Will Eisner's "The Spirit"

"The Spirit" was a comic book character created by the late Will Eisner ("The Father of the Graphic Novel") he was created in 1940 for a sunday editon 7 page comic book insert that was featured in various newspapers. although the spirit introduced some new and innovative ideas in comics(such as the first silent panel) during these early years, it was not until eisner returned from WWII that the spirit really "took off"
Eisner made these post-war spirits (spirit sections dated 12/23/1945 and up) in mind that the majority of readers were adults, with a weekly format , Eisner spent time developing his characters into believable humans who had real emotions and faced real problems and stories that matched these advanced developments (even if it meant the spirit taking a back seat to another character). and a varied genre in story types like: crime noir, political, humor, romance and combinations of all.
                         "The Spirit" was a good 40 years ahead of its time (in both panel-layout and writing) and has inspired some of the greatest comic writers and artists of all-time: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Sergio Aragones, Frank Miller and countless others.

Will Eisner also had a few co-workers in his post-war endeavors
such as background artist: Jerry Grandenetti
Shop assistant and later ghost/co-writer: Jules Feiffer
and Tight-penciler/Inker: John Spranger


"The Spirit" has been reprinted nigh countless times by such companies as Warren Publishing, Kitchen Sink Comics, and DC Comics. And continues to be considered as one of the greatest comics of all time


By 1951 Eisner's involvement in the feature was slowly dwindling, Feiffer was taking more of the writing duties and Eisner's shop was doing the primary art (with Eisner frantically retouching it.)

Eisner left the feature in 1951, not being involved in "Return of The Narcissus"(8/5/1951). Eisner returned briefly for the following week's section: "The Foxtrot Poll"(8/12/1951) before leaving once more in order to pursue his "American Visuals Corporation".
During  the following months the Spirit's quality quickly went downhill. Feiffer's scripts lacked their previous charm (only occasionally hitting the mark here and there and usually not even for a full issue) and the art (now solely handled by Eisner's shop assistants) was also rather painfully terrible.
Eisner would return with artist Wally Wood in 1952 in a bold attempt to save the feature. The "Outer Space Spirit" was this attempt starting with "Outer Space"(7/27/1952). Feiffer's scripts began showing more promise and Wood's art was incredible. Unfortunately this was not to last either. Wood was also working on several projects for EC Comics and could not keep up with the Spirit's weekly deadline, Eisner once more came back and assisted Wood as well as co-writing with Feiffer for "Heat"(8/17/1952) and "Rescue"(8/24/1952).
"Rescue" was only 4 pages long (rather then the usual 7-pager) the page-cut was permanent. The Spirit was close to the end. Wood left after "Return from the Moon"(9/28/1952). Eisner and Feiffer continued for 2 more weeks before finally ending the feature.

                                                              Will Eisner