The Spirit Archives, Vol. 22

According to historian Paul Buhle, in his forward to this volume of The Spirit Archives, the stories here occur during the early throes of Will Eisner's fallow period. Eisner was seeing the writing on the wall in regards to how comic books and their crafters were being demonized by the public and notable child psychiatrists. Having been creating Spirit comics for over a decade, Eisner was getting the wanderlust, desiring a change. Thus if the adventures of the Spirit, Commissioner Dolan and company seems a bit like a cup of weak coffee, you'll understand.

But like with other masters of the comic arts, (any arts actually), the worst that Will Eisner has to offer is loads better than some of the worst artists and their so-called masterpieces!

The French black widow P'Gell appears in several stories, seeking fortune and fame, along with another husband to take to the proverbial cleaners. The Octopus, arguably the Spirit's primary arch enemy returns from the dead. Although, since nobody knows what he really looks like, thanks to his ability to wear countless masks all at the same time, could this Octopus actually be an impostor? (That's my theory at least.)There's also a rather unique criminal named Mr. Carrion who along with his pet bird Julia, is creepy fun with his evil schemes mixed with a touch of heartfelt sympathy for others.

The Spirit's girlfriend Ellen Dolan is now Central City's Mayor at this point. I remember in a previous volume that she ran for office. I just didn't recall that she had won. Being such an important figure now, Ellen has very little time to pine over her crime fighting boyfriend who's yet to walk her down the alter. Doesn't she realize that as Mayor, she can skip ceremony and declare herself married to the Spirit?!

Also, returning from a rather long hiatus is former sidekick of the Spirit, Ebony White. He'll pop up in perhaps the best story of the whole volume, a capper to a multi-part adventure that sees Spirit stranded in Asia and having to hoof it through the Himalayas to the nearest port back Stateside. Ebony might be a controversial character in comics. But he's also one of the most sincere and genuine characters ever crafted.

Another great volume. Maybe not Eisner's best. But I got a kick out of it!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 3

I could have finished this book in September. Only there was a Halloween story. So, I took a break until the week before All Hallow's. I read that seasonal tale and progressed until I hit the Thanksgiving story. Hitting the breaks again, this was my last Turkey Day read for 2023. I then kept reading until there came a Christmas caper! So I waited until I got a little bit closer to Santa's arrival. And then I forgot all about this book. 

I had picked up a collection of all of Will Eisner's Christmas Spirit stories. I think after I did the review, I probably got all mixed up in my head and combined that book with this one and just moved on. Thankfully, working on my comic book inventory and filing, I realized that I still had this book to finish. To my delight, I didn't mind all the delays because I really, really love The Spirit. 

This collection is early Will Eisner Spirit. At book's start, the Spirit has only been running in syndicated Sunday newspapers for a year. This edition marks the beginning of year 2 of the Spirit. Eisner's genius is showing through. However, many of those iconic villains have yet to be introduced yet. Arch-enemy, The Octopus and femme fatale P'Gell are about 5 years away from becoming a part of the Spirit's Rogue's Gallery. Childhood love turned law breaker Sand Sarif won't come back into the former Denny Colt's life for another decade. Despite some of these notable absences, there are still some memorable characters to be found inside.

The pint-sized P.S. Smith causes trouble for the Spirit and baddies alike for at least 2 hilarious stories. Spirit sidekick Ebony White has a number of misadventures with his cousin and other family members. And we can't forget Commissioner Dolan's daughter Ellen, who is madly in love with the Spirit. She works so freaking well as the Gal Friday and Kate Hepburn to the Spirit's Cary Grant/Spencer Tracy. But she's also great on her own; especially in a romp where Ellen joins an all-women's football team that's playing a team that is nothing but tough guys in drag attempting to beat the point spread!

By the start of break #1 in my reading of this book, I took to Amazon to buy up a couple more volumes. I knew that my wife wasn't going to get me these for my birthday or Christmas, so I was clear in buying up a couple of books. Thanks to remembering that I needed to review this collection, I went back to Amazon to snag a couple more. These Archive editions are not cheap. They retail for $49.99 and many are either out of print and that means whatever copies of those I manage to find are not cheap. But hopefully, I wind up with all 26 volumes and the complete run of original Will Eisner Spirit stories in my possession.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.