The Spirit Archives Volume Twenty-Seven!

Following on after DC's long run of The Spirit archive editions, Dark Horse Books in conjunction with longtime Kitchen Sink owner Denis Kitchen put out a twenty-seventh volume in the style of the DC books which gathered together the nine issues of The Spirit - The New Adventures. After many years of trying to talk Eisner into allowing other creators to play with The Spirit's universe, he at last convinced him of the idea in 1998. Some of the best comic men of the time took a dip in those Central City waters. 

The debut issue of The Spirit - The New Adventures features three tales by the super-star team of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, who also produced the cover. "The Most Important Meal" features Dr. Cobra who tells his origin story. "Force of Arms" offers up a possible clue to the identity of The Octopus. And the final story "Gossip and Gertrude Granch" tells us what really happened to Dr. Cobra's muscle-bound assistant. These stories all are connected in strange ways with that subtle Moore magic. 

The second issue offers up a cover by Will Eisner Mark Shultz. Under it is "The Return of Mink Stole" by Neil Gaiman and artist Eddie Campbell and combines a Spirit story with one torn from the realm of Quentin Tarrantino which propels a timid writer into a shady story of theft and more. "Sunday in the Part with St. George" by Jim Vance and artist Dan Burr has The Spirit race to the aid of a woman dangling from a flagpole where he meets an old enemy. "The Sphinx the Jinx in the Game of Life" by John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra features a hapless chap just released from jail but doomed by fate to return. 

The third issue features a striking cover by Brian Bolland. The first story "Last Night I Dreamed of Dr. Cobra" by writer Alan Moore and artist Daniel Torres is a strange affair set in a distant future in which Central City is the site of an archeological endeavor and in which strange discoveries are made. "Ellen's Stalker" by Mark Kneece and artist Bo Hampton features Ellen Dolan when she is at first saved then pursued by a man who imitates the look of The Spirit. 

The fourth issue sports another new cover by Will Eisner, this time with the assistance of William Stout. "The Samovar of Shooshnipoor" was written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by his partner on Astro City Brent Anderson. It features Sand Saref in a tale in which she tries yet again to manipulate The Spirit in a bid to gain riches. This issue also has a pin-up by Moebius of The Spirit looking a lot like Humphrey Bogart. "The Weapon by Michael Allred, Matt Brundage and Michael Avon Oeming has The Spirit fighting Nazis and their robot allies on the docks of Central City. "Dr. Broca Von Bitelman" by Mark Schultz and artist David Lloyd features Satin and a mad doctor and his deadly "Super-Beetles". 

The fifth issue features a cover by Paul Chadwick and John Nyberg and is a key scene from the issue-length story titled "Cursed Beauty" by the same team. This one deals with a gorgeous woman who leaves the scene of a murder naked save for a barely concealing overcoat. There are lots of twists and turns in this story which also showcases Ebony White in a key role. 

The sixth issue features a gritty cover by Tim Bradstreet. The first story titled "Swami Vashtibubu" was written by John Ostrander and drawn by Tom Mandrake, and has The Spirit go around in drag to knab a gang of fraudsters led by a murderous couple. "Baby Eichbergh" by Scott Hampton on both script (with assistance by Mark Kneece) and art tells of a terrible kidnapping which features a strange quartet of good Samaritans. 

The seventh issue features a cover by Peter Poplaski. Under it is a story titled "Golf Anyone?" in which Commissioner Dolan cajoles The Spirit onto the links for a game to relax him, but of course that only ends in the duo finding more crimes to solve. A long-missing cast member shows up unexpectedly. "The Pacifist" was written by Eddie Campbell and Marcus Moore and drawn by Campbell and Pete Mullins and tells the tale of a bullet with ambitions beyond that for which it created. "The Ghost of Tiger Traps" written by Jay Stephens and drawn by Paul Pope features a trio of boys including Sammy and P.S. Smith as they try to get to the bottom of a notorious gangster who seems to rise from his grave. 

In the final issue we get a cover by Mark Nelson. The story "Sweetheart" was written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by John Lucas. This issue-long adventure features a naked woman who refuses to stay dead and in the morgue despite repeated attempts. It's a ghoulish ending to a strange series which seemed to want to update The Spirit for a modern audience. 

In a later edition of this same volume put out by Dark Horse a story originally intended for the series by Gary Chaloner was added. In the meantime, Chaloner had adapted it in his John Law edition reversing the order of things with the epic Sand Saref tale from so long ago.  

There are lots of very good stories in this volume and I recommend it. But if you're looking for the same jolt you got from those classic Eisner tales, beware as the creators here go off the reservation as they should have done when given the okay. Eisner only limited them in two ways -- The Spirit could not be married nor could he be killed. As we've learned killing The Spirit is virtually impossible. It's been fantastic this past year reading these classic tales. I'll have wee bit more to say on this year-long odyssey later. 

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The Killing Joke!

Want to hear something funny? I've never read The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that I'd never read it until just a few weeks ago when I was prepping this post. I have been a monster comic book fan my whole life. But somehow when The Killing Joke hit the bookshelves in 1988 my focus was elsewhere, on my family and beginning a new career. I was a devoted Marvel Comics fan at the time, limiting my focus to help save money for needed things for a wife and two young daughters. So, the changes at DC Comics largely passed me by. 

