And Then I Read: THE SPIRIT #1

Image © Will Eisner Studios and Dynamite.

This is the latest attempt to produce new stories about Will Eisner’s best-known creations. There have been some in the past I liked, but none that I thought could match Will Eisner’s own work. This time I thought things started well, with a recap of The Spirit’s origin, and nice introductions for Chief Dolan and his daughter Ellen, the Spirit’s love interest. But oddly, the Spirit himself doesn’t really appear in the rest of the issue. Instead the focus is on the Chief and Ellen, then the new detective team of Sammy Strunk and Ebony White trying their skills on the mean streets of Central City. They have some humorous moments, but are not a substitute for the masked man in my opinion. The art followed a similar trajectory for me, I liked it a lot in the opening sequence, but as the story went on the faces and anatomy lost focus and quality, ending up too puppet-like. I did love the lettering by Dave Lanphear, even though he’s using another new studio name, “A Larger World Studios,” so it’s unlikely anyone will know it’s him. The coloring by Brennan Wagner was also fine. Was this a case of a new artist biting off more than he could chew? I don’t know, but I can only mildly recommend it.