Cooke, Bone Lose The Spirit

During today's interesting old school Q&A exchange between fans, J. Bone and Darwyn Cooke revealed they'll be leaving The Spirit with issue 12. The end came as a result of Bone being unavailable for a second year (a graphic novel from Bone in the works) and Cooke's desire not to want to work without "his team" on the book, and I can't really blame him for that.

As far as more adventures on the horizon with the cast of the wonderful New Frontier, don't bet on it. "I'm scared to go back to those characters. I really don't want to muck with [them]."

After his run on The Spirit, Cooke will stay busy with a pair of original graphic novels that couldn't be further away from the world of superheroes: An all-ages fairy tale with robots and a sexy, violent story of a man whose life is unraveling. Neither sound like ideas for the traditional direct market. Then again, Cooke laments, "There's no room in the direct market for a new idea," other than the same ol' superhero, reinvented for the umpteenth time...