Will Eisner: A Spirited Life

Creatively Speaking: Will Eisner’s Spirit Speaks! (Mental Floss)

Will Eisner image via Wikipedia

Mental Floss

January 7, 2009

Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit comic series, is in the house today. Well, not exactly. As you might know, Will died some years ago. But we were fortunate enough to get an interview with the man who runs Will Eisner Studios, the curator of his estate, Will’s nephew Carl Gropper. Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) has a new film out based on the Eisner character, so we thought it would be a good time to learn a little more about the man some credit with creating the first graphic novel, the man who the comic industry awards are named after (The Eisner). Check out the interview with Gropper below.

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Labels: Carl Gropper, Frank Miller, Scarlett Johansson, Sin City, Spirit, Will Eisner

On Christmas Day, Vermonter's 'Spirit' comes to life (TimesArgus.com)

The Spirit image by TCM Hitchhiker via Flickr

By Daniel Barlow

Vermont Press Bureau

December 24, 2008

MONTPELIER – During a recent interview to promote his film adaptation of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" comic strip, Frank Miller remembered first discovering reprints of the cartoonist's work in a small drugstore in Barre.

"I was 14 years old, driving my bicycle in Vermont, and I would go to two drug stores to buy all my comic books," Miller told the Film Journal International earlier this month. "And at the second drug store in Barre, Vt., I came across this oversized magazine that was in black-and-white and I was entranced."

That comic was a 1970s reprint of Eisner's work decades earlier on "The Spirit," which ran for 12 years as a supplement to newspapers' Sunday comics section. Miller quickly devoured Eisner's work – forever influencing his own artistic direction.

More than 30 years later, Miller, who grew up in the Barre area and attended high school in Montpelier, brings his own version of "The Spirit" to the big screen on Christmas Day. The film stars Gabriel Macht as Denny Colt, a police officer who fights crime as the masked, noirish Spirit.

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Labels: Frank Miller, Gabriel Macht, Montpelier, Scarlett Johansson, Spirit, Vermont, Will Eisner

That's The Spirit! (National Post)

Cover of Sin City showing Marv walking through...

Image via Wikipedia

Frank Miller's noir craftsmanship inspired actresses Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes to embrace the femme-fatale flourishes of his newest film

Bob Thompson

National Post

December 22, 2008

The renowned graphic novelist Frank Miller knows how to write about anxiety, but he might have trouble dealing with his own as the opening of The Spirit approaches.

The Spirit is Miller's much anticipated live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series. Opening on Christmas Day, the movie arrives with an important question: Can Miller --on his first solo directorial effort -- translate the stylish 1940s noir images onto the big screen?

There's a good chance he can. For one thing, Miller appreciates The Spirit's creative origins. He was an Eisner friend and associate, and admits that he based some of his more popular graphic novels on Eisner's tones and textures. Miller also codirected and co-wrote the digital Sin City film with Robert Rodriguez and penned the popular graphic novels Sin City and 300 (the movie became a worldwide hit). And Miller also famously made over Batman as the brooding Dark Knight in comics that inspired Christopher Nolan's hit movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

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Labels: Batman Begins, Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Scarlett Johansson, Sin City, Will Eisner

12 Questions With Eva Mendes (Moviefone)

Image via Wikipedia

In 'The Spirit,' she's Sand Saref, a jewel thief so hot she can melt the hearts of the undead -- namely the eponymous crime fighter (Gabriel Macht). Eva Mendes dished with Moviefone about re-teaming with Scarlett Johansson, why she has no problem with artistic nudity ... and why she thinks certain body parts should be in proportion.

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Labels: Eva Mendes, Moviefone, Sand Saref, Scarlett Johansson, Spirit, Will Eisner

Frank Miller gets in 'The Spirit' (Jam! Showbiz)

Image via Wikipedia

Comic-book icon channels The Spirit of his mentor in latest film

By JIM SLOTEK -- Sun Media

NEW YORK -- Apart from Marvel's Stan Lee, if there is a figure who represents the link between the comic books of old and the movies coming to a theatre near you, it's Frank Miller.

The artist-writer, who gave us 300, Sin City and the Dark Knight incarnation of Batman, began his career in the colourfully ink-stained New York-based cauldron of comic-book art, mentored by the likes of Jim Shooter, Neal Adams -- but most of all, the legendary and prolific Will Eisner.

