The Spirit Archives

AUTHOR: Eisner, Will; Feiffer, Jules; Cole, Jack

ARTIST: Will Eisner (illustrator); Jules Feiffer (illustrator); Jack Cole (illustrator); Jerry Grandenetti (illustrator); Wally Wood (illustrator); Abe Kanegson (letterer)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1940-1952

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2000-2009

Publication History

The Spirit Archives collects the entire original newspaper series, as well as newspaper strips and revival materials inspired by the 1960s and 1970s, of Will Eisner’s The Spirit comic strip in twenty-six hardcover volumes, arranged in chronological order and published by DC Comics. Eisner’s character was first published in sixteen-page comics supplements syndicated to daily newspapers by the Quality Comic Group; the first appearance of The Spirit was on June 2, 1940.

The initial run of The Spirit supplements continued on a weekly basis until early 1942, when Eisner entered the U.S. Army and worked on military instructional booklets and other texts as a cartoonist. The strip was continued for four months by Jack Cole, fantasy author Manly Wade Wellman, and others. After this short-lived extension, The Spirit went on hiatus from August, 1942, until December, 1945. After returning to civilian life at the end of World War II (1939-1945), Eisner revived The Spirit in newspaper syndication until October, 1952.

The Spirit not only was carried in comic strip supplements and in a daily black-and-white newspaper strip from 1941 to 1944 but was also reprinted in twenty-two issues of a Quality comic book. Other comic book format reprint runs of The Spirit in this period included Police Comics (1942-1950), Modern Comics (1944), Fiction House’s The Spirit (1952-1954), and several bootleg titles.

For this latter run of the comic strip, Eisner was assisted by future comics artists such as Wally Wood and Jules Feiffer and took the character in new directions, including making changes to his supporting cast and introducing recurring villains. Ultimately, Eisner’s assistants did nearly all of the actual creative work on the narrative, with Eisner overseeing the efforts of Jerry Grandenetti and Feiffer, among others.

The Spirit was revived in a few short, new stories and numerous reprints in the 1960s and 1970s, including a brief 1966 tribute in the New York Herald Tribune, two comic book issues published by Harvey Comics that same year, four issues (The Spirit Bag) copublished by Eisner, and fairly lengthy reprint runs by Warren Comics and Kitchen Sink Press. Real Free Press, Ken Pierce Books, Eclipse Comics, and Kitchen Sink Press also issued reprint books of The Spirit from the 1970s to the 1990s, and a Spirit story appears in a 1983 issue of Heavy Metal magazine.

The original Eisner Spirit stories were revived by DC Comics, which published a one-shot project in comic-book format, Millennium Edition: The Spirit (2000), just before inaugurating the first twenty-six volumes of The Spirit Archives. The twenty-seventh volume of The Spirit Archives was published by Dark Horse Comics. Eisner died in 2005, the same year that DC Comics began its new continuity for the character, situations, and settings of The Spirit. In 2009, The Spirit Archives, Volume 27, was released, which collects The Spirit: The New Adventures, issues 1-8, from 1997. These issues were written and illustrated by an all-star lineup of comics creators and artists and done so with Eisner’s blessing.

Plot

Eisner created The Spirit as a seriocomic with an ongoing story and a fair-sized cast of supporting characters; a stable of recurring antagonists (most of them attractive women); and a rugged, seemingly unkillable main character who was tough enough to survive his adventures. His efforts attracted an audience that included a sizable number of adults and traded off the same four-color sexuality as Milton Caniff’s good-girl-art-filled Terry and the Pirates (1934-1973) while offering up adventure and comedy in equal portions.

Like most costumed adventure characters, the Spirit has an origin story: As Central City police detective Denny Colt, he stormed the laboratory of mad scientist Doctor Cobra, and in the resulting shootout, Colt was exposed to chemicals that forced his body into a state of suspended animation. Reviving from apparent death, he established a secret headquarters in Wildwood Cemetery as a masked crime fighter called the Spirit. His true identity was known to only his friend and former boss, Commissioner Eustace Dolan (and a select few other characters over the series’ run).

The Spirit’s sidekick for the first nine years of his adventures was an African American man-child named Ebony White. After Eisner was pressured to remove Ebony from the series, he was briefly replaced by an Eskimo sidekick called Blubber, then permanently replaced by a Caucasian boy named Sammy.

