Will Eisner's The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel

by Will Eisner (Illustrator), Bruce Foster (Designer)

On the dead body of a police officer the Spirit discovers a note with the name 'Sand Saref,' his lost childhood sweetheart. Saref has come to Central City peddling a deadly Nazi virus on the black market, but plans go awry when she is double-crossed by a scoundrel bent on destruction. In a twisted tale of betrayal the remorseful Spirit must bring his long-lost love to justice and find the virus before it's too late.

Born from shadow and mystery, Will Eisner's deathless hero returns in a recreation of The Spirit's final two issues. Coinciding with Frank Miller's upcoming Spirit movie, Will Eisner's The A Pop-Up Graphic Novel spins a noir tale of blackmail, murder, and espionage innovatively crafted into seven full-color pop-up spreads. Reborn, The Spirit breaks out of the conventional comic book frame, animating the vigor and dynamism of Eisner's original vision. Designed by renowned paper engineer Bruce Foster (creator of The Pop-up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns and designer of the Caldecott nominated Little Red Riding Hood ) Will Eisner's The A Pop-Up Graphic Novel comes alive with expansive panoramic cityscapes, three-dimensional action sequence pop-outs, frame-by-frame expanding mini-booklets, and scene change pullouts. Re-colored and ingeniously renovated, the novel design animates the vigorous action of the Spirit's final exploits with an inventiveness merited by Eisner's original imagination. From the noir aficionado to the comic zealot, fans will celebrate this renaissance of Eisner's masterpiece, heralding the interactive ingenuity of a new format for sequential art.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

16 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2008

About the author

William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an awesome idea to make a comic into a pop-up book! This book combines the last two of Eisner's Spirit comics and re-formats them for pop-up fantasticness; complete with pull-out tabs that do things like make people smooch. Genius!

The story itself was pretty so-so. A noir Dick Tracy kinda crime story. I'd never read an Eisner comic before and felt like I really should, so when I saw this, I had to buy it! I don't know if I'll go out of my way to read any more Eisner, it doesn't look like he's my style, but you never know, maybe something will fall into my lap that will totally change my mind...

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars! ★★★★★
From a 30-something year old woman who loves comics but knew nothing about the spirit or Will Eisner , this was one cute comic turned pop-up book. Every page had a few pop-up art with pull-me tabs or flip-through mini comic. very fun little book filled with a tragic tale of the Spirit’s long lost love turning to a life of crime only to leave him once more, because she feared he’d turn her in. Very Mafia-Noir meets cops/murder mystery. For a short comic inspired pop-up book, this was fun. Very detailed and intricate artwork. If you like the spirit comics (similar to The Saint tv series) you’ll like this.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read very little of Eisner’s The Spirit, but this is a very fun translation to the pop-up book format.