Customer Reviews

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 4

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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All The Spirit comics from January to June, 1942. Spirit creator Will Eisner was in the service at the time, so the comic was largely done by his assistants. Solid crimefighter comics, but the really great stuff was to come later.

Some corrections need to be made to some of the other reviews of Spirit Archives. The first Spirit story that was not written, penciled and inked by Will Eisner appeared on May 3, 1942, about 2/3 of the way through Spirit Archive volume 4. The May 3 story, like all the later stories in volume 4, was written and laid out by Eisner, who also probably did some pencils, and perhaps even a little inking. But most of the penciling on this and other May and June stories was done by Lou Fine and inks were by Fine and various assistants. Some of these stories are better than anything in the first 3 Archives. So don't pass on this volume. It is all excellent work. If you liked the first 3 volumes, you are going to like this. The front cover to volume 4, taken from the June 7 splash panel, is almost certainly the work of Lou Fine, based on a layout by Eisner. If you like Eisner, this is not to be missed.

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

Will Eisner is the only comic book artist to ever have his work shown in a museum of art. His most important work is the Spirit. The Spirit Archives series has brought together all of his work, that was printed in a weekly newspaper insert. However, after the work found in volumes 1 and 2, Eisner was called to active duty and served in the army during World War II. The Spirit carried on, but it was drawn by other artists. Eisner's work does not pick up again until the stories found in Volume 12 of the Archives series. The work in Volumes 3-11 is fine, but it is not the work of Will Eisner.