Although the Spirit’s main love interest is Commissioner Dolan’s daughter, Ellen Dolan, he encounters many beautiful, voluptuous women on both sides of the law throughout his career. In a reverse-gendered twist on William Moulton Marston’s Wonder Woman character, the Spirit frequently ends up in bondage situations in the series, usually for perfectly legitimate plot reasons, but often in male dishabille and almost always “menaced” by lustful females in provocative dress.

The Spirit’s adventures are episodic and have only sporadic continuity across narrative arcs; however, there are some key overarching elements. The cast of characters and their world show the apparent effects of time’s passage and of aging, although this is very slow and selective; nevertheless, faithful readers witness the changes of the post-World War II world. Recurring villains (especially femme fatale P’Gell and mastermind the Octopus) demonstrate experience from their previous encounters with the Spirit, and vice versa. Supporting cast members are given showcase stories of their own, in which the Spirit is a secondary character, and grow and change in their own ways: Ellen Dolan ultimately becomes mayor of Central City, for example.

The Spirit is not present as the main character in every installment of his own series. Eisner and company frequently used the series as an anthology showcase in which the stories of various citizens of Central City are told, making the city itself as a continuing character in the series. This is evident in the annual “Christmas Spirit” stories that helped mark the passage of time in the series. Eisner’s own favorite such story, by many accounts, was the tragicomic 1947 entry, “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,” about a man who learns one day that he has the power of flight. How his powers briefly change his short life is the real point of the tale; the Spirit and the crooks he is fighting are only the inciting incident for the ill-fated Shnobble.

Although certain adventures (such as the P’Gell’s 1946 introduction story, “Meet P’Gell,” or the 1947 Octopus story, “Showdown with the Octopus!”) are generally regarded by fans as standout or definitive appearances of these adversaries, recurring villains in The Spirit are generally as open-ended in their continuity as any major comic strip character in a newspaper daily would be. As a result, the 1940-1952 run of The Spirit was more akin to a sitcom or soap opera: The illusion of change was maintained, but there was also a great degree of status quo and no ultimate purpose or “megaplot” to the entire undertaking. The narrative of The Spirit is a long series of story arcs and vignettes, but it is not a conventional novel in the modern sense. If one attempted to look at the complete run of The Spirit as a single story, it would most likely appear to be a picaresque journey through a world full of colorful characters and outlandish situations, all ending in a return to homely values and quaint, ongoing situations.

Volumes

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 1 (2000). Collects issues published from June 2 to December 29, 1940. Introduces the main characters, settings, and situations.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 2 (2000). Collects issues published from January 5 to June 29, 1941. Features the first appearance of femme fatale Silk Satin.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 3 (2001). Collects issues published from July 6 to December 28, 1941. The Spirit battles Nazi spies in France during World War II.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 4 (2001). Collects issues published from January 4 to June 28, 1942. Eisner is drafted into World War II service and assistants continue the series without him.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 5 (2001). Collects issues published from July 5 to December 27, 1942. Features “Ebony Meets Frankenstein,” “Espionage in Egypt,” and other stories.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 6 (2002). Collects issues published from January 3 to June 27, 1943. The Spirit joins in World War II, fighting villains at home and abroad.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 7 (2002). Collects issues published from July 4 to December 26, 1943. The Spirit stays stateside and helps Ellen Dolan after she is accused of murder.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 8 (2002). Collects issues published from January 2 to June 25, 1944. The Spirit fights Black Marx, Killer Ketch, and others.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 9 (2003). Collects issues published from July 2 to December 31, 1944. The Spirit investigates several murders, and Silk Satin returns.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 10 (2003). Collects issues published from January 7 to June 24, 1945. Ebony, Ellen, and Commissioner Dolan all figure prominently in this volume.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 11 (2003). Collects issues published from July 1 to December 30, 1945. Eisner returns to the series after an honorable discharge from the Army.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 12 (2003). Collects issues published from January 6 to June 30, 1946. First appearance of minor villain Mr. Carrion.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 13 (2004). Collects issues published from July 7 to December 29, 1946. Includes the first appearances of the Octopus and P’Gell.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 14 (2004). Collects issues published from January 5 to June 29, 1947. Features the adventures of several characters, including P’Gell and Hoagy the Yogi.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 15 (2005). Collects issues published from July 6 to December 28, 1947. P’Gell and the Octopus both return to the fray.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 16 (2005). Collects issues published from January 4 to June 27, 1948. Includes an introduction by Michael Uslan, the producer of numerous Batman films.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 17 (2006). Collects issues published from July 4 to December 26, 1948. Includes “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble.”

