The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel [Hardcover]

Will Eisner (Illustrator), Bruce Foster (Designer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

On the dead body of a police officer the Spirit discovers a note with the name 'Sand Saref,' his lost childhood sweetheart. Saref has come to Central City peddling a deadly Nazi virus on the black market, but plans go awry when she is double-crossed by a scoundrel bent on destruction. In a twisted tale of betrayal the remorseful Spirit must bring his long-lost love to justice and find the virus before it's too late.

Born from shadow and mystery, Will Eisner's deathless hero returns in a recreation of The Spirit's final two issues. Coinciding with Frank Miller's upcoming Spirit movie, Will Eisner's The Spirit: A Pop-Up Graphic Novel spins a noir tale of blackmail, murder, and espionage innovatively crafted into seven full-color pop-up spreads. Reborn, The Spirit breaks out of the conventional comic book frame, animating the vigor and dynamism of Eisner's original vision. Designed by renowned paper engineer Bruce Foster (creator of The Pop-up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns and designer of the Caldecott nominated Little Red Riding Hood) Will Eisner's The Spirit: A Pop-Up Graphic Novel comes alive with expansive panoramic cityscapes, three-dimensional action sequence pop-outs, frame-by-frame expanding mini-booklets, and scene change pullouts. Re-colored and ingeniously renovated, the novel design animates the vigorous action of the Spirit's final exploits with an inventiveness merited by Eisner's original imagination. From the noir aficionado to the comic zealot, fans will celebrate this renaissance of Eisner's masterpiece, heralding the interactive ingenuity of a new format for sequential art.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dubbed the "Most influential comic book artist of all time," Will Eisner began his professional comic career at the age of nineteen. Over the next 68 years he changed the world of comics, fathering the graphic novel and expanding the literary potential of the genre. The highest award in the world of comics is aptly named the Will Eisner Award. With the first issues of The Spirit in 1940 Eisner began to differentiate his work, creating gritty characters shaped by the vice and violence of their urban worlds. Eisner's acclaimed work on The Spirit served as the definitive prototype for the graphic novel--a phrase he would later coin. His notable graphic novels and work includes: Sundiata: A Legend of Africa, Moby Dick, A Contract with God, and the academic work Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 16 pages
• Publisher: Insight Editions (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933784466
• ISBN-13: 978-1933784465
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.6 x 10.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

WILL EISNER was born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, Will Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.

In a career that spanned nearly eight decades -- from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics - Will Eisner was truly the 'Orson Welles of comics' and the 'father of the Graphic Novel'. He broke new ground in the development of visual narrative and the language of comics and was the creator of The Spirit, John Law, Lady Luck, Mr. Mystic, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Sheena and countless others.

During World War II, Will Eisner used the comic format to develop training and equipment maintenance manuals for the US Army. After the war this continued as the Army's "PS Magazine" which is still being produced today. Will Eisner taught Sequential Arts at the New York School of Visual Arts. The textbooks that he wrote based on his course are still bestsellers. In 1978, Will Eisner wrote "A Contract with God," the first modern Graphic Novel. This was followed by almost 20 additional graphic novels over the following 25 years.

The "Oscars" of the Comic Industry are called The Eisner Awards, and named after Will Eisner. The Eisners are presented annually before a packed ballroom at Comi-Con International in San Diego, America's largest comics convention.

Wizard magazine named Eisner "the most influential comic artist of all time." Michael Chabon's Pulitzer-prize winning novel "Kavalier and Clay" is based in good part on Eisner. In 2002, Eisner received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Federation for Jewish Culture, only the second such honor in the organization's history, presented by Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

You can always find more information about Will Eisner at www.willeisner.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Return of the Spirit, October 24, 2008

By 

Tim Lasiuta "Comic Fan 42" (Red Deer, Alberta) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel (Hardcover)

With the resurgence of the Spirit over the last few years at DC Comics and the reprinting of the Spirit Archives, a flood of 'Spirit'ualism has hit publishing. Frank Millers' film will cast even more of a light upon Will Eisners' signature creation. In tune with Eisners' creativity, this Pop-up book is a marvelous addition to a amazing legacy.

Bruce Foster has successfully adapted and reconfigured a compelling Spirit adventure and captured a moment. This is no 2D portrayal of Denny Lane and a supporting cast. The pop-ups are really cool, and the multi layer approach to logos, backgrounds, and even motion frames actived by pulling a tab is a visual coup. The art by Eisner is stunning and even looks better in glossy colors. All that's missing is audio with dialogue and dramatic theme music.

Highly recommended for followers of the Spirit everywhere.

www.insighteditions.com

Tim Lasiuta

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, February 20, 2011

By 

stang - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel (Hardcover)

as a lover of both pop up books and comics i thought this was a match made in heaven. the pulpy style of the spirit and this medium could have produced some iconic images and a great way to tell a story, however it fall sflat on both accounts. rather than choosing a new artists work and make each page unique based on a a new artists drawings the book uses what seem to be ogrinal comic art form the first series of teh spirit and force it into pop up form. this leads to an uneasy merging of both mediums always at conflict on the page. i have yet to see a comic book done in this medium which does it justice therefore will be trying to make something myself! watch this space!