Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth

Marvel Graphic Novel #63

by Charles Vess

Spirits of the Earth ([Marvel graphic novel])

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Spider Man, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Fantasy

80 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Charles was born in 1951 in Lynchburg, Virginia and has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. He drew his first full-length comic when he was 10 and called it "Atomic Man." Minimalist in nature, it required no drawing of hands, feet or heads ("they just glowed"). Since then, he has painstakingly drawn thousands of hands, feet, and heads in great detail. Charles graduated with a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and worked in commercial animation for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond, Va., before moving to New York City in 1976. It was there that he became a freelance illustrator, working for many publications including Heavy Metal, Klutz Press, and National Lampoon. His award-winning work has graced the pages of numerous comic book, publishers such as Marvel, DC, Darkhorse and Epic. He has been featured in several gallery and museum exhibitions across the nation, including the first major exhibition of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art (New Britain Museum of American Art, 1980) and "Dreamweavers" (William King Regional Arts Center, 1994-95). In 1991, Charles shared the prestigious World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story with Neil Gaiman for their collaboration on Sandman #19 (DC Comics) --- the first and only time a comic book has held this honor. In the summer of 1997, Charles won the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best Penciler/Inker for his work on The Book of Ballads and Sagas (which he self-publishes through his own Green Man Press) as well as Sandman #75. Soon after Charles finished the last of 175 paintings for Stardust, a novel written by Neil Gaiman, for which he was given the 1999 World Fantasy Award as Best Artist.

In 2002 Charles won a second Will Eisner award, this time as Best Painter for his work on Rose, a 130-page epic fantasy saga written by Cartoon Books' Jeff Smith. The year continued to be busy for Charles with the publication of Seven Wild Sisters (Subterranean Press) and The Green Man, Tales from the Mythic Forest (Viking), both utilizing cover art and interior b/w illustrations by the artist, and both making the 2003 American Library Association's list for Best Books for Young Adults! By the end of the year he had completed 28 paintings for his first children's picture book, A Circle of Cats, done in collaboration with writer Charles de Lint (Viking). This cover art won the Gold Award for Best Book Art in the 10th annual "Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art" even before it was officially published. A new edition of Peter Pan (Tor/Starscape) featuringa cover as well as over 30 b/w interior illustrations by Vess was released this past Fall. Another collaboration with de Lint, Medicine Road (Subterranean Press) and the YA anthology,The Faery Reel (Viking ) will be arriving this Spring and he is currently hard at work producing drawings for several new books, including, A Storm of Swords (MeishaMerlin), the 25th anniversary edition of Moonheart (Subterranean Press) and a graphic novel collection of his ballads material for Tor.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

"So Mary Jane and I are going to take a second honeymoon next week . . . we received a letter from one of [her] relatives . . . she left us her property in Scotland." -- Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man

This was one odd entry in the wall-crawler's collection of graphic novels, with a mystery plot more reminiscent of those 70's-era Hanna-Barbera cartoon series (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?!, Speed Buggy, Josie & the Pussycats, etc.) which used to populate the Saturday morning airwaves than a 'Marvel'-ous (see what I did there?) super-heroic storyline. Except for the quick opening and closing scenes, the action was largely non-existent and the excessive expositionary dialogue was uninspired and/or very boring. I can appreciate author/artist Charles Vess was attempting something a little different here with Spider-Man stuck in rural Scotland for a week, but it just wasn't for me.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel both written and illustrated by Vess, one of the finest fantasy artists of the last century. These days Marvel seems to collect a random handful of comics issues without regard to continuity or provenance and toss them back out on the shelves with a "graphic novel" label on the cover, but Vess's Spider-Man adventure from 1990 is a true and exemplary example of the form. Peter and Mary Jane, happily married as God and Stan always intended, travel to Scotland where they encounter much magic and mayhem. Web-slinging across the moors isn't at all the same as swinging through Manhattan. The appearance of the Hellfire Club seems a little weak, and editor Jim Salicrup should have refrained from his annoying footnotes that translate Scottish into American, but it's a fine story and the book is lovely to leaf through and look at without even needing to read. Pure dead brilliant... excelsior!

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm here for Vess's pen line and his watercolors - and at times this book does look great. But most of it is a bit bland. And the story... and the dialogue... it was a chore to get through. Almost worth flipping through to see some of the really well illustrated pages.

The story is so silly. Spider-man is in Scotland. At one point he's surprised this old wise woman knows Spider-man is Peter Parker. But like, he's the only American in town and Spider-man is doing all his typical wise-cracks... so wouldn't everyone know? Hey this American couple is in town from NYC and suddenly also Spider-man. Odd!