Theirs was a strange, combative relationship -- one in which Miller is finally getting the last word, three years after Eisner's death, making his solo directorial debut with a stylized movie of Eisner's signature noir hero from the '40s, The Spirit. Wherever he is, the female-form-obsessed Eisner must appreciate the casting -- Scarlett Johansson (Silken Floss), Eva Mendes (Sand Saref) and Jaime King (Lorelei), all playing various forms of femmes fatale tormenting our mordant hero (Gabriel Macht).

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Labels: Frank Miller, Sand Saref, Scarlett Johansson, Silken Floss, Spirit, Will Eisner

VIDEO: Eva Mendes Gets In "The Spirit" (The Early Show, CBS)

Eva Mendes image via Wikipedia

(CBS) From Denzel Washington and Johnny Depp to Will Smith and Nicholas Cage, actress Eva Mendes has worked with some of the Hollywood's hottest leading men.

Mendes is now co-starring in the "The Spirit," a film based on a 1940s comic book series. She plays Sand Saref, a woman who has a special relationship with The Spirit.

"They are childhood sweethearts, explains Mendes. "This film is visually stunning. It comes from the creative, genius mind of Frank Miller. What's really unbelievable with my character is I get to play not only a jewel thief, but a woman who's been married 14 times and killed every last one of her husbands. I mean, ladies, is that not just -- it's a sick fantasy, but, still a fantasy. Somewhat of a fantasy."

"Now she is quite a dame," adds Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "[She's] got the lashes."

"She's a dame. She's a broad," says Mendes. "We paid homage to the women back then, in the 1940s -- the Rita Hayworths and Bette Davis' of the world, the Ava Gardners. I had a lot of fun paying homage to those women."

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Labels: Eva Mendes, Frank Miller, Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson, Will Eisner's The Spirit comic book

Behind the 'Spirit' mask, a substantial career for actor Gabriel Macht (New York Daily News)

HOLLYWOOD - DECEMBER 17: (L-R) Actor Samuel L...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

BY ETHAN SACKS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

December 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

Gabriel Macht as the title character in the comic book-inspired film 'The Spirit,' opening Friday.

Who was that masked man?

The star of "The Spirit," opening Friday, may not be as recognizable – with or without the mask – as castmates Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes, but the strong-jawed Gabriel Macht is ready for his closeup.

To get in the head of a character grappling with identity issues even as he wrestled with the bad guys, Macht plastered every inch of his trailer with storyboards and Xeroxes of the 1940s comic strips by Will Eisner that the movie was based on.

"His trailer was full of Spirit-phanelia," marveled Jackson. "He was dealing with his identity crisis all the time."

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Labels: Comic strip, Eva Mendes, Frank Miller, Gabriel Macht, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Spirit, Will Eisner

The threads of THE SPIRIT (Mania.com)

Image by Strandell via Flickr

By Rob M. Worley
December 19, 2008

When we left the cast and crew of 'The Spirit' yesterday , actor Dan Lauria (who plays commissioner Dolan in the film) expressed his enthusiasm for the wardrobe he had in director Frank Miller's modern noir vision of Will Eisner's comic.

"I loved the costume you picked out for me. Right out of Bart MacLane's closet," Lauria said, referring to the actor who appeared in over a hundred classic movies including 'The Maltese Falcon'.

Of course the most important costume to get right were the threads Gabriel Macht wore as The Spirit.

"I worked hard on Gabe’s costume because at first it looked really foolish, until we spruced you up with the black outfit and everything," Miller told reporters but credits costume designer Michael Dennison for bringing the leading man's look to fruition.

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Labels: Dan Lauria, Frank Miller, Maltese Falcon, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Spirit, Will Eisner

Eva Mendes captures 'Spirit' of film genre (NJ.com)

by Lisa Rose

The Star-Ledger

Thursday December 18, 2008,

Glamorous, enigmatic and cutthroat in a literal way, the women in films and graphic novels from Frank Miller tend to be a bit more, er, proactive than typical comic genre female characters.

"The Spirit," opening Christmas Day, features Eva Mendes as a jewel thief/ace swimmer named Sand Saref. She co-stars with Scarlett Johansson as murderous scientist Silken Floss and Paz Vega as knife-wielding belly dancer Plaster of Paris.

Based on a 1940 comic by Will Eisner, the picture is the sole directorial debut from Miller who co-directed his graphic novel adaptation of "Sin City" with Robert Rodriguez. The writer's swords-and sandals epic "300" has also been made into a hit film.

