The Spirit (July 13, 1941) “Stolen Squad Cars”

Like last week, Stolen Squad Cars brings back another recurring Spirit character to involve them in war-related intrigue. This strip it’s Squire Samson, a corrupt political operator who’s been a thorn in Commissioner Dolan’s side for ages. Last time the Squire appeared, Spirit outed him as a criminal. Unfortunately, the Women’s Civic Club—and its twenty thousand voting members—didn’t read the Spirit that week; they still think the Squire’s a saint, which will eventually be very important, but not at the start. The strip begins with Dolan and the police department doing a city-wide blackout drill. It’s the first time Central City’s had to do it and Dolan wants to get it right. He’ll be incredibly upset when ten of his squad cars are, well, Stolen. Except the stolen cop cars aren’t a plot point for a few pages, because Spirit and Ebony have a gadget-testing plot to get Spirit involved with the case early (only to inexplicably ignore it). Spirit’s figured out a way to create a ghostly…