Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT was and continues to be one of the most influential series in the history of comics. THE SPIRIT was originally created to be a self-contained comic book found in the Sunday newspapers. This unique distribution system allowed Eisner to craft stories that were aimed at older audiences while still being visually appealing to kids. Since Eisner owned the rights to THE SPIRIT, he was able to repackage the stories in a standard comic book format and have them published for news-stand distribution by other companies. In 1944 Quality Comics began publishing THE SPIRIT. Most of the stories Quality printed at first were originally created during Eisner's military service. Since Eisner was in the army, a phalanx of amazing talents ghosted most of the stories. Scripts were provided by Bill Woolfolk, Manly Wade Wellman and occasionally by Eisner himself. The art chores were done by luminaries like Lou Fine, Jack Cole, Alex Kotzky, and Don Komisarow who all stayed true to Eisner's vision while imprinting their own styles on the character. This book was compiled with the best images currently available. That stated, these comics are seventy years old. The best efforts have been made to make the pages as enjoyable as possible but not every panel is perfect and some allowances for the age of the books need to be considered when judging the overall contents. THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN BOTH HARDCOVER AND TRADE PAPERBACK EDITIONS AS WELL AS IN FULL COLOR AND BLACK & WHITE.