The Spirit "Holiday Special" No.13

Edwardo Risso art from the Spirit story "One Hundred"
written by Glen David Gold and drawn by Edwardo Risso.

The Holiday Spirit

Will Eisner's The Spirit #13
DC Comics February 2008
Three stories are in this issue
Story by Glen David Gold, Dennis O'Neil, Gail Simone
Art by Eduardo RIsso, Ty Templeton, Phil Hester and Andre Parks

Though not as cohesive as the Spirit jam book The Spirit # 7 "Summer Special" from 2007, this is a collection well in the vein of departing artist/writer "Spirit re-inventor" Darwyn Cooke and his generally cheery, light Spirit stories (not that Cooke doesn't take a poke into the darkness from time to time.)

This "Holiday" issue follows hot on the trail of Darwyn Cook's leaving the title and assembles three tales, all short and to the point: Glen David Gold story "One Hundred" with artwork by Edwardo Risso; "Family Treasure" by Dennis O'Neil and art by Ty Templeton; and "The Cold Depths of the Icicle Heart" written by Gail Simone and art from Phil Hester and Andre Parks.

All three efforts are well above the usual superhero fare from DC Comics, and the artwork is good and pleasing. If DC Comics only exercised this level of quality control on their other books!

"The Cold Depths" uses a series of picture-word-balloons to tell the story without resorting to barely any written language. It's hieroglyphics updated and an effective way to tell the simple story. I liked it. If anything shows the base ability of the comic book to meld story and picture, it is something like this.

The Spirit Hieroglyphs
Art by Phil Hester and Andre Parks from The Spirit #13.

The cover seems to be by J. Bone and has those bobble-headed women Darwyn Cooke sometimes draws, craniums so large they look like dolls (the kind kids play with).

Only in the comic book industry is it not too unusual to have a book hitting the racks on January 30, 2008, sporting a "Holiday Special" cover.

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