The Spirit Archives, Volume 16 [Hardcover]

Will Eisner (Author)

Book Description

Late comics master Will Eisners best of the best continues on in this volume of legendary Spirit adventures from 1948. This edition includes the introduction or Powder Pouf, one of his all-time classics, Mrs. Paraffin, Sparrow, yet another return of Silk Satin, and the timeless Life Below. Eisners moody and atmospheric tales collected here are a bible of the storytelling art.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The hardcover series reprinting Eisner's famed and influential 1940s masked-crime-fighter comic strip continues with 25 stories dating from 1948, when the strip, eight years into its run, was arguably at its zenith. Eisner was using a simple premise--masked crime fighter, more everyman than superhero, operating in a noirish urban milieu--to tell a variety of stories: murder mysteries, pop-culture parodies, a creepy haunted-house yarn, and an episode starring the hero's comical sidekick. In an even bigger change of pace, Eisner took the Spirit from his usual stamping ground, Central City (i.e., New York), to Paris, London, Calcutta, and a fictional South American island, Montabaldo, newly risen from the sea to reveal a lost civilization. Whatever the setting, the strips all feature Eisner's hallmark cinematic storytelling, artwork that seamlessly blends serious illustration and broad cartooning, and distinctive full-page opening panels (which served as covers to the newspaper comic-book supplements in which the strips first appeared). The late-1940s Spirit represents Eisner at his best--which means the best mainstream comic books ever offered. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401204066
• ISBN-13: 978-1401204068
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 0.8 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #661,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Spirit deseerves to be made into a movie., July 23, 2005

By 

Dr. Fred R. Eichelman "arous" (Salem,, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spirit Archives, Volume 16 (Hardcover)

I have just finished reading Volumes 15 and 16 and will buy more when I can afford them. I do know that his best period was said to be the two or three years after World War II and that is what I am concentrating on now. The books read like a film noir movie with a touch of William Powell, Robert Mitchum, Batman, and the Bowery Boys. The stories are still fresh today and the art is excellent. You can see the influence Eisner had on MAD, DC and Marvel. Unfortunately The Spirit was not available by the time I was teaching as I would, have used the series, as I did various other comics, in the classroom. The Spirit is sort of The Lone Ranger, though why the mask was needed no one knows despite the explanation that the first publisher wanted it. Only the inspector and his lovely daughter, clearly modeled after Betty Grable, and Ebony know who he is for sure. Some may think that a black kid as a side kick named Ebony is racist, but for the 1940's this was pretty advanced. Ebony himself deserved a comic strip and he is a true right hand man for The Spirit. They've made movies of The Saint (plus TV series), radio's The Shadow, and all kinds of comic heroes. The Spirit would seem the most logical one to be made into a film as it already has everything there.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hipster Spies With His Little Eye Something That Begins With--Genius, December 8, 2005

By 

The Mystic Eye Of The Hipster (Murfreesboro, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spirit Archives, Volume 16 (Hardcover)

Will Eisner is gone. His charming & arresting art, his skilled storytelling, & his firey Dangerous Dames will be with us always, but he is gone.

His heroes never tried to save the world--they saved PEOPLE, darnit! People with NAMES! With FACES! With LIVES! With STORIES TO TELL...which began before the heroes & villains showed up, & often went on after they left; or at least that's what you'd believe, after reading Will Eisner's brillant work.

Comics like these are why they called it "The Golden Age Of Comics".

Buy this. Read it. See what you've been missing. Make your life RICHER.

The Hipster gives it a Big Thumbs UP!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff for All, February 18, 2006

By 

Ian Fowler (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spirit Archives, Volume 16 (Hardcover)

In my review of "Spirit Archives" Vol. 15, I wondered if Will Eisner had reached his peak, or if there was better still to come. The answer is found in this volume. Covering the first half of 1948, Vol. 16 demonstrates that Eisner still had plenty of ideas and the energy to express them.

In this volume, the Spirit encounters old enemies like the Octopus, femme fatales Satin and P'Gell, ghosts, haunted guns, exotic locales, all with the wink-and-nod that Eisner had perfected throughout the series.

There's not much more to say, really. It's good stuff for everyone.