Customer Reviews

The Spirit Archives, Volume 6

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This volume of The Spirit Archives features Spirit pages from January to June, 1943. Will Eisner was in the Army at the time, so he didn't work on these comics. They were drawn by Lou Fine, and scripted by writers like Manly Wade Wellman and Bill Woolfolk. It's not as good as the comics by Eisner, but it's still a solid crime fighter comic book.

This book continues DC Comics' reprinting of the old Spirit comics. This book begins with Will Eisner's reminisces of his service during World War 2, which includes a couple of pictures, and a group of cartoons set in the service. After that, the book launches straight into the Spirit comics from January 3 to June 27, 1943. The comics are reproduced in wonderful quality, with sharp lines and bright colors. The stories are excellent, suggesting something of the Shadow with humor tossed in. If you are interested in Golden Age comics, then I highly recommend this book to you.

Will Eisner did the scripts and layouts for 4 stories in this volume, dated Jan 3 & 10, April 25, and May 2. Finished art is by Lou Fine and various assistants on these and on the other non-Eisner stories. Again, when compared to surrounding stories, Eisner's hand is apparent not only in the writing but also in the art of stories he wrote and did layouts for, and there are occasional pages that look like he must have penciled. Maybe he did.

Comprehensive writing and art credits for the whole run of the Spirit, unfortunately lacking in the Archives themselves, are available on the internet.