Will Eisner's "The Spirit"

This week, we read THE SPIRIT: Umbrella Handles, by Will Eisner. Eisner is a true icon in the world of comics, otherwise known as sequential art (a term he created that Scott McCloud will later use in Understanding Comics). He created and produced The Spirit in the early 1940's as a weekly newspaper insert. The Spirit is a masked vigilante, who battles everyone from barons to femme fatales in order to bring justice to his city. The series is highly regarded for employing many style and storytelling conventions still popular today. Frank Miller wrote and directed a movie based on the series, to be released in December of this year. A trailer for the movie can be found here. I had never actually read any of The Spirit until this week, and all the posters and previews for the movie definitely piqued my interest. I enjoyed it very much and could see many techniques in Eisner's work that demonstrated his profound impact on the world of comics. I especially liked what he said about using his splash page as a sort of prologue to his story, rather than using it as another showy title page. He makes clear that story should be just as important to the comic as art, and one should not be downgraded for the other. This conviction is clear within his work. I loved the way it ended just like it began, with The Spirit unconscious in the snow. The story was also pretty hilarious at times, as was the way much of the action progressed. The timelessness of The Spirit was echoed on every page. I loved the simplicity of Sam and the evil-doings of the Baron. Each of his characters seemed to have a very distinct personality.

Can't wait to read more!