Here is an archive of all the past top five lists I've done over the years.
I'm not really doing top fives anymore, but I thought Spirit's 80th Anniversary was worth doing a top EIGHT for a nice little change of pace. Here are my favorite Spirit stories by Will Eisner, who debuted on June 2, 1940.
8. BLACK ALLEY
Eisner was especially impressive when it came to the use of noir tropes like shadows and stuff like that, and few stories were quite as evocative of that feel as Black Alley, about a killer who uses the time when the subway is briefly down (and things are at their blackest) to try to kill the Spirit. Things don't go according to plan..
7. VISITOR
Visitor is a strange story about a Martian agent on Earth and her attempt to get Spirit to help her when her actions are uncovered...
6. THE STORY OF RAT-TAT THE TOY MACHINE GUN
This clever story, done as a children's book, tells the story of a toy gun and its young owner as they realize just how foolish real guns are, and through a shocking twist of fate, the toy actually saves the day...
5. THE KILLER
Eisner turns to a striking character study, as the Spirit brings a killer in and we see through flashbacks what in his life drove him to become a killer...
4. SAND SERIF/BRING IN SAND SERIF
The classic story of lost love and a hero having to choose whether to bring in his old girlfriend now that she is a killer was an EXTREM influence on Frank Miller with Daredevil and Elektra...
3. THE STORY OF GERHARD SHNOBBLE
An offbeat story of a nobody who had the ability to fly, but, well, as Eisney says on the opening page, this isn't a funny story, as Schobble is in the wrong place at the wrong time while flying for the first time and his fate is a bizarrely tragic one.
2. TEN MINUTES
This pulse-pounding adventure shows a man becoming a killer and dying...all in the span of ten minutes!
It's stunning just how dynamic Eisner is with this tale.
1. SHOWDOWN WITH THE OCTOPUS
As noted, Eisner's use of shadows and blacks are a noir aficionado's dream and in this tale, the Spirit takes on the villainous Octopus almost all in shadows. It's an amazing demonstration of just how great of a storyteller Eisner was that this made perfect sense and was still thrilling...
Those are my top eight! What are your picks?