Comic Review: Will Eisner's The Spirit #7- Butter your crumpets & put your feet up

Writer: Matt Wagner
Art: Dan Schkade
Colours: Brennan Wagner
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 20th January 2016


The Spirit #7 is very silly, and it’s not saying anything, or even trying to.

The Spirit himself is a daft, square jawed bloke in blue. He works for the ‘authorities,’ so it reinforces the idea that state authority is legitimate.

In other words, here’s another comic book character that anarchists will detest.

It’s set in a besuited gangster time with men wearing fedoras and where ‘criminal’ things are going on down the docks.

Matt Wagner won’t have done anything research for this one, as there’s nothing in here that would need any researching.

The fun to be had is with the silliness, and the art and the odd line of dialogue, or look from a character, that makes you smile.

It’s a child’s cartoon, and the art confirms that. It’s big, bright and colourful, and I enjoyed it.

The book offers readers a break from reality, in a land of silliness and cosy nostalgia for 1940’s noir Americana.

The Spirit #7 is as sharp as a butter knife. Read it with some toast, and a cup of coffee. Smile, enjoy, and then get back to reality.


Rating: 7/10 (Do you need a five-minute break from reality? Put your feet up, butter your crumpets and let the Spirit ease your troubled, exhausted, anxious, overburdened mind)

Comic review: Mister X Razed- Xmas In Somnopolis #1- Great, well done, clever boy, have a biscuit.

Writer: Dean Motter
Artist: Dean Motter
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 25th February 2015

After the first ten pages of this book it was annoying me so much that I could barely muster up the energy to keep on reading it.

Fighting against the urge to chuck the book in the bin and read something less irritating I continued to read on and was pleasantly surprised by a clever plot twit mid-way through the book.

This twist kept me reading until the end, and I have to acknowledge that it was a very well thought out, cleverly written and expertly drawn comic book.

My problem with it is that it’s an exercise in cleverness that doesn’t really say anything.

Well, perhaps the twist might say something? Don’t jump to conclusions, perhaps? Read a story through to the end, and it might be cleverer than you think? It certainly says that, but that’s just about all I could get out of it.

If you want your comic books to engage with the world outside of your bedroom window then this isn’t going to be a book for you. There is nothing in the book that couldn’t have been written in 1985, 1995 or 2005.

The narrative is set in a dystopic future, but it’s a big generic US city future and the characters both look and act like they are in a 1940’s Humphrey Bogart movie. Is that cool? Some people might think so, but to me it just looks old, really, really old.

The plot twist surprised me, but that was just because I assumed that the book was awful, and not because I hadn’t seen the twist done before in a similar detective/crime book.

The script had the usual coincidences that help move it along, and the eponymous Mister X appeared oddly supernatural as he just popped up whenever needed, and then disappeared when his narrative role was completed. That’s a manipulative writing technique, and some people accept it because they just want a good story. I dislike it because it feels contrived and fake.

That’s it. I cannot think of anything else to say about the book other than it’s clever and that it doesn’t resonate with contemporary socio-economic-political concerns. If you want a clever book with a lovely use of the colour red in the artwork then get the book. That’s what’s on offer here: Cool, clever and red. Great, well done, clever boy, have a biscuit.

Rating: 7/10 (Well written book with lovely colouring, but there is no connection to the world that I am living in)