The Spirit: My City Screams (And So Do Fans of the Comic Book) (Spout Blog)

Image via Wikipedia"We talked about Frank Miller’s highly anticipated film adaptation of Will Eisner’s long running comic book The Spirit back at Comic-Con when the scenes failed to impress us. In fact, they felt like they were straight out of Sin City Redux. It’s been a few months since we were underwhelmed; have the filmmakers changed anything? Not based on the clip we were sent this week. Despite being a self-proclaimed fan of Will Eisner, Frank Miller is managing to stomp the life out of every facet that made The Spirit a compelling comic. Check out the video and find out why we’re not happy."—Kevin Kelly

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Comic-Con Panel: Frank Miller's Will Eisner's The Spirit

Comic-Con 2008: Friday, July 25

Source: San Diego Comic-Con

2:45-3:45 Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment: The Spirit— Writer/director Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete are joined by film stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, and Eva Mendes in unveiling an exclusive preview of the new film based on the classic comic by Will Eisner. Hall H

8:30-11:30 The Spirit Presents the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards— The 20th annual Eisner Awards, the "Oscars" of the comics industry, will be given out at a gala ceremony. This year's special them is "The Magic of Comics." Presenters include comics creator/director Frank Miller (Sin City, 300, The Spirit), Spongebob Squarepants creator Tom Kenney, and Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos, plus several other celebrities from comics, animation, and film. Other prestigious awards to be given out include the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award and the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. The master of ceremonies is Bongo Comics' Bill Morrison. Admission to the Eisners is free to all Comic-Con attendees—just be sure to bring your badge. Doors open for pros and VIPs at 7:30 and for attendees at 8:15. Ballroom 20

Will Eisner, granddaddy to the superhero generation (The Times of London)

As the comic-book ‘Oscars' approach, Paul Karasik celebrates the achievements of Will Eisner, a pioneer cartoonist who paved the way for an entire movement

NEXT WEEK AT THE largest comics convention in the world, the San Diego Con, the industry bestows the Eisner Awards for the best comics of the preceding year. Like all arts awards, they wrestle for resolution between the poles of commerce and art. The Eisners, which reach their twentieth anniversary this year, could not possibly be more aptly named.

Will Eisner (1917-2005) was a great cartoonist, but he was also a shrewd businessman with his finger on the throbbing, erratic pulse of popular culture, trying to predict, manoeuvre, and exploit the next trend using his very specific set of skills. He spent his life wrestling with those demanding twins, art and commerce.

In 1936 when he was 19, Eisner had his first professional work published in Wow, What a Magazine!, one of the first comic books to publish new work in the format that we are familiar with today. As he put it in an interview in 1984: “Pulp magazines were dying and pulp publishers were looking for other popular publishing ventures, and so comics represented that opportunity.”

Eisner himself never missed an opportunity. Overnight, dozens of new comic-book titles and publishers erupted to mine the bonanza begun by the 1938 publication of Superman in Action Comics. Simultaneously all these publishers were putting out beefy 52-page comic books. They needed stories and art, and they needed them last week.

Click HERE to keep reading!

Artist-Director Seeks the Spirit of ‘The Spirit’ (New York Times)

By ANDY WEBSTER
The New York Times
Published: July 20, 2008

THIS weekend in San Diego at Comic-Con International, the nation’s biggest comic convention, the industry grants its highest achievers Eisner Awards, the Oscars of the field. Yet few outside fandom have any idea who the honor is named after. The task of enlightening them has fallen to Frank Miller, a superstar comic writer-artist now making a film adaptation of the Spirit, the best-known creation of the cartoonist Will Eisner.

It’s a fitting match. Mr. Miller, 51, viewed Eisner as a mentor in the many years they knew each other (Eisner died in 2005 at 87), though their long relationship was certainly fraught with arguments across aesthetic and generational lines.

The film — starring Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and an unknown, Gabriel Macht, in the title role — follows the Spirit, a droll, dashing, graveyard-dwelling ex-cop who fights evildoers. It embodies the comic’s urban, shadow-drenched aesthetic, which deeply influenced Mr. Miller’s visual sensibility.

He and Eisner shared a pronounced independent streak as well. Eisner “would never countenance self-pity in anyone, including himself,” Mr. Miller said. Nor does Mr. Miller, despite the pressures he is facing. For his first time alone behind the cameras he is commanding a budget in the $50 million range and a feature aimed at a Christmas opening. And while his hero occupies a hallowed place in comics history, he is far from a household name.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

Will Eisner Award Nominees Announced

The nomination list for the 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards represents the most diverse slate of titles and creators in the 20-year history of the awards. The nominees range from high-priced comprehensive collections of archival works to small self-published pamphlets, from literary Japanese graphic novels to comics based on popular TV series, from goofy humor titles to works about the Soviet space program, a Chinese magician, and the Negro Leagues. In fact, the nominations are so varied that it is difficult to summarize any trends.

Click here to read all about it!

Free Comic-Con Magazine featuring The Spirit!

You can get a free copy of Comic-Con Magazine featuring Samuel L. Jackson on the cover as "The Octopus," arch-enemy of The Spirit in the upcoming Frank Miller movie, Will Eisner's The Spirit. The issue - which can either be downloaded as a PDF por requested via snail mail - includes an exclusive interview with Miller about the movie.

Order your copy by clicking here.

Samuel L. Jackson is "The Octopus" on Comic-Con Cover

Click here to read all about it!

(And thanks, as always to Comics2Film.com!)

The Spirit Movie Starts Production in October

In case you missed it, Frank Miller announced at Comic-Con in San Diego that he'll go into production of the film "Will Eisner's The Spirit" on October 7, 2007.

Here are links to related stories:

Comics Continuum by Rob Allstetter

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