My Christmas gifts for the Christmas of 1978 weren’t exclusively Marvel based, though they were pretty much all comic book based. I had also asked for and received two issues of Kitchen Sink Press’s magazine devoted to Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT, #17 and #18, their two first. Prior to this, I had read one Spirit story, the one that Jules Feiffer had included in his seminal reprint collection THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES. And I hadn’t found it all that interesting. But I’d also read the chapter on the Spirit in THE COMIC BOOK BOOK and that provided a whole lot more detail on storylines and the appeal of the strip. So when I saw that Superhero Merchandise was carrying these issues in their catalog (which they sent to me relentlessly–I must have had a dozen copies of that particular edition all told) I decided that they looked interesting. At $1.50 a pop, they were too expensive for a normal purpose–but Christmas would get the job done.
For those unfamiliar with The Spirit and Will Eisner, a brief primer. Eisner came into the comic book business just as it was beginning. He established a studio with his business partner Jerry Iger, a production house that would package entire comic books for client publishers. He was a talented artist, but he always had a decent head for business, and that made Will the perfect person for the publisher of Quality Comics, “Everett “Busy” Arnold, with a proposition. Newspapers were feeling the pinch from the comic book market–comics had been their thing, an important contributor to sales. So they wanted to create their own weekly comic book circular so that they could promote having a free comic book with their papers every Sunday. For this venture, Eisner signed on and created the Spirit. Because the Newspaper syndicates wanted a Superman-style hero like what was big in the books in those days, Eisner gave his new detective crime-fighter character a mask, and a few outlandish gadgets at the start (the “Autoplane”, a car that would sprout wings and fly, being the most notable.)
Eisner worked on The Spirit from 1940-1942, at which point he was drafted into the armed forces during WWII, and Arnold kept the series going under other hands. Returning from the conflict in 1945, Eisner picked up where he left off. But his time away gave him a different sensibility towards the work. Realizing that he had a potentially large adult audience for the Spirit in addition to the kids, Eisner began making his stories more complex, with more adult themes and social satire. He experimented with the form, pushing the limits of what a comic book page could do. First by himself and then with other writers such as the young Jules Feiffer, he began crafting his little 7 page stories in the mode of literary short stories, often with a distinct narrative device or approach, and always with a greater visual and narrative sophistication than anything anybody else was doing at this time. But by 1952, Newspapers weren’t considering comic books any sort of threat any more, and with the number of clients dropping, Eisner ended the Spirit and entered into a longtime and lucrative arrangement with the U.S. Military to produce their regular training publication P.S. The Spirit mostly vanished from the comic book scene at this time, apart from those readers who had read and enjoyed it.
The strip would occasionally pop up here and there in the years that followed. Harvey Kurtzman ran a Spirit story in an issue of his satirical magazine HELP!, and Israel Waldman reissued a couple of Quality Comics illicitly with new covers that happened to contain Spirit stories. Eisner even came back to the character for one last story in 1965 as part of a Sunday magazine feature on the rise of nostalgia for old comic books. From there, Harvey Comics tried a Spirit reprint series, but it failed to perform and ended in two issues. But among fandom, a knowledge base of Spirit enthusiasts was slowly forming. By the 1970s, Kitchen Sink publisher Denis Kitchen released two reprint issues of The Spirit as a part of his underground comic book publishing operation, and from there, rival Jim Warren picked up the strip and ran it for 16 magazine-sized issues on the newsstands before it ended. From there, it was back to Kitchen Sink Press again, who carried on the numbering from Warren’s last issue and began giving Eisner space in each release to produce new work. Eisner had become aware of the underground scene and was interested in the fact that it gave the artists both creator ownership of their work and also the freedom to do any sort of story that they wanted to.
