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The Best of the Spirit Will Eisner Books

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The Best of the Spirit Will Eisner Books

It's so much fun to read the old originals of these comics. Not only can you watch the art evolve over time, and compare the art of a variety of different illustrators, the dated content drops you back in time, when the good guys could escape from impenetrable prisons, dispatch the bad guys with a single punch and a jaunty "Sorry, Fritz, that's not how we do things in America, you sauerkraut-eating Nazi," and for whom the stunningly gorgeous girl villains would fall, hard. The damsels that got rescued were more wholesome... glove-and-hat-wearing girl-next-door types who'd swoon and wonder "who IS he?" Nostalgically entertaining to see a man put on a simple eye mask and go unrecognized by all - akin to Clark Kent's magic eyeglasses. I love the dated artwork, and variety of illustrators. And, not being one of those mylar-bagging classic comics fangirls, enjoy reading compendiums rather than individual comics. I can't say the Spirit is my fave "superhero," but he sure is entertaining.


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The Best of the Spirit Will Eisner Books Reviews

I was really looking forward to being re-introduced to this character but the 'new' reproduction values in the coloring of this reprint and even blurry lettering in some cases ruined the reading experience for me and took away any enjoyment of the stories. Eisner deserves better than this.
A collection of classic stories featuring The Spirit. Recommended for the avid comic reader, and fans of this character.
I had never heard of THE SPIRIT until I saw a trailer for Frank Miller's film version. Curious, I went online to see what the book was all about. What I learned was that THE SPIRIT was a detective-type comic written in the 1940s. It was said that Will Eisner, the creator, had raised comics to an art form and that he was ahead of his time. I am inclined to agree.

I purchased this "Best Of..." collection to see for myself why THE SPIRIT was so celebrated. The book is great. Each story is a mere seven pages long, but each story is filled with mystery and suspense. The artwork is terrific. It has style! I love the cover artwork for each story. It incorporates the words "The Spirit" into an image that sets the tone for the pages ahead. Eisner uses the panels not only to advance the plot, but to create a mood. Many of the narratives have a sort of "Twilight Zone", Rod Serling feel.

The stories in this collection are thoroughly enjoyable, even after sixty years. The stories aren't too dark or mature-themed, but there are gunshots and fatalities. As I write this, Frank Miller's movie has not yet been released, so I cannot compare it with its source work. But where the film seems to have a colorless, Sin City-like quality, the comics are very colorful. There are dramatic shadows, yes, but it's not a black-and-white book.

I encourage any curious readers like myself to check out this inexpensive "Best Of..." and discover THE SPIRIT for themselves. This sampler left me wanting to read even more of the adventures of The Spirit!
When you hear someone or something praised a lot, you are often disappointed when you are finally exposed to the lauded subject. Certainly, over the years I had heard a lot of great things about Will Eisner, so when I finally got an opportunity to read a collection of stories featuring The Spirit, I was wary. I needn't have worried Eisner and The Spirit is well-deserving of all its praise, as shown in The Best of the Spirit.

The Spirit is really Denny Colt, a criminologist and private detective, who is exposed to a chemical that makes him appear dead. He gets better but maintains the ruse that he died, using his guise as the Spirit to fight crime. He is hardly a typical superhero character for one thing, his disguise is merely a mask over the eyes; otherwise, he goes around in suit, tie and fedora. Furthermore, he as often loses his fights as he wins them.

In fact, in many of the stories, the Spirit is almost a peripheral character, with the focus on other characters that get involved in crimes; the Spirit just seems to come in to wrap things up. What makes the Spirit stories magical, however, is that Eisner seemed unconstrained by the limitation of the comics genre. In the period he wrote The Spirit (principally the decade or so after WWII), many comics were very formulaic; with The Spirit, you never knew what you would get, only that it would be good.

At least one of the stories in this story is really science fiction, while another is a Christmas tale and still another takes the form of a children's tale. While there is a lot of humor (often at the Spirit's expense), there are also nasty villains and beautiful femme fatales (most notably Silk Satin who has three appearances and Sand Serif who is in the only two-part story in this collection).

Yes, if you compare The Spirit to today's comics, it would be rather tame, but in the context of its time, it was cutting edge stuff. And even today, it is still both wonderful to look at and to read. If you're a comics fan, this is a collection well worth picking up.
I enjoyed this book collection of some of the best Spirit strips...except for....somebody had taken scissors and cut panels out in various places. I know I bought this used in "good" shape and the clipped panels didn't take much away from the story but dang! Why did somebody ruin a great book.

You can see the skill level in drawing and inking develop through the years plus the influence of "political correctness" as the Spirit's sidekick early on was a very stylized "StepandFetchet" with giant red lips and pretty horrible English. Later issues the sidekick is white and buck toothed....and still obnoxious. The character names remind me of Al Capp's variety used in the "Lil' Abner" strips....Sand Sarief for example.

If you enjoy comics, graphic novels (ala Frank Miller, Robert Kirkman) then check out the "daddy" of them all..the Spirit.
It's so much fun to read the old originals of these comics. Not only can you watch the art evolve over time, and compare the art of a variety of different illustrators, the dated content drops you back in time, when the good guys could escape from impenetrable prisons, dispatch the bad guys with a single punch and a jaunty "Sorry, Fritz, that's not how we do things in America, you sauerkraut-eating Nazi," and for whom the stunningly gorgeous girl villains would fall, hard. The damsels that got rescued were more wholesome... glove-and-hat-wearing girl-next-door types who'd swoon and wonder "who IS he?" Nostalgically entertaining to see a man put on a simple eye mask and go unrecognized by all - akin to Clark Kent's magic eyeglasses. I love the dated artwork, and variety of illustrators. And, not being one of those mylar-bagging classic comics fangirls, enjoy reading compendiums rather than individual comics. I can't say the Spirit is my fave "superhero," but he sure is entertaining.