Even with this large amount of comic books that have been collected in trade paperbacks, there are still a number of great comic books that have never been reprinted (I'd say roughly 60% of them are DC Comics from the 1980s through the mid-1990s). So every day this month I will spotlight a different cool comic book that is only available as a back issue. Here is an archive of the comic books featured so far.

I want you folks to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com with your suggestions for comics that I should feature this month. I'd like to see what you all would like to see get more attention.

A few of you asked for John Ostrander/Tom Mandrake Spectre, and I believe one of you even asked for this specific storyline, "The Haunting of Jim Corrigan," from Spectre #52-56, written by Ostrander and drawn by Mandrake.

As the story begins, the Spectre has been changed by recent events in his title, and he has begun to take a more aggressive stance on his vengeance, returning to the style of the Fleisher/Aparo issues, as we see here where the Spectre visits a prison (Tom Mandrake gets to rock out, Jim Aparo-style)...









While the Spectre acts tough, he can't help but be swayed by the prisoner's plea, leading to a brilliant sequence later in the issue...



Meanwhile, though, the Spectre has been residing in the soul of Jim Corrigan's human partner, Nate Kane, to heal himself. While there, though, Kane catches a glimpse of Corrigan's memories, and what appears to be Corrigan murdering someone. So Kane begins to investigate Corrigan's own memories!



His investigation is the foundation of the plot of the story.

The Spectre and Corrigan, meanwhile, are continually haunted by the plight of the innocent prisoner and begin to try to clear his name. However, the Spectre's need for vengeance has left them with only one living witness who can clear the prisoner's name, leading to this, well, haunting scene...



In the middle of the story, we take a break to meet a brand-new character, a character very familiar to a lot of you out there...



After a story of the original Mister Terrific (including a "behind the scenes" look at the Golden Age Mr. Terrific's death), we get the first appearance of the new (and current) Mister Terrific, who would go on to become one of the best new superheroes of the 1990s and is one of the characters to get his own series for DC's new 52 relaunch.







So, what happens to Nate's investigations? WAS Corrigan a murderer? How does the Spectre react to that? What other mysteries are hidden in Corrigan's sub-conscious? Find out by picking up Spectre #52-56, which paved the way for the classic conclusion to Ostrander and Mandrake's acclaimed run!