And that’s where I came in, with two issues of the new SPIRIT Magazine having been released. Each one reprinted a bevy of old Spirit stories as well as other sundry features. And while I didn’t love every story equally, there were enough hits in the spread of variation that was in these issues to get me hooked. This first one, #17, led off with a letters page that featured testimonials from both Flo Steinberg and Trina Robbins. I didn’t know who either of these ladies were at the time, nor their profound impact on the history of comic books, but I certainly do today. Flo in particular lived at the same address listed with her letter right up until her passing in the 2010s.
The stories in these issues weren’t run in any particular order, even though there was at least a broad sense of continuity within the strip. But Jim Warren had run his first 16 issues by just grabbing whatever stories might be available in whatever order–Eisner had maintained a useful set of reproduction materials for the stories created after 1945, which was considered the prime Spirit period by most (excepting fans such as Jules Feiffer, who preferred the earlier stories that he had read while growing up to the ones he worked on as an established cartoonist.) Not wanting to repeat stories that Warren had already reissued, Kitchen followed suit, so each issue of the magazine was a hodge-podge of episodes from different years and times. Most of the time, this didn’t really matter, but occasionally there’d be some factoid that the reader would trip over.
Eisner was especially influenced by cinema in his comic book storytelling, and he began to employ the same sorts of camera movements and visual tricks that he was finding in films in his stories. His characters were always a bit rubbery and cartoony, which allowed Eisner to push stories more in a comedic bent, but also to snap them back to brutal and uncompromising reality. The Spirit had a habit of getting the shit kicked out of him in a manner that no other super-heroic character of the period ever did. His injuries were never enough to put him down permanently, though, and he’d always tough things out to come back and deliver an equally brutal beating to his attackers. So the fights, and the results of that violence, felt a lot more real than even most of what was being done in comic books in the 1970s.
IN particular, Eisner paid close attention to his first pages, which doubled as a defacto cover for the “Spirit Section” circular. He was constantly intent on crafting a grabber of a first image to lure in a Sunday newspaper reader who might otherwise have little interest in a comic book story. Eisner’s experiments with graphics were studied and copied by other artists of the day. Often, he would work the name of the strip, THE SPIRIT into the opening page visuals in an interesting way. Occasionally, that would backfire–on the new cover to this issue, Eisner chose to do THE SPIRIT as a vertical block of letters that the character is leaping from, like a totem pole. But for some reason, he chose to rotate the middle two letters 90 degrees–resulting in the logo reading a bit too much like THE SPIT. Who knows, maybe this was Eisner testing the permissiveness of the undergrounds. It’s difficult to imagine that a master such as himself would have this happen by accident.
I found that I was quite taken with these Spirit stories. So much so that when my sixth grade class began an English unit on the short story, I brought in these two issues to show to my teacher, Mrs. Seaman. And she wound up reading a pair of the stories to the class–god only knows what everybody made of them. But I was always eager to share the things that I loved with other people, and this was another outward representation of that drive. But as I got older, it was getting harder and harder to find other kids who still cared about comic books–everybody was growing older, and their attention was moving on to sports, girls and the like. Everybody except me and a couple of similar oddball friends.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Eisner was a god but I never warmed to the Spirit. Over the decades I’ve barely strayed from the Biig Two and don’t really enjoy black and white comics.
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After Caniff and Kirby, I’d have to say Eisner’s THE SPIRIT had the biggest influence on me. I stumbled onto the character through the Warren Magazines (although I’m sure I had heard about him and probably read one or two stories— in the same books you mentioned, Tom) and was immediately enthralled. It really was unlike any other comic I’d ever read. In fact, I was so enamored of them that I tried to adapt one or two of the stories into one-act plays for my high school drama department to perform. I have a vague memory of writing to Warren/Eisner asking for permission (and never hearing back). Nothing ever came of it.
To this day, I still enjoy having my heroes get beaten down, outfits torn and bloodied, take a licking and keep on ticking. Straight out of Eisner’s THE SPIRIT book.
