I don't know if it's because the reprints I'm most familiar with are post-war, but I liked Ebony. He seemed a useful sidekick to The Spirit to me. Who else then had an african-american sidekick? Chop-Chop seemed far more offensive in that it made it obvious that Eisner dropped Ebony because he was black. But it was still okay to make fun of Asians. I honestly didn't realize until then that he was making fun of Ebony.

I am of european descent, and I am aware of the difference that still makes in America. I am trying to choose my words carefully. I admired Ebony, and Jim. I loved Inki and the Myna Bird as a child. The crows in Dumbo are hands-down my favorite characters in one of he best Disney movies. (Who has it together better than the crows in Dumbo?) It took me years to realize they were black caricatures. All I knew was "I did done seen about anything, when I see an elephant fly."

It took a long time for Jack Kirby to draw a Black man that looked like any Black man I recognized. Steve Ditko never learned how so at some point it looked like he just stopped trying. I'm not angry at Will Eisner for the offensive depiction. I just don't see any need for it anymore.

In 2007, there is no need for racist stereotypes like Ebony White. They don't need to be revamped, retconned or relaunched for today's audience. What's past is past. Leave it there.

The new Spirit, however, is very enjoyable, and I have no problem with how Ebony is portrayed there.

Either an element of a story is offensive enough to stop me from reading or else it isn't. And if it isn't, I mostly don't worry about it.

I'm not sure if this helps his case of not, but it's worth mentioning that in Eisner's "Hawks of the Sea" strip, which predates the Spirit, the bad guys were slavers - And shown to be total scum. (The hero was a dashingly handsome white dude, of course.)

Sue was pretty bad, honestly, though Stan 'n' Jack gave her plenty of moments and amped her powers considerably during their run. I wouldn't defend pregnant, fainting Sue and her "Girl" codename too strongly, but between her power upgrades and the way in which Crystal joined the team -- getting even Reed to compliment her as a brilliant strategist after she thrashes the Wizard -- the FF doesn't do so badly.

But surely the Wasp is far worse; it's patently clear from the get-go that she's only in the Avengers because she's shtupfing Gi-Ant-Man, or something, because Lord knows it's nigh-impossible to find her contributions in the average SIlver Age Avenegrs story. She's so useless that at one point she's defeated on a reconnaissance mission by a sparrow. Let me reiterate: a frigging sparrow!

And she stayed roughly that useless until somewhere during Shooter's run when (thanks to a Claremont/Byrne Marvel Team-Up story) she actually seemed to have powers that might be of some sort of use in a battle. It took Roger Stern to make her seem like a "Founder."

Ebeneezer???

With a handle like that, "Ebony" would have been an improvement as a nickname.

But "Eb" is better.

Ignorance with it was a narrow minded war time ignorance that seems to be quite common with old people.

Because unlike real people, to whom your statement would apply perfectly well, Ebony's appearance is the result of an artist's choice to use distinctly stereotypical elements in his work. Because this is a deliberate choice, rather than vicissitudes of genetics, it becomes part of the themes and content of the art itself. It cannot be magically divorced from the rest of the themes and contents; it must be dealt with in its own terms, and considered as an unavoidable part of the whole.

So yes, as others have pointed out, how he looks does indeed matter, whether you think it should or not. There is indeed such a thing as a racist visual portrayal, and Ebony under Eisner is one. Eisner himself acknowledged this in later years, and calls Ebony a racist caricature himself (if not in so many words) in several of the quotes listed and linked to in this comment page.

In any case, it's not just how he looks, but how he talks, how he's used as a minstrel-show sort of comic relief in the early stories, and so on. Ebony, especially in the strip's early years, was an exceedingly racist caricature in both visuals and dialogue. Down the way a bit, Eisner toned some of the dialogue tics down a bit -- his method was a story that sent Ebony off to finishing school for a bit -- but Ebony's visuals remained and their sources had hardly changed.

I'm still a white guy. Really, really white. If I stand in front of a car with its highbeams on, I get a sunburn.

I can mumble something about "culture of the time," "look how far we've come," etc, but I feel like my opinion has little weight. (of course, that won't stop me from sharing)If I were going to show the students at my school an example of great cartooning, I wouldn't show them the Spirit (or any WWII cartoons in which Japanese people have big buck teeth) because of Ebony. History has to be taken into account when discussing racist character portrayals, but history doesn't mean much if someone sees a character who is supposed to represent his or her people that looks like a buffoon.

I'm glad that Cooke has made Ebony into a real character. I'm glad that "Little Black Sambo" has been reimagined as "Sam & the Tiger," with the racism taken out and the cleverness of the main character emphasized. Still, I can't look at the modern Ebony or Sam and not think of the historical versions.

One question, though, how old is Ebony supposed to be. He doesn't even seem old enough to drive in Cooke's Spirit.

What's your view on it, Cronin?