Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.
David Hine (Spider-Man Noir) authors a clever tale where pretty much every page is a splash — with the Spirit title included as part of the art. John Paul Leon hits the concept out of the park successfully homaging Will Eisner’s original brilliant splash pages with innovations of his own.
On this page, the final one of the story, Leon perhaps finds inspiration for the logo from 1946 — from the classic tale, “The Man Who Killed The Spirit” AKA “The Last Trolley.”
Fun fact: This issue — and this entire series — was edited by the ultra-talented Joey Cavalieri, a pal of mine for nearly 50 years. Joey and I first met as kids hunting down comics in the candy stores, newsstands and luncheonettes of the lovely seaside town of Long Beach, New York.
Variations on a theme: The original 1946 Spirit strip with the blowing letters — and two later (and slightly different) reprint versions.
Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.
Perhaps the artist with the most specific style similarities to Will Eisner is Mike Ploog, who worked for Eisner briefly in the early 1970s, on Eisner’s PS Magazine for the military. Ploog credits his initial Eisner influence on the 10 years he himself spent in the Marines reading and copying the magazine.
Ironically, as a
kid, Ploog was not a comic book fan, so he had no idea who Eisner was, or the
history of the Spirit.
But that obviously changed as Ploog discovered Eisner, The Spirit and comics’ lore in general. On this page from 2007, Ploog, aided by inks from vet Dan Green, captures Eisner’s Spirit — and adds his own taste for a horrific milieu.
Ploog spoke with journalist Jon B. Cooke about the early part of his career in an interview for Comic Book Artist #2 in 1998. Read the full interview here.
CBA: How’d you get the call from Will? Ploog: I was working for Hanna-Barbera, and the guy in the room with me belonged to the National Cartoonist’s Society. He got a flyer Will had put out, looking for an assistant. He looked at it and said, “Ploog, this looks like your stuff.” I looked at it and said, “It is my stuff.” [laughter]. I called Will, and two days later he was in L.A. and interviewed me…the following week I went to work for him.
CBA: When you first burst upon the scene in comic books, you had a style very reminiscent of Will’s work. Did you start developing that style through osmosis, just being around him? Ploog: It was very difficult for me, because I hadn’t done that much work. I really didn’t know what a “style” meant. When Will saw my work, he said, “This guy can adapt to what I’m doing easily.” Obviously whatever I had, it was adaptable to him. I could emulate Will right down to a pinpoint on an occasion…I’m sure from working with Will, it developed in that direction…
I love Will; he’s a dear, dear old friend. He’s been an enormous influence on my work both in comics and film.
-Mike Ploog, 1998
Early Ploog Marvel work — he was a breakout star from pretty much the beginning of his comics career, although he ultimately spent more of his professional life working in film.The Ploog art book is a must have for any fan of Mike’s — or simply for those who like great looking art books.
Continuing our celebration of “Will Eisner Week” and the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.
The very talented (and underrated) Brazilian artist Will Conrad is a self-professed Will Eisner nerd. When he heard that Eisner would be attending a Brazilian comic book convention, he labored over this oversized Spirit piece to show Will, who was nothing but flattered and supportive.
Will held on to the piece for many years, but he knew how much I loved
it, and after some atypical patience on my part, he ultimately let it go.
(Thanks Will!)
“Sometimes
Eisner used an empty street as part of the story. When he drew fog, the page
was damp.
And the
rain, always the rain, dripping off everything including the Spirit logo. He
lingered over environments until you could almost smell the cheap hotel rooms,
taste the tension, or feel on your flesh the chilly pall of a rain swept
street.”
— Jim Steranko, History of The Comics, Volume 2
Raining on his parade — Eisner’s Spirit page from 1996 and Darwyn Cooke’s cover from 2009.
The original Spirit series is collected in its entirety in an impressive 26-volume archive series from DC, and select stories in the original large art format (Artist’s Editions) are available in two gorgeous volumes from IDW.
Continuing our celebration of “Will Eisner Week” and the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with other creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.
The late Darwyn Cooke? The closest thing to Will Eisner this modern generation of talent had seen. Visionary storyteller, writer, illustrator, letterer and more. Not only could he do it all, Darwyn could do it well. VERY well.
He was the logical choice for an ongoing series of Spirit stories
— the first since Eisner’s run ended in 1952.
DC launched the series with a Batman Sprit crossover, and this terrific splash is the final page of that story. Inked by J. Bone, this issue, and the subsequent ones of the ongoing series are the closet in spirit (ahem) to Eisner’s vision more than 50 years prior.
Darwyn, we miss you.
“I think everybody who is consumed by storytelling within
this medium has had some profound schooling from Will…
I can remember it was one of those days when I was thirteen,
and I was in a comic store, and there was nothing that I wanted to get. On the
wall was a copy of Warren’s Spirit magazine. I think it’s number three, where he is
running down the elevated track straight at you, and the train is behind him.
It’s just one of the most exciting images I have ever seen…”
-Darwyn Cooke interview From Will Eisner: A Spirited Life by Bob
Andelman
Young Darwyn Cooke found a copy of Warren’s Spirit #3 and the world was never the same. Also pictured, his cover for the first issue and collection of DC comics stories.
The Spirt, Register and Tribune Syndicate, September 12, 1948
2020 marks the 80th Anniversary of the Will Eisner’s Spirit, a comic series that ultimately became a game changer in the medium. This week is also celebrated annually as “Will Eisner Week,” dedicated top one of comics’ most influential legacies. So let’s dive in…
This cool page is from “Cache McStash”, and is from Eisner’s peak period on the Spirit. In fact, it is published just one week after his own personal favorite story, “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,” perhaps the most perfect film noir ever created for the comics.
And don’t let the misleading credits on the otherwise great Grand Comics Database fool you. This story is all Eisner — script, pencils, inks, and letters — as confirmed by Denis Kitchen.
I was fortunate enough to be asked write the intro for the Spirit story “Sound” featured in the hot-off-the-presses Spirit 80th celebration from Clover Press. No spoilers, but, I love the way Eisner integrated sound effects into his storytelling, and, on this page the simple ticking of the clock enhances tension and movement.
Like everything else he did, he found a way to make his two
dimensional comics cinematic in scope.
“I grew up
on the movies, that’s what I lived with. The movies always influenced me… Doing
the Spirit strip was like making movies. It gave me a chance to be an actor,
producer, author and cameraman all at once.”
Clover Press has just published an 80th Anniversary celebration of Will Eisner’s Spirit, available directly from the publisher or in comic book stores and other traditional outlets.
Color me alive — three different color takes of the Spirit’s origin from 1966: The original, possibly colored by Jules Feiffer; The 1975 Warren magazine reprint, possibly colored by Richard Corben; and the brand new Clover Press version, definitely colored by Jeremy Cox.
