The Spirit Archives, Vol. 22

The Spirit Archives #22

by Will Eisner

Collects the weekly adventures of a young criminologist named Denny Colt, who survived death to continue his fight against crime as The Spirit. Originally published between January 1, 1951 and June 24, 1951.

Genres: Comics, Comic Book, Adventure

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still no Ebony until the last story where he brought him back as the story-lead. Still unforgivable. That's why this is only rounded->up to ****.

The (seemingly) full-Eisner stories are well written, many even in poem verse, and the art is top-notch full-Eisner. The last I read was heavy with help. This is as authentic "Spirit" as you'll find!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the Archives, honestly. The story about Mr. Carrion attempting to seduce Ellen was awfully entertaining, and none of the stories are particularly bad. This book is, however, the first volume that I read and didn't feel a spark. Everything's good, and very well done. I just don't feel that there's much in vol. 22 that Eisner hasn't done as well or better in previous volumes.

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had thought we had put this Ebony White thing to bed forever. Everything I had read about the history of The Spirit indicated that as the strip entered the 1950s, Will Eisner abandoned the problematic character, who had all of the attributes of the racist black minstrel, probably owing to the fact that Eisner realized that the character was problematic. And yet, as I turned the page to the final story in this volume of The Spirit Archives, vol. 22, there he was.

Now to be fair to Will Eisner, this isn't exactly the same Ebony White from the previous appearances. In this story, Eisner has abandoned White's minstrel way of speaking as for the most part the "dey" and "dem" and "dose" are nowhere to be found. But the fact is that Eisner wants you to know that this is Ebony White and apparently he felt he didn't have the ability to recast the character like Darwyn Cooke did in his version of The Spirit so Ebony still has all of the physical characteristics of the black minstrel and so we are kind of back where we started with the character. Eisner gave it what he considered his best shot, and unfortunately, it isn't good enough.

And ultimately the fact that I even have to talk again about this is a shame. But the Ebony White problem is entwined in the history of The Spirit and his design was a major mistake on Eisner's part, as he didn't always portray African-Americans in the strip using the black minstrel stereotype and ultimately, Eisner was a talented enough storyteller to make Ebony so much more than his racist origins would suggest. This just goes to show that if one is going to read The Spirit you're going to take the good with the bad--and sometimes, it's really bad and there isn't an excuse for it.

[Scott Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty weak sauce. I have read that Eisner's involvement with the strip by the point of the stories in this volume had devolved to primarily a supervisory role. The artwork is adequate but doesn't reach the heights of the strip's earlier years. But the stories themselves are this volume's weak point. I believe Jules Feiffer was writing the strip at this time, and while he later became a master satirist, he was not in Eisner's league when it came to adventure stories. A couple stories stand out: Carrion's courting of Ellen, Dolan's two doppelgangers and a P'Gell story that I strongly suspect is a reprint of an earlier story. But most of the stories fall flat, the worst of them being a series of stories near the end where the Spirit has adventures while traveling around the world. These stories are just plain bad.

I'm giving the book 3 stars, and frankly, that may be a little high. But it is the Spirit, and the stories from its peak years bring a lot of goodwill to its lesser years.

[Tankboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch. Eisner's inkers stumble in a spot here and there but the storytelling and pacing overcomes any slight visual blemishes.