Customer Reviews

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 1: June 2 - December 29, 1940

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This volume should be required reading for anyone who isinterested in the art of innovative graphic storytelling. Although'The Spirit' newspaper strip didn't hit its peak until around 1948, these 31 stories from 1940 still contain the seeds of greatness scattered on every page. At first glance, the art is in a 'classic' style similar to that of other 'Golden Age' illustrators such as Bill Everett, Bob Kane or Alex Toth. But although Eisner is using a fairly rigid 9-panel page layout, each panel is brimming with new ideas, techniques and perspectives. Even at this early stage, Eisner is already a consummate storyteller, and although these stories are not as 'dark' as some of the post-war Spirits, he is already displaying his mastery of light and shade, both in terms of story and artwork. It's ironic that at a time when Marvel are happy to reprint the greatest works of their founding creators(Lee, Kirby, Ditko) as cut-price black & white paperbacks, DC have committed themseleves to publish this series of 15 hardback volumes over the next 5 years, to showcase the work of a man who (as far as I know) has never even worked for them. Hopefully their efforts will bring the adventures of the Spirit to a new generation of readers, following in the footsteps of people like Jim Warren & Dennis Kitchen. Oh, and don't let the fact that this is called an 'archive' edition put you off - these stories are as vibrant today as when they were first published. Happy 60th birthday, Denny Colt.

Others have talked about Eisner's remarkable talent, even in this early volume. The paper is nice, the three articles in the beginning (one by Eisner, one by Alan Moore, one by someone else whose name I don't remember) are nice. But there's a problem: Since the strips are seven pages long, every other story starts on the left page. But they originally were on the right! Eisner had a great eye for layouts, and this includes facing pages. This effect is killed in every other story. I hope this oversight is corrected future editions, especially the later, more visually impressive strips.

I feel about the first volume of the "Spirit Archives" the way I feel about Takahashi's "Lum: The Perfect Collection"... both books are worth having for fans because they give fans a glimpse into the evolution of the creator's style and story-telling abilities. However, there is no question that later works produced after the creator found his or her voice are far better from a pure entertainment viewpoint.

Volume One of DC's "The Spirit Archives" is primarily interesting for the glimpse into the evolution of master storyteller Will Eisner's grasp of his style and craft. There are some glimmers of the greatness that the Spirit strip will eventually display, but from the jaded eye of 60 years past, the stories in this volume are merely remarkable because they... well, were 60 years ahead of their time.

Even in its earliest stages, Eisner's "The Spirit" shorts were heads and shoulders above the vast majority of its comic contemporaries and even much of what creators are putting out today. Volume Two, which apparently won't be available through Amazon until next month, even more of the gem that is emerging as Eisner and his assistants continue to improve. The most remarkable thing about the tales in that book is that even the ones that are very clearly tied to the politics of the time (Spirit battles a number of facist agents and even tries to convince Hitler of the error of his ways), remain powerful and entertaining tales where many other such comic book adventures fall flat when read today. Further, Silk Satin puts in her first couple of appearances. She was nifty from the very beginning. :)

This is not the first time a publisher has brought the masterful Spirit comics to light, but it is the first time an effort has been made to print ALL of them, in order. My hat is off to DC Comics for giving everyone the chance to enjoy this cornerstone of American comic book history in its entirety. I hope this venture becomes the commercial success it deserves to be... because I want to own all 15 volumes of the series.

I had not read much of the earlier Spirit stuff until I got this book. I'm giving this four stars based on what the Spirit became after a couple of years. The stories in this book run from serviceable to quite good, and Eisner's art grows by leaps and bounds over the six months of comics presented here. By the end of the book you can see that Eisner has figured out the formula for the Spirit quite well. The layouts start to resemble what we think of as an "Eisner splash page" and everything really congeals after a couple of months' worth of stories. My only wish is that they could have reprinted the other stories as well. Maybe once DC gets done reprinting all the essentials from the Golden Age, they'll focus on the things that everyone has forgotten about.