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 18 (2006). Collects issues published from January 2 to June 26, 1949. Includes “Thorne Strand and the Spirit” and other iconic stories.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 19 (2006). Collects issues published from July 3 to December 25, 1949. Features a transition in sidekicks from Ebony White to Blubber the Eskimo to Sammy, who remains in the stories until the end of the series.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 20 (2006). Collects issues published from January 1 to July 2, 1950. First appearance of femme fatale Sand Saref.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 21 (2007). Collects issues published from July 2 to December 31, 1950. Features the first appearance of supporting character Darling O’Shea. Ellen Dolan is elected mayor of Central City.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 22 (2007). Collects issues published from January 7 to June 24, 1951. Includes “The Octopus Is Back” and other stories.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 23 (2007). Collects issues published from July 1 to December 30, 1951. Includes “The Man from Mars” and other stories.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 24 (2008). Collects issues published from January 6 to October 5, 1952. Represents the conclusion of the original series. At this point, the series ends with the memorable “The Outer Space Spirit” story line that brought the Spirit firmly into the atomic age.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 25: The Complete Daily Strips, October 13, 1941, to March 11, 1944 (2008). Collects syndicated black-and-white newspaper strips that first appeared from 1941 to 1944.

•The Spirit Archives, Volume 26: After the Section, 1952-2005 (2009). Collects miscellaneous materials from 1952 to 2005, including Kitchen Sink original stories.

Characters

•Denny Colt, a.k.a. the Spirit, the protagonist, is a typical comics hero in most respects—he has wavy blue-black hair, a square jaw, and a big and strong build—but he is drawn and written with a self-effacing humility and witty sense of humor, pitting his brains and fists against all comers.

•P’Gell, the most important female antagonist, is a beautiful, black-haired woman of indeterminate age, named for the Pigalle district of Paris and designed as a classic femme fatale.

•Zitzbath Zark, a.k.a. the Octopus, the most important male antagonist, is a faceless master of disguise. He is visually unidentifiable except for his trademark gloves. He is the only recurring male opponent who consistently offers the Spirit a credible and dangerous threat, even temporarily blinding the Spirit in one memorable story arc.

•Police Commissioner Eustace P. Dolan is balding with a prominent tuft of white hair and a substantial mustache and has a pipe clenched in his teeth. He is a crusty, fatherly figure and a source of informative exposition and broad humor. He is one of the few people in the world who knows that “dead cop” Denny Colt is the Spirit.

•Ellen Dolan is the Spirit’s beautiful blond girlfriend. Over the course of the series, she evolves from a simpler sort of love interest to a feisty protofeminist character who often acts in a headstrong manner and rarely appears in the same vampy garb as most of the Spirit’s villainesses.

•Ebony White is a male African American character who is depicted variously as an adult and as a young child. Fiercely loyal and emotionally complex as the Spirit’s sidekick, he is nevertheless a racially caricatured figure out of step with modern sensibilities.

•Sammy, another sidekick of the Spirit, is a blond-haired, white Anglo-Saxon boy. Over time, his personality becomes distinct, with a certain quality of self-importance and silliness that lends itself to unsubtle comedy and keeps him clearly a part of the comic relief of the series at all times.

Artistic Style

Although Eisner cited various influences on his art style, the only clear one was George Brant Bridgman, under whom he studied at the Art Students League of New York, and even this influence is only in areas of general draftsmanship and anatomy. During his career on The Spirit, Eisner developed a distinctive style that combined emerging cinematographic techniques with the elastic, caricature-style methods of daily newspaper comic strips. This was compounded with pinup and “good girl” art styles, especially after Eisner was decommissioned from the Army after World War II, having entertained and educated his fellow soldiers with curvaceous women in training comic strips. The synthesis of comic strip, pinup, and cinematic film noir became Eisner’s signature style and influenced generations of comics artists.

Eisner also became famous for his cover- and splash-page compositions, which incorporated The Spirit title logo into the setting and action, often transforming an otherwise straightforward opening page of the story into a highly stylized, almost surreal image that set the mood and tone for the episode to follow. This component of Eisner’s style has been imitated for decades, most famously by Ed Hannigan for Marvel Comics.

Eisner’s art is always emotionally evocative rather than strictly realistic: Even heroic bodies are rendered with some exaggeration. The palette of colors is naturally narrow, because of the requirements of four-color printing in newspaper supplements and comic books of the Golden Age and Silver Age. However, neither of these restrictions results in art that depicts an obvious morality play. Rather, the art of The Spirit applies a light touch to a noir adventure setting, supporting stories that sometimes have an edge but are never edgy, that are touching but never grim.

