When Darwyn Cooke chose to leave the title, it was up to Groo's creators Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier to step in and continue The Spirit. They debuted under a cover created by Jordi Bernet. The stories created by this team were one-shots filled with the light-hearted humor the duo had famously brought to all of their projects. Abandoned was the continuity and while we stayed in the modern world, Central City looked more like it had traditionally. The artist on the first issue was former Eisner assistant Mike Ploog.
Paul Smith stepped in to draw the next two issues with covers by Bruce Timm. In addition to Smith, Aragones and Evanier were joined by a cadre of younger artists such as Aluir Amancio, Jason Armstrong, Chad Hardin, and Wayne Faucher.
We were treated to some great covers, sometimes by classic talents such as Joe Kubert.
With the twenty-sixth issue writer Michael Uslan stepped in with artist Justiano to give the reader a trio of stories which returned classic femme fatales the series such as Silken Floss, Lorelie Rox and Plaster of Paris. Brian Bolland knocked out some outstanding covers for this triad.
Dean Motter took over the writing and was joined by artist Paul Rivoche for one issue.
He was followed by Michael Avon Deming for a single wild story with a cover by Kevin Nowlan.
Mike Ploog returns as both writer and artist for the final two issues of the series in a weird story which brought magic to Central City. He was joined by inker Dan Green. Covers were supplied by Nick Cardy and Gene Ha.
And that was it. The series came to a sputtering halt after a sizzling beginning. But DC was far from done with The Spirit. He would as ever, rise from his grave to fight crime yet again.
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