THE SPIRIT Volume 5 Hardcover

Eisner's iconic good-girl covers on #20 and 21; #22 was used by the N.Y. Legislative Commission and is another classic Eisner cover of the sultry villainess Skinny Bones, as well as the final issue of this run. Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1937 to 1956 and was largely influential in creating the "Golden Age" of comic books. From 1940-1950, printer Everett M. "Busy" Arnold reprinted Spirit stories under his Quality Comics banner, first individually from 1940-1947 as one of the features in 92 issues of Police Comics and from 1944-1950 as 22 issues of The Spirit. The final three issues feature three of the most popular covers Eisner ever did, each one featuring one of his sultry femme fatales. Today they all fetch higher prices than all the other issues of the run -- a fine condition copy running collectors upwards of $600 to $1000 each. Eisner pulled out all the stops on these three final covers. There was another short-lived Spirit series in 1952-54, five issues from publisher Fiction House. Hopefully we will see these collected also. Then Harvey revived him again in 1966, Kitchen Sink in 1973, and many of the stories have been in print ever since. DC's Archives series collected the entire run of the 8-page stories, in 26 hardcover volumes. But those are now long out of print. Occasionally we offer a set in our Rare Books offerings. The Spirit is a fictional masked crime fighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner, who fights crime with the blessing of the city's police commissioner Dolan, an old friend. Despite the Spirit's origin as detective/criminologist Denny Colt, his real identity was rarely referred to after his first appearance, and for all intents and purposes he was simply "The Spirit". The stories are presented in a wide variety of styles, from straight forward crime drama and noir to lighthearted adventure, from mystery and horror to comedy and love stories, often with hybrid elements that twisted genre and reader expectations. Includes backup strips Honey Bun by Paul Gustavson and Flatfoot Burns by Al Stahl.