Themes

The Spirit is a highly commercial work of art that showcases numerous well-crafted stories in a stable, continuing narrative. As a whole, the series builds on certain constant ideas. For example: Comedy and tragedy are both present in life and are the strongest notes in an adventure story. Also, much more happens in life than we might notice in the stories of the “big” and “important” characters. Family, friends, and community hold life together and lend it richness. In short, love is all-important.

The warm and humorous facial features of the characters overlay a sense of humor to the entire series. As Eisner’s talents matured, the layouts, details, and lighting became more complex, and these storytelling elements inform the story itself, making the series less about a man in a mask going about his two-fisted adventures and more about the world in which he lives and the people around him. Even the lettering used in Spirit stories is caricatured for effect: Characters do not merely dismiss one another coldly; their words drip with icicles. On the other hand, their words of love ooze passionately across the page.

The Spirit is not a dark, brooding avenger, nor a superpowered and invulnerable righter of wrongs. He is a happy-go-lucky, tough, former cop. It would be easy to describe The Spirit as a product of a bygone time, but Eisner and company infused the best of these stories with a timeless quality of Americana reminiscent of Ray Bradbury, O. Henry, and Rod Serling’s television show Twilight Zone (1959-1964). At times, Eisner seems to be attempting to address a universal soul in mankind by focusing on a microcosm of humanity.

Impact

Eisner has often been described as “the father of the graphic novel,” not without some justification. His visual storytelling style influenced generations of sequential artists who sought to either embrace or surpass its cinematic expression. Eisner’s cartoony, energetically emotive facets were generally refused by mainstream superhero comics’ creators in favor of a more “realistic” approach, but with the influx of anime styles since the beginning of the 1990s, his visual influence is more clearly seen.

In terms of writing, the influence of The Spirit’s anthology model has only recently become more obvious; the discursive narratives in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing (1984-1987) and key arcs of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (1989-1996) are two such examples. This is the result of the evolving comics industry and the desire of readers and creators to see continuing stories concentrate on their central characters and plots without digression.

The importance of The Spirit to graphic novels is twofold: first, the cinematic and novelistic methods used by Eisner and his assistants; second, Eisner’s subsequent direct contributions to the field of graphic novels, with A Contract with God (1978) and other works. By breaking the bounds of conventional comic book storytelling, Eisner showed that there was much more that could be done with the medium. His newspaper-based syndication and later experimentation in the underground-comics field showed creators that it was unnecessary to stay within artificial boundaries, and helped legitimize the movement away from “the big two” Comics publishing houses, DC Comics and Marvel Comics. The Spirit was a groundbreaking work for the comics field, thanks both to Eisner and his many dedicated and talented assistants, and its archival reprints present this collected work in a clear and authoritative manner for the reader.

Films

The Spirit. Directed by Michael Schultz. Von Zerneck-Samuels Productions/Warner Bros. Television, 1987. This television adaptation stars Sam J. Jones as Denny Colt/the Spirit and Nana Visitor as Ellen Dolan. It is a campy and brightly colored adaptation with little of the original work’s heart and wit. Ebony White is included as a young African American named Eubie, and the styles of the 1940s are uneasily overlaid with “modern” 1980s fashions. The plot pits the Spirit versus P’Gell. Poorly received by critics, general audiences, and fans.

The Spirit. Directed by Frank Miller. Lionsgate/Odd Lot Entertainment/Continental Entertainment Group, 2008. This film adaptation stars Gabriel Macht as Denny Colt/the Spirit and Sarah Paulson as Ellen Dolan. Taking on a gritty, film noir edge and a strain of camp humor, the film overlays comics creator/filmmaker Miller’s own sensibilities over Eisner’s classic material. Turning the Octopus from a faceless mystery man into a character, played by Samuel L. Jackson, that wears costumes ranging from pimp outfits to Nazi uniforms, the film telescopes elements of numerous Spirit stories into a single narrative packed with femme fatales and enhanced by computer-generated imagery. The film did not garner positive reviews or good box-office returns. It also omitted all of the Spirit’s sidekicks from its cast.

Further Reading

Cole, Jack. The Plastic Man Archives, Volume 1 (1999).

Cooke, Darwyn, et al. Will Eisner’s The Spirit: Book 1—Action, Mystery, Adventure (2007).

Stevens, Dave. The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (2009).

Bibliography

Eisner, Will. Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: Principles and Practice from the Legendary Cartoonist. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Life in Pictures: Autobiographical Stories. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007.