I had read the Spirit in the late forties when it origianlly came out. Recently I have had the pleasure of buying from Amazon and reading Volumes 12-16. These are supposed to represent the best work of Will Eisner. However, to talk about the later books and contrast them with those by Eisner before he went into the army is unfair. I have just read the first two volumes and liked them much better than some of the other reviewers. The original Spirt seems more edgy, more dangerous like The Batman. Those after the war are a bit light hearted. I like them all and want to make an observation. I am a James Bond fan, especially of the first two Bond stars. Sean Connery's original Bond is the most edgy, hardest to predict, and despite the one liners he has a mission you would be afraid to cross. Roger Moore's Bond is more like the Spirit after the war years. More light hearted, even a little campy at times. There is enough enjoyment in the character of The Spirit that I will likely try some of the archives during the war years as done by other artists and writers. After all, Superman and Batman have had many different writers and artists, most very very good. So this is something I need to judge for myself.

The Spirit Archives Vol. 1 isn't bad... when compared to other Archive volumes from the era, it actually quite good. It's just that it's not particularly good for The Spirit. The story-telling is certainly competent enough, but the strip really hasn't found its voice. Still, it's good fun watching the various pieces of the strip fall into place: the supporting characters, the splash pages, Eisner's developing technique, etc.

If you're looking to sample The Spirit to see what all the fuss is about, you might want to skip this one. The book's charms are much more evident in Vol. 2-4... and Eisner really wouldn't hit his stride until he returned to the book with Vol. 12.

The Spirit Archives contains reprints of Will Eisner's early Spirit comics. I was pleasantly surprised by the comic. The Spirit is really reporter Denny Colt, who everyone believes to have been killed, but is really alive and now hiding in the local cemmetary and emerging to fight crime. The Spirit is the kind of hero I prefer. He uses judo or whatever kind of fighting technique would work as well as Mac Gyver like on the spot gadgets to fight crime. He doesn't have super powers. So he's kind of like a normal guy, except for he is extremely talented.

Things I liked about The Spirit: The crazy villains. There is a new one almost every episode, and they range from an ape with a human brain to a lovesick clown. The Black Queen is also nice. She is kind of like an evil master-mind who also dresses in evil villain costumes and runs around personally doing evil and looking hot. Also the comics are nice because the plots vary a whole lot from episode to episode.

Things I didn't like: The editing is really tight. Because The Spirit came out once a week on 7 pages and they tried to fit a whole story into those seven pages, things are really crammed in there.

Also included are a couple of brief introductions. One is a general history of the comic. The other is an introduction buy comic book writer Alan Moore, which discussed the impact of The Spirit on the genre of comics and on the young Alan Moore. These extras were interesting for me, because I hadn't heard of the comic before checking this out from the library. The Spirit is in print because it was influential on the whole comics medium. And it is still fun to read. I recommend checking out one of the books in The Spirit Archives series and if you like it then there is certainly plenty more.

I've always wished to read Will Eisner's The Spirit because it's widely acknowledged like one of the most important milestones in the comic art.
Now that I've almost finished reading this first volume, I totally agree with other people who love that comic. The Spirit is art!

This is my first introduction to The Spirit. The fact that Darwyn Cooke has started up a new run of the series and Frank Miller's movie will be in theaters by next year definitely peaked my interest. I have to say, coming from a Batman fan, I think this blows the early Batman stuff away, in both story and especially artwork.

Being as old as this is, I was surprised at how mature a lot of the themes were. Many of the stories deal with crime, corruption, murder, and suicide. The stories were always consistent, and while not everyone of them was brilliant, there were never any that were plain bad. What is great about Eisner's style is he introduces new characters in nearly every strip and when these were first printed it was on a weekly basis.

I marveled at how he was able to come up with so many unique stories without just bringing back the same old villains again and again (most of them are killed off). In fact in some cases, The Spirit doesn't even appear until midway through the story so there's always something new to focus on. The comic strips are only 7 pages in length and so I was impressed at how much story Eisner was able to tell in such a short amount of time (granted he typically stuck to the traditional 9 page layout).

Worth checking out, whether you are already a fan of The Spirit's updated stuff, or want to check it out for the first time.

I wish that I could give this book more than three stars, but I found most of the stories to be quite dull. In fact I skimmed over the majority of the book without really reading it.

That being said I know for a fact that greatness is around the corner. I used to read "Spirit" stories when they were published by Kitchen Sink Press in the early 80's. At the time the stories that they reprinted were after Will Eisner had perfected his Spirit creation. Not his early material.

I have no regrets for buying this book. I kind of expected the begining to be a little rough and ragged. I bought the book because I wanted to see the true beginings of the Spirit - warts and all. In the next few volumes I expect to see what I remember reading years ago. Wonderful, entertaining stories where a master has found his stride and produces fabulous comic material.