The Spirit #7

The Spirit #7 from Quality Comics delivers five mystery-packed stories in this 1946 Winter Issue, and Lou Fine's cover sets the mood perfectly — the blue-masked, fedora-wearing Spirit looms large and watchful behind an unsuspecting, grizzled figure in a brown suit who casually lights his pipe, oblivious to the presence at his back. That quiet, menacing tension between the two figures captures everything compelling about the Spirit's world, where danger lurks just out of sight. With Bill Woolfolk writing and Fine's sharp linework inside, it's a fine package of underworld thrills anchored by "The Cellini Dagger.