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The Kitchen Sink magazine series was the last of groundwork to be laid for the 1980s reappreciation of Eisner and THE SPIRIT, at least for me. I first became aware of the feature in the late 1970s, when my older sister gifted me THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES for Christmas. She was a compulsive reader, and she told me she thought THE SPIRIT story was the best of the bunch in that collection. My eight-year-old self didn’t agree, but her opinion, and Feiffer’s regard, both stayed with me over the years. When the Kitchen Sink comic-book-format reprint series started in late 1983, I was primed. I finally had a store that I frequented that carried direct-market-only comics, and the early issues of that SPIRIT series were among my first purchases. Teenage me got Eisner in a way I hadn’t previously, and I followed this reprint series pretty much until the end of the 1980s. Middle-aged me is a lot harder on this material. I respect the graphics, but I find the narrative content thin. But I’ll always agree with Alan Moore that Eisner’s work gave comics its brains. I’m not going to liken him to Orson Welles, or even Sergei Eisenstein, but as film analogies go, Eisner has a good claim to being the D. W. Griffith of comics. That comparison is apt in both the good ways and the bad.
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My Eisner journey, basically started with hearing about him and much later getting “A Contract with God” from a friends moving sale. I liked the story, but I was more into superheroes at the time. Much later I would get the “Eisner/Miller” book, which is a long conversation between the two of them. It was pretty fascinating to me to read about their perspectives and a peek at what goes on in the industry. Though I still wonder how Eisner felt about Miller ripping off his Sand Saref character to make Elektra. I guess it wasn’t a big deal to him. Anyways, I finally would collect and track down the Spirit Archives and read through them a few years ago. I liked the older Spirit stories that Eisner started, but when he came back, he was truly a master. Some of the camera angles he uses are just crazy!
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I first encountered The Spirit in The Great Comic Book Heroes and became a fan after picking up the Warren reprints. The visuals, paired with Eisner’s character-based storytelling, really knocked me out – although Ebony was problematic to me even as a kid.
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Fell in love with The Spirit in ’70’s (due to Great Comic Book Heroes, like numerous others). I could tell that this was something different than Marvel & DC. Just by being in B&W if nothing else. But there was something about the strip (besides what I know today was the genius of Eisner). There was the interesting B&W mags coming out from Marvel at the time and I could tell that Eisner’s viewpoint and layouts were not anything I was accustomed to. Besides always had a soft spot for the heroes who got their ass kicked before good eventually won out. There’s no doubt in my mind that naming the industry awards “The Eisners” was the right move.
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I think The Strange Case of Dr. Paraffin in THE STERANKO HISTORY may have been the first SPIRIT story I read as well. But I started buying the magazine when it was still at Warren, I think with the issue featuring Olga Bustle, the Girl with the Big, BIG…Eyes.
I think it’s pretty obvious that those Eisner and Feiffer stories were a huge influence on ASTRO CITY.
And I agree with Karl about the appeal of beating the crap out of your hero. Dick Francis did it too, in his novels, and I think it’s one of the reasons they were so popular with women. Male-aimed action-adventure tends to focus on badass dudes who mow down enemies left and right, but stuff aimed at women (or just general audiences) benefits from a physically and emotionally vulnerable hero.
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That’s a really good observation, Mr. B! And I suspect that same general/female audience also appreciated that the women in the stories weren’t just pin-up girls…they were smart and tough, in the same vein as contemporary movie stars like Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, et. al.
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My introduction to the Spirit was also Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes book. He’s perhaps the only classic comic book hero with touch of a Jim Rockford sensibility. A little reluctant to do the job that needs to be done, but will get it done. … like any gumshoe that might show up in a noir.
I had the opportunity to meet Jules Feiffer a few years back at a Small Press Expo. He was plugging a recently published graphic novel, but I only saw him at a gathering at the end of what must have been a very long day for him. I would have loved to chat with him, but decided that a glimpse and a nod was probably best.
