The Spirit

My initial reaction to The Spirit was...well, I’m not really sure. I liked it, I suppose. I didn’t dislike it, at least. I can certainly see why Eisner is credited with so much in the comics industry – for something that was written in the ‘40s, there was quite a lot of experimentation going on in this comic. The various points of view/perspectives, for example, and the way he drew the splash pages. The stories themselves were more than just simple plots to follow from issue to issue. Eisner said in one of the posted interviews that he was trying to reach an adult audience, and the stories definitely show that. Ones that especially come to mind are “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,” “Two Lives,” “Wild Rice,” and “Satin” (the part at the end where the Spirit shreds the evidence says a lot about his character/feelings for Satin). So, yeah. Eisner was awesome and there’s a lot to be learned from what he did in The Spirit, that much is evident. And I’d certainly read it again. But...I don’t know, I guess I just wasn’t blown out of the water about it.