The ninth
issue of the New Adventures series was to have
been a special Christmas issue, featuring two
stories in the tradition of Will Eisner's usual Christmas
Spirit sections.
However, issue
7,
which was the Halloween issue did not appear
until late November and by this time it was
apparent that Kitchen Sink Press were having some
problems with the scheduling of the series. It
would not become apparent to fans that KSP was
ceasing operations until shortly after issue
8
of the series appeared in late December.
The inside
back cover showed us the cover of what should
have been issue 9 (shown above) and at least two
of the three stories had been completed. With
thanks to Andrew Sumner
for providing the following information: To
Silken, From Santa was
written by Peter Hogan and drawn by Ted Slampyak.
This was a seven page tale featuring Denny Colt
and the bespectacled-but-sexy Dr Silken Floss.
With
thanks to Gary Chaloner
for information on The Black
Opal, which was ten page
story, written, pencilled and inked by Gary
Chaloner. The story is about a vengeful
aboriginal warrior woman who comes to Central
City to kill-off a bumbling gang of Australian
thieves. The Spirit becomes involved in a race
against time to save the ever-diminishing group
and tracks the last two members to outback
Australia - climaxing in a stormy, rain-drenched
battle with Black Opal. To view a page of the
story, click here.
It is a
pity that the series ended so abruptly with issue
8 - the series did win the 1998 Harvey award for
"Best New Series", and the tales listed
above would have continued the high quality of
this series. There was also at least one further
tale for a future issue, written by Mike Baron,
called "Art for Art's Sake".
To read
the reviews of the earlier issues in the series,
click here.
|
