Spirit Archives VOL 25

Ironically, Will Eisner himself observes in the introduction that the daily strip format didn't give him enough "elbow room" to tell a story, because elbow room is exactly what this volume is crying out for. By cramming the dailies in at four to a page vertically, they're reproduced too small to fully appreciate the draughtsmanship of Eisner, and later Plastic Man creator Jack Cole, on the Spirit daily strips. Three to a page and horizontal would have allowed this volume to live up to the production values set in the other volumes of this reprint series of one of the all-time great comic strips. A shame, and a missed opportunity.

With a low page count, 4 daily strips per page, and all in black and white, it is difficult to recommend this to anyone except the completist.The best place to start with the spirit is volumes 11-18 these have six months of strips in each and are in colour.This is very expensive for what it is, as the daily 4 page panes are crammed onto a page making reading them a bit of a chore.