I ignored The Watchmen. I missed out on John Byrne's fresh take on Superman, I passed on reading Frank Miller's The Dark Knight, and I ignored the praise that The Killing Joke was getting. Later when I turned my attention back to DC, I just never got around to reading this classic. I knew of the consequences such as Barbara Gordon's baleful injuries, but I was never tempted to read the actual story itself. Maybe it was a bit of reverse snobbishness since the story seemed to garner such universal praise. Truth told I was late in the game to the whole Alan Moore phenomenon and his boorish attitudes about it later in life have not warmed me to him. I'm trying to fix that now. 

So, now that I've at long last read it. What's my opinion? It's a pretty fucking (pardon my curse but it felt appropriate) fantastic bit of storytelling that grabs a reader by the neck and lets the go only when that final chuckle has receded into the night. Brian Bolland's artwork (and coloring) is magnificent. Moore's script is clever and taught. The story cannot of course have the same effect on me that it did on readers decades ago because I to some little extent know some of the goriest details from other sources. That's not the fault of the creators. It's not their fault I dallied for over thirty-five years to give this infamous bit of comic book storytelling a go. But I can say the stuff holds up and that it doesn't age a smidge. Bolland creates a noir world which is simultaneously decades old and timelessly fresh. 

Having at long last read The Killing Joke, I turned my attention to the animated adaptation and doing that helped make better sense of the original. It does reproduce the story, but the adaptation falls short of its emotional impact for a number of reasons. The animation cannot really reproduce Bolland's remarkable artwork, a limitation of the form. But most importantly the creators felt the need to add a whole other story to the beginning which featured Batgirl in action. I understood the perceived need to establish her for folks not coming from the comics, but it seemed somewhat random. It undermined the main story and after she's shot there is actually very little about Barbara Gordon in the remainder of the film. And sadly, that's possibly the most tragic part of her role in this story. 

The creators of the cartoon were fooled into thinking the story was about her and what happens to her. It's not. She's sadly just collateral damage like so many of the tragic victims are in the eternal conflict between Batman and the Joker. That was Alan Moore's secret, he took a permanent character and treated her like an impermanent one. It rattled the comfort zone from which we read our little stories and suggested that all things might just be possible. 

So, in the final analysis, I heartily recommend The Killing Joke to any comics fan. What is that? You've already read it, a long time ago in fact. Well, as it turns out the joke is on me. 

Happy April Fool's Day to all. More Joker later today. 

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The Mammoth Book Of Best Crime Comics!

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics is a real feast. All in glorious black and white, this anthology brings together crime stories from across the globe and from many decades. I will admit that some of the experimental stories, such as two by Alan Moore that form a beginning and ending for this collection elude me somewhat, but the bulk of the material is totally accessible. The beauty of a collection like this is if you don't much like the story you're reading, you are confident that the next one will strike your fancy. 

Some of the highlights of the collection for me are Jack Cole's "Murder, Morphine and Me!", Will Eisner's "The Spirit: The Portier Fortune", Alex Toth's "The Crushed Gardenia", and Johnny Craig's "The Sewer". There is a large section of the book dedicated to Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond, and Ms.Tree story "Maternity Leave" by Max Allen Collins and Terry Beatty gets a large hunk as well. There are two stories featuring art by Bernie Krigstein, one dandy tale titled "Lily White Joe" and a later totally strange yarn form the 87th Precinct titled "Blind Man's Bluff". The notes indicated the sheer oddball nature of this yarn drove Krigstein away from comics for good.

Likewise, artist Ed Robbins left the field when his comic strip with Mickey Spillane "From the Files of Mike Hammer" was censored and ultimately cancelled for the bondage scene above. Sanchez Abuli and Jordi Bernet turn in a classic with a Torpedo 36 story called "The Switch". Neil Gaiman and Warren Piere create one of the most depraved comics I've ever read with "The Court". El Borbah created by Charles Burns is a ton of fun, weird and offbeat fun in the story "Love in Vein". Our old friends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby check in with "The Money-Making Machine Swindlers" and Bill Everett turns in a great artistic effort on "The Button". And I've always been a fan of Paul Grist's Kane series represented here with the story "Rat in the House". 

Below are some of the covers for the comics and such in which many of these stories originally appeared. As you can see, it's an eclectic gathering of artistic styles as are the stories themselves. At a cool twenty bucks (when I bought it anyway) this collection is an entertaining bargain.

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MiracleMan Book Three: Olympus!

In some way this third book of the Miracleman sage by Alan Moore and new artist John Totleben is the most elegant of the fractious run. The series was gifted from the start with wonderful artwork, but the stories which comprise this collection are so exceedingly fine that they feel more like art than artwork,if that makes any sense. The story of Miracleman has moved to its night ultimate phase, the threads of the story are drawing to a close in many ways. 

We meet the alien race which was the source of Miracleman's powers by dint of some of that species falling into the hands of mankind through accident. They are the "Qys", a race that changes forms at will, and with dramatic results. We encounter the gorgeous Miraclewoman, a creature like Miracleman but truth told more at ease with her powers. We follow the much put-upon Liz Moran who must leave to save her sanity after the birth of Winter, the child which she and Miracleman parented. Winter, a mere baby but full of self-awareness and great power too makes decisions which. We see the return of Kid Miracleman with ferocious results. The Warpsmiths are on hand to assist to the last with great cost. Even Michael Moran, Miracleman's other self makes a momentous decision. These are serious stories of a world transformed by the superhumans who inhabit it, both for ill and good. I'm sorry it took me so long to find these tales, but then maybe I only now ready to fully appreciate them. 

Below are the covers for the stories which appeared originally from Eclipse Comics. 

Above is the cover for the Eclipse collection of these stories. The cover is incredibly compelling. Below are the covers for the Marvel reprints of the series from several years ago. 

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