The Spirit was a weekly comic book that was inserted into newspapers across the country like Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago during the 1940's. Newspapers at the time wanted to grab a hold of some of the attention comic books were getting at the time. So to compete they wanted to add a full comic to their sunday newspaper. The Spirit was created by Will Eisner and Everett Arnold at the request of Henry Martin, a sales manager for the Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate. It began as an eight page insert and grew, at it's largest to a seventeen page full color comic insert. Will Eisner was drafted in 1942 to fight in World War II. Durning that time due to the contract Eisner had they hired ghost writers to write the comic but Eisner maintained rights to the Spirit even after returning from war. The stories typical revolve around the character The Spirit (Denny Colt) a detective who went in to suspended animation and when he awoke became the crimefighter The Spirit. Some featured other storied in the same comics like Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic. These books however were eliminated when the comics went to eight pages and it only told Spirit stories. Will Eisner wrote this book with the intention of a departure from superheroes in mind as also with an older more mature audience. The series lasted 645 issues.
The issue numbers for this series are not always easily visible. To find the number of a book check out the date and look it up at this checklist.
http://www.angelfire.com/art/wildwood1/downloads/checklist.pdf
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