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Average Customer Rating:

WARNING!	Customer Rating:
Many of the reviews for this volume (released 12/05) are actually for OTHER, volume sin the series. This book is part of the classic run of post war SPIRIT stories, as are v12 - 16. This is the best of the best, so dig in! I have written to AMAZON to ask them to change the Spirit Archive review sections, and hopefully they will get around to it soon!

Spirit Archives, Volume 5

Customer Rating:

This book covers The Spirit Sunday comic strip from July, 1942 to December, 1942. Spirit creator Will Eisner had been inducted into the Army in May of 1942, so he didn't draw any of the comics here. He managed to contribute a few scripts, but not too many. Scripts were written by Manly Wade Wellman, Alfred Bester, William Woolfolk and possibly others. Most of the artwork was handled by Lou Fine, who was no Will Eisner, but was a great artist in his own right. While this is not the best of The Spirit, it was still one of the best "masked crimefighter" comics of the time period.

Eisner Returns

Customer Rating:

The Spirit is a crime fighting hero who uses ingenuity and physical skill, rather than super powers, to defeat evil. He is witty likeable and politically incorrect. The comic pioneered many layout techniques and so many super heros are modeled after The Spirit. The story lines and comics hold up even now more than 60 years later and I recommend for comic book fans to try out the series. I recommend this series to all comics fans, although not necessarily this volume. The Spirit was very influential and the stories are still good to read now. I recommend this series to libraries, because this is a unique opportunity to archive the entire run of a very influential comic.

Great promise of things to come

Customer Rating:

I thoroughly recommend this book to Spirit fans, but not necessarily as the ideal introduction to the Great Spirit. This volume is The Spirit's springtime. "The Spirit" at his greatest was characterised by excellent stories, well paced, superb viewer angles in the art-work, and wonderful tension built by the ambiguity in the relationships between the Spirit and the regular characters. In this volume the stories are good, and the pacing and the angles are developing. The cast of characters is only in its infancy. The masterpieces are yet to come in future volumes.

The Spirit Archives Series

Customer Rating:

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.