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice Halloween read. I had read it years ago, but I'm glad I re-read it because I didn't remember it very well. This one is set is Scotland, and Charles Vess painted it after (during?) spending a month there. He really seems to have a done a good job at capturing the flavor of the old country. Very gorgeous painted art.

The story isn't bad either as we have tales of goblins and ghosts on the moors. For some reason the appearance of the Hellfire Club just didn't seem to fit for me, so that brought the book down just a tad. In defense of the story, however, he at least did have a logical reason for the Hellfire Club to show up, I just didn't think they fit into the story that well.

Overall, a very good Spider-Man graphic novel.

[Marc Pastor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Història plena de clixès, tics masclistes i un malvat ridícul. L'art de Vess sembla místic i allunya Spider-man del seu habitual traç urbà (i l'home aranya està molt ben dibuixat), però quan entres en detalls és un desastre horrible, sense cap mena de sentit per les proporcions humanes i ple d'aberracions anatòmiques.
Una curiositat i prou que s'allarga massa.

[Baal Of · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seems I am in agreement with a lot of the reviews here. The writing is weak, the story muddled with an attempt to mix ancient legends of faeries and ghosts, with a modern magic of a giant crystal in an unbelievably massive underground cavern system, and then let's bring in the Hell Fire club for good measure. The result is incoherent and messy, and the mostly pretty artwork is not enough to rescue it. Vess's backgrounds are beautiful, but like with many comic book artists, his people are occasionally grotesque, especially the kid who is quite ugly (3rd page from the end for example). Spiderman on the first page is hilariously dainty looking with his ballet position pointed toes, and also a bit weird with a jutting butt. In fact anyone who talks about the sexualized poses of female characters should have a browse through this book to see the same kind of thing done with Spiderman, not that I think it's intentional, but it is rather amusing. I think I can go ahead and clear this one off my shelf.

[Jess Bragg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun stories, nothing earth-shaking but fun for a Spidey fan!

[Spencer Borup · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous illustrations, but very weak writing.

[Erick Carvalho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Homem-Aranha na Escócia? Por que não? Belos desenhos.

[Shevek · Rating 3 out of 5]

En general, me suelen gustar las historias en las que se saca a los personajes de su contexto habitual. En este caso, se traslada a Spiderman, cuyo hábitat natural es la ciudad, al campo escocés. La premisa y el guion no son especialmente sólidos: se plantean elementos de folclore y leyendas que podrían haber dado su jugo, pero no están lo suficientemente desarrollados. La explicación acaba teniendo que ver con una organización bien conocida del Universo Marvel, lo cual tiene su gracia, pero rompe por completo con el tono más íntimo y de a pie que se mostraba inicialmente. El resultado se queda a mitad de camino y no acaba de funcionar. El dibujo sí que está a un nivel más alto, resultando atractivo por situar a Spiderman en un entorno tan abierto y con una paleta de color tan distinta al gris habitual de la ciudad.

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this is obviously a labour of love for writer/illustrator Vess (the best part of it might be his essay at the end, discussing the origin and inspiration for the book) and the art style is at times, stunning, the actual story feels weirdly incoherent and messy. Seeing Spider-Man completely out of his element, having to walk everywhere because there are no tall buildings in rural Scotland to swing off, is an intriguing idea but the execution is seriously lacking. The locals feel like caricatures, the actual mystery is terribly Scooby Doo-ish (until it greats wildly overblown, at least) and very little actually happens for the first three quarters of the book. An oddity and a disappointment, but a very pretty one, at least.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo primero que me llamó la atención de este libro es lo limpio que es el coloreado. Me recuerda un poco a Longbow Hunters y eso es algo bueno. El escritor maneja bien las personalidades de Mary Jane y Peter Parker y los demás los inventó él. El relato va bastante bien hasta que aparece el villano. El problema no es que es un loco sediento de poder, sino el cómo se conto su origen y motivación. Esa exposición se la dejo a los predecibles villanos de Disney. Pero al final la acción compensa mis problemas con el libro, particularmente por cómo el autor, además de manejar las personalidades de los ya mencionados, también domina la agilidad y gracia del Hombre Araña.

[Jorge Figueroa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hay buenas razones para que las cuatro novelas de este compendio no sean mencionadas con frecuencia, en realidad, nunca, se puede vivir muy bien sin este material, es más, es mejor no conocerlas, la primera "hooky" , es, como el resto, muy de su tiempo, junto a Spirits of the earth, en la que se nota algo de afecto, lo único rescatable de este tomo.
Fear Itself es lo peor que te puede pasar.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eesh. Did not age well. The first of the four graphic novels has really pretty art, but the story is... It's probably better to just read the newer redone versions of Spider-man. These are just a little weak. Classics in a way, but more like a classic you admire from a distance, respecting the way it paved while appreciated the path that came afterwords.

