The Spirit by Will Eisner (No. 15)

The Spirit (1940-1951)

by Will Eisner

REVIEW BY GREG CWIKLIK:

(from The 100 Best Comics of the Century!, The Comics Journal #210, 1999)

The Spirit was the seven-page lead-off in a syndicated comic book section which was distributed along with newspaper's regular Sunday funnies. It premiered in June 19940, and was written and drawn by Will Eisner who, at 22, was already a successful comics creator and entrepreneur. although the comic book section was dreamed up to capitalise on the runaway success of Superman, Eisner resisted pressure to make his character into a superhero. The Spirit had no special powers and his "costume" consisted of a blue suit with matching gloves and a mask so tiny it could be hidden by dark glasses. The Spirit was a private eye supposedly killed in a tussle with a mad scientist, but who survived to fight crime incognito, a la the Lone Ranger. The early strips are a bit primitive, and such gimmickry as the Spirit's flying car smacks of Eisner's previous comic book work, but they are imaginative and display Eisner's characteristic lightness of touch. Eisner was drafted in 1942 and when he returned after the war, it was with a new degree of maturity.

The backbone of The Spirit is its urban setting - the big city by day and night. Because of Eisner's penchant for odd perspectives, his city never seems static or grid-like: buildings, elevated train tracks, bridges, stairways, all sway and tilt at animated angles. Wether it's a lonely clock tower or a bustling neighbourhood teeming with life; a dank, smoke-filled hideout lit by a dangling light or a tenement hung with fire escapes and laundry, an unrivaled sense of mood emanates from The Spirit. Eisner was a master of lighting and atmospheric effects; characters are often obscured by shadow or mist; lit eerily from below or suddenly by a bolt of lightening. Much of the strips visual allure is owed to Eisner's pyrotechnics with a brush. Eisner's line work is clean, subtle, strongly nuanced and very lively. The shadows that help give form to his figures are liquid pools of black sharply edged by slivers of backlighting. Eisner was never a master of anatomy, but he certainly knew enough of it to make his figures believable, his slinky femmes fatales are some of the sexiest to grace the pages of any comic strip.

The individual plot lines are interesting, but rarely extraordinary in themselves. The real pleasure in reading The Spirit comes from its colourful characters and the way in which Eisner tells a story in visual terms. His sense of timing - whether for dramatic or comedic effect - is impeccable. The size and style of the lettering, balloons, and panels vary to suit the action. Even The Spirit's opening logo, which could be found spelled out on a billboard, on scraps of paper blowing in the wind, or most uniquely, by blocks of buildings, shows Eisner's inventiveness. The Spirit's relationship with crusty Commissioner Dolan and Ellen, the ever-hopeful love interest, may be the oldest of cliches, but Eisner pulls it off with such good humour that it seems, if not exactly fresh, at least amusing. Some of Eisner's best tales are often hung on the most whimsical framework Lorelei Rox hijacks trucks with her weird siren-song. Another story opens with an explosion at a bank and ends with a beautiful agent from Mars. Eisner's sense of style can be seen in the later tale: sandwiched between a dizzy aerial view of a dark alleyway and a dramatic shot of waves crashing against waterfront pilings is a panel of a stoic Spirit being swarmed over by bratty kids who pulled down his hat brim and tug at his pockets.

Eisner abandoned the strip in 1951. But its enduring appeal derives from Eisner's graphic sophistication and his mix of humour and drama, realism and fantasy.

REVIEW BY ALAN MOORE:
(from the introduction to The Spirit Archives Vol 1, DC Comics)
I find it difficult to argue that Eisner is not the single person most responsible for giving comics their brains. I can think of no one who has explored the possibilities of this infant medium so tirelessly and rewardingly, nor anyone who has so successfully managed to evolve a working vocabulary for the parts and functions of the comic strip and the fascinating way in which it can all be fitted together... There is no one quite like Will Eisner. There never has been, and on my more pessimistic days I doubt there ever will be.

REVIEW BY SCOTT McCLOUD:
(from the introduction to the 2017 edition of Will Eisner's A Contract With God)
Even as a kid in high school nearly forty years after its original publication, I could tell how ridiculously far ahead of its time The Spirit had been. Parallel narratives, full-page compositions, noir shadow play, giant logos integrated into physical scenes, long pantomime sequences - the strip was a textbook demonstration of nearly everything comics could do, answering questions about the art form most cartoonists hadn’t even thought to ask yet. And the more I studied those pages, the more I came to understand that Eisner’s approach to comics storytelling had been the foundation upon which multiple generations of cartoonists had constructed their own dreams of adventure in the years and decades that followed.

READ THIS COMIC:
The Spirit has been reprinted in several formats from various publishers over the years. Kitchen Sink Press reprinted a complete run of the post-World War II Spirit stories in a standard comic-book format, which ran for 87 issues between October 1983 and January 1992, and are well worth tracking down.

FURTHER READING:

Will Eisner
The Eisner Awards