The Stop Button

Since the last strip, when the Spirit confessed to a murder he did not commit to save Commissioner Dolan’s reputation and career, he’s apparently been taking it easy. The strip opens with a gorgeous, gigantic splash of the title character–Palyachi, introduced by a ringmaster as “a killer clown.”

We get Palyachi’s story—he gets laughs at the circus, but Marka—the maybe belly dancer (it’s never established)—still won’t return his affections. Maybe if he’d kill for her she would, starting with one of the trapeze acrobats. Palyachi’s reluctant, but once he gets going with his criminal ways, he can’t stop himself, going on a rampage around the city.

Despite the first panel after the splash establishing the circus is right near Spirit’s hideout in Wildwood Cemetery, he and Ebony have no idea it’s there. Days into Palyachi’s crime spree (he’s trying for a million bucks to sway Marka), Ebony brings a recent crime to Spirit’s attention in the newspaper.

Spirit immediately deduces it involves a circus, and to their surprise, there’s a circus out the window (of the crypt) they hadn’t noticed for days on end. It’s a little thin, even for a comic strip, but once Spirit gets to the circus—where Marka is going to literally strip down to seduce him, very risqué—it turns into an excellent action strip, and the occasional bumps don’t matter.

The Spirit goes into the situation entirely clueless as to what he’s uncovering and lets Marka convince him Palyachi’s the mastermind. Well, maybe. Spirit definitely plays along with Marka (who gets naked waiting for Spirit to return after dealing with Palyachi), but when he starts suspecting her involvement isn’t clear despite him finding her in possession of all the loot from Palyachi’s heists.

The fight scene has the two running around a circus, including trapeze action, and even a killer gorilla. Lots of beautiful panels, with phenomenal flow, even as the inking is uneven. Someone in Eisner’s studio still thought dots were going to win over lines.

The finale involves the police, who are after Spirit (the opening origin blurb even includes Spirit being an outlaw now) and don’t care he’s trying to solve a crime spree for him.

It’s rather good, even with the occasional thin plotting, or, in the case of the ending, thin sentiment.