these scripts. But that leads us into More Fun Comics fifty-nine through sixty-two, where the features transition from this dark, urban gothic horror into absolute cosmic science-fiction madness. Let us start with the "Golden Curse" story in issue sixty-one.

George Wilson

The Golden Curse is a wild ride, Simon. It starts with this big-time promoter named Jeff Crane receiving a threat from the Spectre. But it is not the real Spectre! It is an imposter named Gustaf Gilroy, who has discovered an obscure scientific machine that can change the atomic structure of objects -- a literal Midas Touch! He turns Jeff Crane into a solid gold statue right in front of the police!

Simon Carver

Turning a man into a solid gold statue! [excited] It is a stunning visual. Gilroy, as the fake Spectre, wears the green cowl and cloak, but he uses the "Golden Curse" to extort wealthy men. When Jim Corrigan investigates, he deliberately lets himself get turned into gold by Gilroy's thugs. They throw Jim's heavy, gold-plated body into the river, but once he hits the water, the Spectre emerges from the golden shell, flies through the sky, and catches the thugs.

George Wilson

And how does he catch them? [laughs] He travel through the telephone wires again, pops out of the receiver, and corners them. But when Gilroy realizes he is beaten, he swallows his own chemical formula and turns himself into a solid gold statue! He is trapped forever as a golden monument to his own greed.

Simon Carver

A golden monument to greed, indeed. [nostalgic] But that is nothing compared to the absolute mind-bending weirdness of issue sixty-two. This is where we meet Professor James Fenton and his daughter, Nancy. Fenton is a brilliant but unstable scientist who has spent months in his laboratory trying to create a "super-race." And how does he do this? By building a giant, mechanical glass jar containing a massive, floating, electrically charged human brain: the "Brain Supreme!"

George Wilson

A giant floating brain in a jar! [scoffs] Only in the comic books, Simon! The Professor's evil butler, Dexter, kills Fenton, takes control of the Brain Supreme, and uses its immense mental powers to kidnap the President of the United States! The Brain Supreme actually hypnotizes the entire Congress, putting them to sleep with a strange gas while thugs carry the President away in a car.

Simon Carver

Hypnotizing Congress! [excited] But the Spectre zooms in, flies right in front of the escaping car, opens his mouth, and literally swallows the bullets fired at him! He rescues the President, but then he goes after the Brain Supreme. The giant brain has grown to the size of a house, expanding endlessly, crushing buildings, and sprouting long, gray tentacles! It grabs the Spectre in its quivering mass, trying to crush him with its "superior intellect!"

George Wilson

A brain with tentacles! [laughs] That is like a cheap sci-fi picture. But the Spectre uses his "Ring of Life" to short-circuit the brain's electrical rays. The Brain Supreme literally starts to "wilt" and shrink back down to its normal size, while the evil butler falls into a solvent vat. It is a complete shift from the gritty, rainy alleys of the first issues to this giant, universe-threatening space madness.

Simon Carver

Absolute cosmic madness, George. And that is the perfect lead-in to the Spectre's appearances in All Star Comics number one and two, where he becomes a founding member of the legendary Justice Society of America! Standing alongside the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and our old friend the Sandman. And the Spectre brings this incredibly chilling, heavy crowd-control dynamic to the roundtable.

George Wilson

The roundtable of mystery men! But in All Star number two, they face a threat that almost destroys the entire planet: Kulak, the High Priest of Brztal! Kulak is this ancient, blue-skinned sorcerer with a golden hat and long robes. He steals an ancient parchment from the Oriental Museum, and when a guard tries to stop him, Kulak releases the "Whispering Death!"

Simon Carver

The "Whispering Death!" [shudders] It is a terrifying, invisible curse that spreads across the city like a dark cloud covering the sun. People start hearing this maddening, whispering drone in the air, whispering "HATE... HATE... HATE..." within moments, complete strangers start brawling in the streets, parents spank their children, brothers fight brothers, and drivers deliberately run down pedestrians! It is a pure manifestation of global madness.

George Wilson

A global madness. As a Catholic, Simon, that image of brother fighting brother is the ultimate sin -- the curse of Cain unleashed on the world. The Spectre has to step in to save humanity from itself. He flies over the rioting crowds, raises his hands, and recites a powerful, ancient incantation: "ERIGOS NOSI RANTO!" At his command, the whispering subsides, and the entire populace freezes into immobile stone statues until the danger is past.

Simon Carver

"ERIGOS NOSI RANTO!" [excited] What a spell! But Kulak is not done. He summons a plague of millions of giant locusts to blind the city. The Spectre grows to a gargantuan, celestial height, rips open a portion of space itself, and creates a massive vacuum that sucks the entire swarm of locusts into the "depths of infinity!"

George Wilson

Ripping open space like a wet newspaper! [laughs] But then Kulak and the Spectre engage in a dimensional chase, leaping from planet to planet, running across the rings of Saturn! Kulak summons the long-dead, metallic "Unholy Legions of Brztal" to attack Jim. They overpower him, and Kulak makes a sweeping gesture toward Earth, crying out, "DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!" The oceans overflow, flooding cities, and people are left begging for water in parched deserts.

Simon Carver

Flooding the entire globe! But the Spectre summons his very last ounce of cosmic energy, jars Kulak with a massive right cross to the jaw, and breaks the incantation! The evil forces consume Kulak in a burst of blazing fire, and the Spectre races back to Earth, pushing the oceans back into their beds and restoring the dry land just in time. It is a truly epic, planetary-scale adventure that shows just how far Jerry Siegel's imagination could stretch.

George Wilson

It is a hell of a yarn, Simon. And it looks like we have some mail from our listeners. Our friend from the future, Mr. Moore, has forwarded some letters to our short-wave desk. One listener, writing to distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com, asks: "Is the Spectre actually Jim Corrigan's soul, or is he a separate divine entity of vengeance using Jim's body?"

Simon Carver

Ah, [reflective] that is the million-dollar question! In these early issues, Siegel treats them as a partnership. The Spectre is "Jim's special counterpart" that leaves his body, but they share the same memories and the same tragic love for Clarice. But as the years go on, that relationship is going to get much, much stranger.

George Wilson

Well, whatever he is, he is the toughest ghost on the block. That is all the time we have for tonight's broadcast, folks. From our New York studio, where I am going to go find a warm heater and a good cigar, I am George Wilson.

Simon Carver

And from a quiet, darkened London, where we keep our spirits high and our radios tuned, I am Simon Carver. Good night, everyone, keep your courage up, and keep reading those funny pages!