Spirit Jam

    (Kitchen Sink, 1998)
™ and © 1981, 1998 Will Eisner and respective creators

If this black-and-white tale seems a bit disjointed that’s okay because, as longtime Spirit publisher Denis Kitchen says, “Jumpy transitions…are part of the charm of a jam story.” For the uninitiated, a jam story involves several writers and artists coming together on a single work—in this case, a story starring Will Eisner’s fedora-and-mask-wearing hero, The Spirit.

Spirit Jam was originally supposed to be a ten-page story in The Spirit Magazine #30 in 1981, but more creators than expected signed on and the story grew to thirty-six pages. Notables include Eisner himself, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Milton Caniff, Marshall Rogers, Len Wein, Archie Goodwin, Howard Cruse, Richard Corben, and Harvey Kurtzman, among many, many others. This graphic novel-style reprint book also offers up “Cerebus Vs. The Spirit,” which appeared in Cerebus Jam #1 in 1985.
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