The Comicon Advent Calendar 2022: Day 12 – The Christmas Spirit

Another day of Advent, another entry in our Comicon comic calendar… this time it’s Will Eisner’s classic character, The Spirit in a Christmas adventure…

Originally published in the ’40s and ending in 1951, Will Eisner’s ‘Spirit Christmas Tales’ were a regular seasonal feature for his Spirit newspaper insert, with Eisner’s craft and skills coming through strong.

This one’s from 1948, first reprinted first in the Warren The Spirit Magazine #12 (1975) and then in the Christmas Spirit collection.

The tale of Basher Bains, locked up for the holidays in the State Prison with the warden’s non-stop Christmas carols driving him mad…

All he really wants for Christmas is his freedom and the chance to kill the Spirit, so it’s lucky that Santa himself comes chortling in through the air-con ducting. He’s straight off to dig up the hundred grand he buried before the Spirit put him behind bars…

But Basher’s plan for evil-doing takes a sharp left turn when he’s mistaken for the real Santy-Claus by a group of poor carol-singing urchins, the same ones we’ve been seeing in the margins of the strip, venturing forth to try and earn a few bucks for their poor blind friend who needs cash for a sight-restoring operation… you can see where this one’s going, can’t you?

Oh yes, Basher has a change of heart, claims he really is Santy-Claus and sorts out the operation for the kids.

The final couple of panels are the kicker though, with a relaxing Spirit, Ellen Dolan, and a snoozy Commissioner Dolan… with Ellen talking about how ‘to this day no one even suspects the truth.’

It’s a perfect little Spirit, Eisner at his finest, the artwork nothing more than spectacular in his line and style and a story with a knowing wink at the end to twist the tale into something slightly different and an unusual method of criminal rehabilitation going on…