The name may not be terribly familiar even to those who have followed comic books, but writer Michael Fleisher, who I just found out yesterday had passed away on February 2nd, was an amazing talent who left behind at least two series of stories I absolutely love.

The first, and probably his best, work ran only some 10 issues/stories.  While I lament the fact that it lasted such a short period of time, in retrospect it might have been just long enough.  These stories featured the Spectre, a character who to that point was never terribly well written even though he’d been around since the “Golden Age” of comics.  Mr. Fleisher made him a vengeful spirit who gave evil doers their just -and often very icky- reward.  The stories were found in Weird Adventure Comics and drawn by the always amazing Jim Aparo…

His other great series lasted a much longer time -over a dozen years!- and many, many issues, and involved DC’s western anti-hero Jonah Hex.

While Mr. Fleischer wasn’t the man who created the character, he was the one who handled him the longest and, in my opinion, offered the best take on him as well.  Jonah Hex has gone on to appear in his own -not very good- movie as well as on DC’s TV shows on the CW.

Perhaps the most fascinating story Mr. Fleisher wrote regarding the character appeared in the book presented below, Jonah Hex Spectacular.  Within this issue we learn the ultimate fate of Jonah Hex and it ain’t pretty.  Years later other writers at DC would return to the story and present a happier ending, but I like the grim one.  It’s somehow fitting…

Later on, Michael Fleisher would be bad mouthed in an interview by noted sci-fi author Harlan Ellison and in The Comics Journal.  In that interview and among other things Mr. Ellison stated Fleisher, based on some of his works and especially his Spectre stories, was a “lunatic” (he would offer other derogatory descriptions, some even more foul mouthed).  Mr. Fleisher sued for defamation and eventually lost the case while Mr. Ellison claimed the things he said were in jest and not meant to be taken seriously.  Regardless, the interview and the subsequent lawsuit effectivelly spelled the end of Mr. Fleisher’s career in American comic books.

He would leave comics completely by 1995 and after doing some stories for the British comic series 2000 AD.  His later career was spent in studies and college and he was 76 years old at the time of his passing.

Tonight I’ll have to go through my books and re-read some of those Spectre and Jonah Hex stories.

For those intrigued by what I’ve written above, the Spectre stories were collected in a TPB called The Wrath of the Spectre…

As for his Jonah Hex stories, DC released two black and white (and 500 some pages long) Showcase volumes which feature quite a bit of Mr. Fleisher’s material…

Again, if you’re at all intrigued by what I’ve written above and curious to read some of Mr. Fleisher’s stuff, get these three books.

They’re that good.