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The Spirit (7th Series) vs The Spirit (Funny Paper Book Store)


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I am certain these two titles are one and the same but The Spirit (7th Series) #1 & #2 mistakenly has the covers to The Spirit (6th Series) #1 & #2.  The Spirit (Funny Paper Book Store) has more detailed information in the individual issues, making it my choice for the title that should remain, but it should really be changed to The Spirit (7th Series) since that's where it falls in the chronology.  To make matters worse, The Spirit (Funny Paper Book Store) #1 has a second printing that is indistinguishable from the first without opening it to read the indicia. 

Also, the credits on both 7th and FPBS need to be changed.  According to Eisner's own introduction in the first issue of the FPBS series, he stated that he did roughly the first six weeks of strips then Lou Fine took over the art with Eisner's writing when the latter was drafted into the service.  Initially, he smuggled out rough drawings for Fine to work over but that became too complicated and Jack Cole was brought in.  He started working from Eisner's story summaries but eventually took over the full duties of writing and drawing the entire strip. 

Cat Yronwode contributed a history on the back cover of the 4th issue of the FPBS series.  There she echoes much of what Eisner wrote in the first issue but changed the order of the artists contributions, claiming that Cole took over before Fine but I believe Eisner was correct.  Fine worked on The Spirit sundays very early on and it makes sense that he would have initially taken on the dailies as well.  Given that both Fine and Cole were excellent artists and both were mimicking Eisner's style, I don't know that we will ever be able to fully separate the chores on the dailies. 

 

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