The Spirit
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In June of 1940 Will Eisner created The Spirit, a comic serial that appeared weekly in Sunday newspapers. This comics section contained four or five stories, each seven to eight pages long. Eisner worked as editor, but also wrote and drew many entries. The stories told in The Spirit included a wide variety of styles: crime drama, love stories, mysteries, horror, comedy, drama, and black comedy.
The strip showed similarities to both Batman and Dick Tracy, featuring colorful villains and fast-paced storytelling. The Spirit, a "middle class crimefighter", was the hero persona of young detective Denny Colt. Colt, presumed killed in the first three pages of the first serial, later revealed that he had not died, but was in suspended animation caused by one of arch-villain Dr. Cobra's experiments. When Colt awakened in Wildwood Cemetery, he established a base there and, using his newfound anonymity, began a life of fighting crime wearing only a small domino mask, blue business suit, fedora and gloves for a costume. The Spirit dispensed justice, funding his adventures with the money from his own estate and the rewards for capturing villains.
During World War II Eisner enlisted in the army. In his absence, the newspaper syndicate used ghost writers and artists to continue the strip. Many fans, however, believe the best stories are those that Will Eisner wrote and drew. Eisner developed a cinematic style; through the use of shadows and different angles of view, he drew the reader into the seedy atmosphere of his stories. The title The Spirit was usually integrated into the background or scenery of the first frame in each series.
The Spirit was based in Central City, but his adventures took him around the globe to different and exciting places. He met up with eccentrics, kooks, and beautiful but deadly women (most notably P'Gell), bringing his own form of justice to all of them. The story changed continually, but certain themes remained constant: the love between Ellen Dolan and the Spirit, the annual Christmas Spirit stories, and the Octopus (a criminal genius who was never seen, but recognized by his distinctive gloves). The Spirit also gained a sidekick, an African American named Ebony White who (especially in the beginning) was a racial stereotype typical of the era. Eisner always expressed affection for the character, but later acknowledged the unconscious racism in his depiction (although Ebony gained courage and resourcefulness as the series progressed).
The Spirit ceased publication in the 1950s, following the "Trip to the Moon" stories by Eisner and Wally Wood.
Compared to contemporary properties, The Spirit has proven highly durable as one of the most respected American comic book series from the Golden Age. Kitchen Sink Press published extensive reprints of the series, both in standard comic-book format and as trade paperbacks. Shortly before the company's demise, a revival series featured Spirit stories by many star talents.
The character was the subject of a television movie in 1986. Eisner disapproved of the movie's tone of camp parody, which resembled that of the 1960s Batman television series.
The Spirit influenced many characters that took a similar approach. Jack Cole's Midnight was intended as a simple replacement for the original during Eisner's enlistment, but took on its own life in broader stories. Steve Ditko's character The Question shared much of the urban visual tone of Eisner's work, as did Alan Moore's version of Ditko's character, the Watchmen anti-hero Rorschach. In addition, Moore's later character of Greyshirt (originally appearing in Tomorrow Stories, and later in his own limited series Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset), was a modernization of the Spirit.
[IMDB The Spirit (1987) (TV) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094017/]
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