The Spirit Archives, Vol. 11

The Spirit Archives #11

by Will Eisner

Collects stories from classic Spirit adventures in which a murdered detective fights crime from beyond the grave.

Genres: Comic Strips, Comic Book, Comics

204 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1945

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

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eisner's back! December 23, 1945. He only does the last two stories in the book, but you can tell the difference. Even the lettering changes with his return. As Michael T. Gilbert points out in his introduction, the Spirit under Lou Fine was becoming a tired, cliched detective strip. Some stories are better than others, but most are highly implausible and fairly standard for the time period. One story stands out for me, the November 18th, 1945 installment, "Spelvin's School for Actors, " mainly due to a name Ellen drops. She laments that the Spirit is so rough and uncouth and why can't he be more refined like Kippy Van Scumwater? (I imagine Kippy's ancestors changed it from Mistwasser when they hit Ellis Island.) I'm impressed at her ability to say the name without laughing, and it's very much to the Spirit's credit that he doesn't either.

[Donovan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't really blame The Spirit for the time it came from, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. It's difficult to enjoy short, convenient, sometimes fun, somewhat entertaining stories when they're filled with heavily prejudicial caricatures like Cheesecake the sexy white woman who goes around fainting, and Ebony the idiotic, apish, big lipped, perpetually clutzy African American. Ebony straight up looks subhuman, like a stuffed animal. And The Spirit wears a thin eye mask like Zorro. How does he not get recognized? That's the trouble with reading backwards through time.

[Brandt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction by Michael T. Gilbert sets expectations from the first page on.

For those not in the know, while Will Eisner created and drew the Spirit when it first appeared, in 1942, Eisner was drafted into the Army. This precluded him from writing or drawing the strip and so a series of ghost writers and artists, most notably Lou Fine who drew the Ray and Black Condor (now DC properties) before working on The Spirit. As the strip continued, and as noted by Gilbert, the quality of The Spirit began to wane while not being stewarded by Eisner. This lack of quality was something I glossed over in my review for The Spirit Archives, vol. 9 and instead discussed the problem of the stereotypical black minstrel character of Ebony White. As I stated in that review under the stewardship of Fine, et al., The Spirit became a boilerplate detective/superhero yarn that almost always had the Spirit preternaturally figuring out the crime before the police and then turning into a gigantic punchfest at the end. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat for three year.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel. The war ended in 1945, and Eisner returned to the strip for "The Christmas Spirit" (this was the title of his Christmas Spirit strips before he was drafted--the ghost team did not continue them.) Unlike all of the previous strips in this volume (I know, I checked) the "by Will Eisner" doesn't appear until this strip. And immediately, you notice the difference. While ostensibly, The Spirit is a detective comic, Eisner was not one to be hemmed in by the parameters of what people thought he should do with comics. Eisner is decades ahead of other comics creators with The Spirit. No one would be this innovative with comics until Lee and Kirby created The Fantastic Four. It's the last strip of the volume that shows Eisner's true vision, as he brings in villains that were loose threads from right before when he left the strip and wipes the slate clean, effectively announcing that he has reclaimed The Spirit and that readers shouldn't have to worry about what came before, because he certainly wasn't.

Reading the ghost-written Spirit has become a bit of a slog for me (although I have not read volume 10 yet--that's a whole other story for another time and given what I know, I'm not looking forward to it) but seeing the last two Eisner penned strips has me excited to read Volume 12. This volume is interesting from both a historical and completist perspective, but most of the work contained therein isn't Eisner's and isn't worth getting excited about (except for the last 14 pages!)

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que suenen las fanfarrias, que vuelve Eisner, justo a tiempo de ver cómo su creación más distinguida se iba al garete a causa de unos guiones cada vez más aburridos y unas ilustraciones cada vez más académicamente perfectas, pero carentes de alma, como muy bien apunta Michael T. Gilbert en la introducción.

Eisner solo retorna en las dos últimas historias del tomo, pero vaya sí merece la pena el precio de admisión: la primera es un cuento de navidad glorioso, en el cual el maestro demuestra lo mucho que extrañaba ese tipo de relatos, y la segunda, una en la que Eisner hace borrón y cuenta nueva, soltando lastre para comenzar una nueva etapa del enmascarado que nuestros ojos verán a partir del siguiente tomo.

Comparen el resto de historias presentes en este volumen con estas dos, y prepárense para experimentar la diferencia entre la labor de unos artesanos competentes y la de un auténtico genio.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will Eisner returned to the feature with the December 23, 1945, section, a cause for celebration.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Spirit stories, from the 1940s. Some fun stuff, basic crime buster tales with a sense of humor. Eisner hadn't developed his visual style completely at this point so its just some fun stories.