The title character (Gabriel Macht) is a masked misfit for whom death is a curable condition. He battles a fashionable nemesis called the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).

On paper, Sand Saref could seem a type, a woman fixated with diamonds. Mendes says, however, that the character's neurotic need for shiny things is more than simple materialism.

This is the Cuban-American star's second appearance in a comic book adaptation, following her performance in "Ghost Rider" as a journalist in love with the engine-revving hero (Nicolas Cage). At 34, she has a list of credits that ranges from early roles in music videos to big parts in comedies -- "Hitch" -- and dramas -- "We Own the Night."

LIONSGATEEva Mendes in "The Spirit," opening Christmas Day.

We sat down for a chat with Mendes -- looking fab in a strapless dress -- during a "Spirit" press day at a New York hotel last weekend.

Q: Frank Miller is such an interesting visual stylist, how would you describe his technique working with the cast, helping you work on the characters?

A: He was very specific. Sometimes, when he was trying to communicate something to me about a scene, he would draw it out for me. In two seconds, he'd draw me as Sand Saref. I was like, "Can you sign that for me?"

Q: Did you get to keep any of them?

A: I kept a couple.

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Labels: Eva Mendes, Frank Miller, Nicolas Cage, Paz Vega, Robert Rodriguez, Scarlett Johansson, Sin City, Will Eisner's The Spirit movie

"The Spirit" inspires us to talk femme fatales (AfterEllen.com)

by StuntDouble

Christmas day is just around the corner, and you know what that means: ribbons, tags, packages, boxes, bags — and the release of half a dozen much-hyped, mega-budget films. Among them is the movie adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit. It doesn't have any Nazis, puppies or backward-aging babies, but it promises killer performances from a bevy of women who want nothing more than seduction and destruction.

Scarlett Johansson plays Silken Floss, a frigid vixen; Eva Mendes plays Sand Saref, a conniving jewel thief; and Jaime King plays Lorelei, a phantom siren.

Of course, no superhero's tale would be complete without the quick-witted girl next door. To balance out Spirit's femme fatales is the police commissioner's daughter, Ellen Dolan, played by out actress Sarah Paulson.

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Labels: Ellen DeGeneres, Ellen Dolan, Eva Mendes, Jaime King, Sand Saref, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson, Silken Floss, The Spirit

Spirit stars at abandoned warehouse (The Press Association)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - DECEMBER 5: Actress Jessi...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Dec 4, 2008

The stars of comic book film adaptation The Spirit have appeared at an abandoned warehouse.

Rather than a Leicester Square premiere, Samuel L Jackson, Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johannson graced the red carpet at the Old Post Office in central London, ahead of the film's world premiere in New York next week.

Jackson, who plays The Octopus, said his character was the villain to The Spirit's eponymous superhero. "He's kind of crazy, kind of wild, kind of genius and he wants to be the biggest criminal in the world," he said.

Johannson and Mendes both play sexy female characters. Mendes, wearing a ruffled yellow Bill Blass dress and Louis Vuitton heels, said she enjoyed baring her flesh for the film.

"It's so fun because it's not me. The minute I think it's me I wig out but it's so not me. I'm playing a character so if I drop my towel and show my bum it's not my bum."

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Labels: Eva Mendes, Frank Miller, Louis Vuitton, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Will Eisner's The Spirit movie

Scarlett Johansson Says She'll Record Another Album, Still Has Leonard Cohen On The Brain (MTV.com)

MTV Shows

Actress released Tom Waits cover LP in the spring.

By Jocelyn Vena, with additional reporting by Josh Horowitz

Scarlett Johansson has had quite an active year. She starred in a couple of movies, married actor Ryan Reynolds and even indulged her inner rock star by releasing an album. But don't think that Johansson is done with the music business just yet, because she has plans for a follow-up.

Back in the spring, Johansson released a Tom Waits cover album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, and she promises it isn't her last. "I would love to do another album," she told MTV News while promoting "The Spirit," the new film based on Will Eisner's comic book.

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Labels: Frank Miller, Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits, Will Eisner's The Spirit comic book

Will Eisner: A Spirited Life

Monday, February 23, 2009

Creatively Speaking: Will Eisner’s Spirit Speaks! (Mental Floss)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

On Christmas Day, Vermonter's 'Spirit' comes to life (TimesArgus.com)