Imagine my surprise when I loaded up Google this morning and saw The Spirit looking back at me!
Normally, Google celebrates holidays and big events occurring around the world, but this time out, they’re celebrating the birth on March 6th, 1917, of arguably the greatest influence in comic art and graphic storytelling, Will Eisner.
You may recall The Spirit from the box office bomb of a few years back, which is quite a shame if that is all you know about Eisner’s iconic character. The masked vigilante’s first appearance was in a syndicated cartoon in 1940, just when the super-hero craze was taking off in comic books. Eisner used the proportions of the tabloid newspaper to pull the reader in with wide-screen layouts filled with the kind of energy never before seen in a daily. Eisner’s adventures were hugely popular, and The Spirit would maintain publication for over a decade, even during a period in which the writer and artist headed to Europe to fight Nazis!
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The Spirit was so popular and culturally significant that DC Comics reprinted the entirety of his adventures in a series of deluxe hardcover volumes called The Spirit Archives. There are 27 in all, including a final volume devoted to a short-lived ’80s revival.
The film, which debuted on Christmas Day in 2008, seemed headed for great things, what with a solid cast featuring Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson, and the director an avowed disciple of Will Eisner, but unfortunately it didn’t catch on with moviegoers, and it’s flop at the box office may have tarnished the name of Eisner and The Spirit with the public. Which would be a terrible tragedy, since Eisner and The Spirit deserve so much respect!
Will Eisner lived a long, happy and productive life, his reputation so sacred to his comic industry brethren that, if there was ever a Mt. Rushmore devoted to the greats of comics, Eisner’s head would be sculpted right in there. Looks like Google is doing their part by dedicating this day to Will Eisner! Good for you, Google!
Want to learn more about Will Eisner? Check out the book Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics as well as the documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist on both DVD and Blu-ray. (You can watch the trailer at MontillaPictures.com
