Spirited Away...

Soon DC Comics enormous effort to reprint a complete account of all of Will Eisner's work on The Spirit will come to a close, but there's been a lot of fan speculation as to how much of the character's publishing history we'd see in the Archives series. The solicitation for Volume 24 is part of DC Comic's December Previews Offerings, and this volume will be an over-sized edition that will wrap up reprinting the weekly strip. However that's not where the Spirit's adventures ended, and fortunately, the reprint effort doesn't end there either! Spirit Archives editor, Scott Nybakken, has revealed "There are going to be 26 volumes in the series total! Vol. 25 will include all the dailies in black and white, and Vol. 26 will include everything Eisner himself drew with the character after 1952. (This will not include the New Adventures that Kitchen Sink published.)"

I think DC Comics should be applauded for their efforts on this series of Archives, and I think it's a tremendous accomplishment putting this body of work back into complete and chronological print for audiences today. If you're reading Darwyn Cooke's rendition of The Spirit, but you've never read any of the original work, or have been curious about the character but don't know where to begin, please pick up The Best of the Spirit TPB. For $14.99, you'll be able to sample so many examples of why Eisner's work has influenced so many of today's storytellers from Frank Miller to Brian Michael Bendis.

You won't be disappointed.