[Rockito · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine but this should had been a shorter back issue of Amazing Spider-Man or whatever series he had at the moment because the story is not anything spectacular aside from having Charles Vess, who doesn't really shine much here aside from a couple of stand out sequences.

I guess it's fine if you find this cheap or are a hardcore Spidey collector, but there's better stuff out there.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork, but weak story.

[MetaComix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very boring story, too bad because the art is great and was ahead of it's time.

[Robert McCallum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Coming from Scotland I wanted to like this book but it just didn’t do it for me.

[Tim Rooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is lovely. Gorgeous painted art, a fun Scooby Doo plot, and so much romance between Pete and MJ.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous artwork with a really fun fish out of water plot for thee ole webhead.

[Sezer Turgay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh,koleksiyonda bi Charles Vess olsun diye tutacağım ama bir daha okumam

[Leo Horovitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't know who Charles Vess was but after reading this album, both written and illustrated by him, I now know what he should be: an illustrator, and nothing else. Actually, I'll limit that even further, he should illustrate environments, and nothing else. The landscapes are beautiful, he has a real sense for the dramatic and also for small details, but the characters look extremely stiff, the heads are often misshapen and the facial expressions are all but nonexistent. He does manage to do a great job depicting Spider-Man in costume though, with all that flailing of limbs and weird positions that has become almost mandatory ever since Todd McFarlane, and I must praise him for that. But where at least some aspects of his illustrations have depth and come alive, the story is just as flat and yawn-inspiring as the the faces of Peter, Mary Jane, and all the other seeming puppets. There just is no drama, no build up, no excitement in the story at all. One would think that the dark brooding, inspiring landscapes would help the reader get drawn into the story, but sadly, I felt completely uninterested in how it would all end, I just kept turning page after page and wondering who these people claiming to be Peter and Mary-Jane Parker really were, what they had done to the originals, and why I should care about their fate in this utterly boring story. Sad to say, this one is a Spider-Man story that you should not bother with, as opposed to the vast majority of albums featuring my favorite hero in tights.

[Ali alhusainy · Rating 2 out of 5]

the stars only for the great art , the story is meh at best .

[D.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of the 'graphic novels' starring Spider-Man perfectly depict why Marvel never really 'got it' in the 90s: they just couldn't grow up. While DC and the indies were willing to do mature, interesting stories with their characters and others, Marvel thought they just needed to do thicker books and hire new artists. There are four books in here ('Hooky,' 'Parallel Lives,' 'Spirits of the Earth' and 'Fear Itself'), and they're all basically longer versions of typical Spidey stories, albeit with better art in a couple cases. And that's fine, since I checked this out of the library for my recently Spidey-addicted 5-year-old daughter. She enjoyed it, and that about fits.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give it 3 1/2 stars. The story was pretty good, the artwork was great in some spots but only okay in others (sometimes the faces look weird). The landscapes are spectacular, and it's wild to see Spidey in such an unusual setting. This is definitely a lost treasure from the days when superhero graphic novels were not as big a deal as they are now. You can still get it cheap on Ebay, too! I got mine for 5 bucks!

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles Vess is a great artist, Charles Vess can also be a very good writer (see his Balads sagas).
In the case of this book, the art is pretty much awesome as awesome can be.
Sadly, the story falls short. The story seems to want to pander to the regular Marvel Universe Zombie that requires the division between the really good guy and the really bad ones.
Oh well, I've read it once... the following times where I took this book off the shelf, I settled for just looking at the incredible art.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Vess is a great artist, Charles Vess can also be a very good writer (see his Balads sagas).
In the case of this book, the art is pretty much awesome as awesome can be.
Sadly, the story falls short. The story seems to want to pander to the regular Marvel Universe Zombie that requires the division between the really good guy and the really bad ones.
Oh well, I've read it once... the following times where I took this book off the shelf, I settled for just looking at the incredible art

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

La storia non è un granché, in fondo. L'Uomo Ragno in Scozia, non rende. Ma i disegni, signori, che disegnatore che è Vess. Ci sono alcune tavole che da sole valgono l'intero prezzo della Graphic Novel.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork, as one would expect from Charles Vess, is beautiful. Unfortunately the story and characters aren't as enthralling, and the dialogue is a little stilted. It's not bad, and if you like stories that take Spider-Man out of his element, this is likely to appeal to you.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

a case of where overwhelming gorgeous artwork adds an extra star to the review
:)