DC Finally Finishes Eisner’s The Spirit (PW Comics Week)

Here's a great story from PW Comics Week by Sam Thielman! (I just wish it referenced the biography I wrote, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, but you can't have everything!)

For followers of Will Eisner's The Spirit, it's a bittersweet time: 1952 all over again. After eight years, DC Comics has completed a mammoth-scale archival project that none of Eisner's other publishers had even attempted: they've reprinted—in color restored to Eisner's specifications—the entire 12-year run of the character's groundbreaking newspaper-strip adventures, from the Spirit's first appearance on June 2, 1940 to the ladykiller detective's final bow on October 5, 1952.

The Spirit Archives just wrapped up, with the extra-long (nearly 300 pages) vol. 24, priced at $59.99 ($10 more than the previous volumes). Even though Eisner wasn't drawing every strip himself by '52, he was making careful decisions about who would fill in for him, and the final volume includes long-out-of-print work written by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer and illustrated by the late Wally Wood.

There are two more volumes to come from DC, both at the new price point: First, in September, the publisher will release the definitive reprinting of Eisner's daily Spirit strip (vol. 25).

Tentatively scheduled for December, Vol. 26 will be an anthology of Eisner's post-1952 work with the character, including rarities like the full-page strip he drew in 1966 for the International Herald-Tribune, in which his heroic character gets political, expressing support for then New York Mayor John V. Lindsay.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

Frank Miller, Don't Read This, Part 2 (PW Comics/The Beat)

All Heidi MacDonald did was post a link to the new full-length trailer for Frank Miller's Will Eisner's The Spirit. But because "The Beat" blogger posts to PW Comics, one of the best and most widely read comic blogs, she unleashed a torrent of commentary on the trailer -- little of it any good.

A brief sampling:

1. Dave Says:
   07/15/08 at 5:03 pm

   I was pretty sure that Miller had lost his mind after hearing him talk about “Holy Terror,” but this is the clincher. In nearly 50 years of movie-going, this may be the worst thing I’ve ever seen — its utter lack of connection to Eisner’s work aside.

   *Shudder*

2. Clarence Walker Says:
   07/15/08 at 8:28 pm

   For shame, Frank Miller, pissing on Will Eisner’s grave like you have.

   This can’t even be defended using the excuses people have been using to give a pass to Miller’s recent output, like “it’s an experiment!” or “it’s a joke and you just don’t get it!” Jokes fall flat and experiments fail, just like virtually all of Miller’s new work since the end of 300 (the comics series) has — a period of 11 years.

   Simply put, this is not good at any level.

3. toby Says:
   07/16/08 at 2:28 am

   If Will Eisner was still alive, I’m sure this trailer would have sent him headlong into the grave with an aneurysm.

   I never thought I’d be GLAD that Will Eisner was no longer alive.

4. toby Says:
   07/16/08 at 2:31 am

   Heidi, I think there’s a coding error or something. There’s a Pantene commercial linked as The Spirit trailer.

5. rich Says:
   07/16/08 at 1:56 pm

   Well, judging from this … I’d say it’s safe to draw conclusions about the film without having seen it.

   The frightening this is … don’t they usually select the “best” scenes for the trailers?

6. T.T. Power Says:
   07/16/08 at 6:45 pm

   Oh this is bad on so many levels it’s hard to know where to start bitching about it. Makes me long for the bad TV movie from the 80s…

   He’s been wrong about how to approach this film from the get-go. He doesn’t care about the integrity of a character other than how he can filter it through his own limited perspective. He’s done it with Batman (and every character he’s touched in connection with that franchise) and now he’s moved on to the Spirit. It’s a shame. Wonder if he’d have had the balls to do something this hideously inappropriate if Mr. Eisner were still alive.

   The thing is, I bet Miller would be squealing like a 6-year old girl if someone took one of his toys and screwed it up the way he’s obviously screwed up The Spirit.

Want to read more? Last time I looked there were 33 more comments. Read the rest here -- and if you've never read Heidi's blog, you'll find it quite addicting!

Will Eisner Program @ Storyopolis, L.A. (The Beat/PW Comics)

Heidi MacDonald's great blog, "The Beat," at PW Comics features coverage of a Will Eisner art display and program held on May 28 at Storyopolis in Los Angeles. Read the report, written by James A. Owen, here.