Gathered therein are the Hallowe’en tale of Elect Miss Rhinemaiden of 1950 (Oct. Incidentally, The Spirit was the 1988 Harvey Awards laureate in the category of “Best Reprint Project”. 9, 1949) partly a retelling of the former Denny Colt’s origin, and boasting a true-blue classic splash page The Curse (Oct. 14, 1949) then it’s back to Central City business with The Candidate (Aug. 7, 1949), followed naturally by The Return (Aug. 1988), which wraps up the masked man’s Pacific Island with the cover-featured Matua (Aug. » The issue opens with Lilly Lotus (July 10, 1949) then follows with Sally of the Islands (July 17, 1949) The Masked Man (July 24, 1949) and The Ball Game (July 31, 1949), introducing latter-day sidekick and comic foil Sammy. 1988), which, over six instalments, « takes The Spirit to the Peligros, a fictional group of South Pacific islands, where he interacts with an entirely new set of characters, cultures and adventures. Obviously, we’re still in classic territory. Cover by Eisner, with colours by Ray Fehrenbach.

Also in this issue: the clever and entertaining The Prediction (June 19, 1949) The Elevator (June 26, 1949) and Ye Olde Spirit of ’76 (July 3, 1949). 46 (July 1988) cover-features Satin, originally published on June 12, 1949. Nevertheless, forty-four Will Eisner covers are bound to yield some genuine sparklers. This sober and courageous decision most certainly contributed in preserving the feature’s solid reputation to this day.Īs we embark on the inarguably lesser half of the run, we encounter fewer standout covers, which is to be expected, given the creator’s diminished affection for the contents. Then as now, good help was hard to find, to the point where Eisner opted to wrap up the strip rather than let it peter out completely. As stated earlier, facing an inexorable dwindling of Eisner’s involvement and investment in his creation due to other commitments and an understandable sagging of his stamina, the strip slowly entered its decline. Having reached the last half of Kitchen Sink’s chronological reprinting of the Post-WWII Spirit, we come at last to the end of our own chronicle. « … And so Hooten Landing remained unchanged through the years… a landmark and a memorial… a colonial world that had made only one or two concessions to the march of progress. » - From Ye Olde Spirit of ’76 (July 3, 1949)

Madness in Crowds by Denis Kitchen