The Spirit (July 27, 1941) “Pink Perkins”

Pink Perkins brings back the two kid characters—revealed here to be the Tidewater children–who previously appeared in the “Hitler Goes Good” strip. They don’t get first names here; the family name matters because their dad is initially in trouble. He runs the Tidewater grocery chain, and the mob is shaking him down for protection money. It just happens the mobsters in the Spirit comic strip use similar threats as the mobsters in the Gumshoe Gus comic strip the kids read. And that comic strip is created by one Pink Perkins. He works at the Daily Beagle. So many names, all of them great, some of them eerily prescient for future developments in the comic book industry. The kids go see Pink Perkins because Gus is a vicious killer of bad guys, and they think Pink writes Gus from experience. Gus also apparently beats his witnesses within an inch of their lives, which also contributes to a less-than-heroic ideal. Certainly less heroic than the Spirit, who will figure into the story…