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Been trying to remember how I first discovered The Spirit and it must have been this old out of date Overstreet Price Guide I bought in a used book store because It had “information” on Timely Heroes, writers and artists ( Since Marvel kept those characters from me I was desperate to find information on them — it is the reason many years later I got on the Internet ): So going through the Price Guide I discovered The Spirit. The first time I actually saw a version of The Spirit was when I used my VCR to record the 1987 Spirit TV Film ( Didn’t go to see the 2008 Film by Frank Miller, but did watch it on TV when it was on ). The only comic book I have with the Spirit was First Wave#1 ( May 2010 ) — for some reason the other issues never made to my city. At least twice I sent an email to Marvel suggesting that they team up the Spirit of ’76 with Young Allies member Whitewash Jones ( as his Ebony White who I just learned was originally an adult ) because I noticed that The Spirit and the Spirit both had black hair, same colour and style mask, same colour hat & gloves.
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I was wrong, the first comic book I have with The Spirit was Batman/The Spirit#1 a one-shot by Darwyn Cooke ( another artist I liked taken to soon ). Also forgot to say though I prefer super-hero costumes I do like the suit, tie, hat, gloves and domino mask look of The Spirit ( A look imitated by Quality’s Midnight ( minus the gloves ) & Alias X ( red domino mask –Holyoke character ). Similar looks from other Golden Heroes: The Mouthpiece ( Quality – a District Attorney ). Bogey Man ( Rural House — has Spirit-esque adventures — Jess Nevins source ) & White Mask ( Harvey — seen with mask at internationalhero.co.uk ) both have trench coats.
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First exposure: Feiffer. Bought the Kitchen Sink reprints in the 1980s, loved them. Also greatly enjoyed Eisner’s comments on the material in the text pages.
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First exposure was back issues of the comic book sized The Spirit series from Kitchen Sink Press that ran for 87 issues from 1983 to 1992. I read several of them in the mid-1990s at the recommendation of the owner of my local comic shop and was quite impressed by them.
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I probably first learned about Will Eisner and The Spirit from that 1987 Ken Viola documentary, “The Masters of Comic Book Art,” which I got for Christmas that year and watched incessantly as a teenager in the ’80s. I bought a few issues of the then-current Kitchen Sink reprint Spirit series and liked them fine, but I always preferred Eisner’s graphic novel work from the ’80s and ’90s which I found to be more visually interesting and dynamic. I did enjoy Darwyn Cooke’s take on the Spirit character quite a bit, though.
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I discovered the Spirit via the Warren magazines. Didn’t know anything about the character or Will Eisner until then, but enjoyed the stories. They were pretty different from what I was used to. After that, it was cool to see the influence Eisner had on younger artists.
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I vaguely remember seeing the two Harvey reprints at a secondhand shop, but didn’t buy ’em because the covers– I probably didn’t look inside– seemed a little too daffy. I think I occasionally bought funny superhero comics, but they had to hit me the right way. The Steranko reprint was at least interesting, like all the old noir movies I’d grown up with. But I too credit the Warren mags with opening me up to the Eisner world. Also, as fans began celebrating WE in the zines, I found out more about his Golden Age career and his part in creating Sheena and Blackhawk.
Re: comparing Eisner to DW Griffith– I like the comparison, if one makes the caveat that Griffith wasn’t really all by himself in American cinema of the 1910s and 1920s. I think Eisner must have closely studied not only cinema but the major comic strip artists of the thirties, who were also responsible for trailblazing new artistic techniques in the comics medium. I’ll go a step further and claim that the sort of techniques used by Foster, Caniff and Gould, as with Eisner, stood out in contrast to the older, perhaps fustier pre-1930s comics. A number in of humor strips kept that “turn of the century” look even up to the sixties, and one, LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE, always looked like it could have been drawn in the twenties.
The Griffith comparison is also interesting because Griffith was doing ambitious features that audiences could enjoy in one sitting. The ambitious arcs in the major adventure strips required readers to stick with them for two-three months at a time, but you could get a lot of the same appeal of a Caniff melodrama in one seven-page SPIRIT comic.
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