The Spirit Archives, Vol. 2

The Spirit Archives #2

by Will Eisner

Will Eisner's classic 1940s crimefighter returns This second volume finds America about to enter World War II -- and the Spirit facing Fifth Columnists, spies and saboteurs, as well as meeting the series' first great femme fatale, Silk Satin These highly atmospheric stories, which ran weekly in newspapers, range from humorous to darkly moody.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Mystery, Comic Book, Superheroes, Thriller

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

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

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

*!* Don't skip the intro *!* I'll explain below*

The stories are very original and skillfully varied for full enjoyment. The guy (+ entire U.S.) was being increasingly shadowed by massive war and the very global characters who were awkwardly orchestrating it by the increasing the paal of highly-global war so the atmosphere sort of rubs off.

Thus, it taps one of the highest sort of impacts for the reader in such a visual media. You'll feel the genuine tension, moodiness, creepiness, suspicion and other such atmospherisms of that particular year in history as seen by Eisner which is infused -by design or otherwise- into a case of well-earned justice but squeezed into 8 pages for potency.

*Intro:
Dave Gibbons pens the best one-page preview that I've ever read <-of anything-> because he presents the myriad qualities of "The Spirit", and of Eisner's work in general peripherally, in a heart-swelling and juicy-eye fashion without using any fluff whatsoever.
->It's even heavily margined with an inset panel yet still encompasses appropriate totality of "argument"- which reads as fact since its indisputable!

Then, the simple fact that Gibbons is Brittish should be noted because it speaks even higher to the title's credit because, before these archives, it was difficult to attain in the States besides decomposing newsprint originals, scattered issues, and then the indy-publisher short-printings, a book here and there that needed to sidestep continuity for salability, all at collector prices- so think of the chronofinancial dedication that he endured to become such a hyper-literate aficionado across an ocean before the internet.

Following his student/fan-boyishness further and it's very obvious that inspiration and education from "The Spirit" must have added to the quality of his work (with Alan Moore) on what so many swear as the greatest sequential narrative of all time-> "The Watchmen"!
^^^^^

This book itself? I haven't even started it yet. I simply could not forget to applaud him in a proper emotio-detailed fashion- and I'm "currently reading" (in various degrees) over twenty books at any time, yet almost never goodreads until completion, so you better take the time to read this quick preface!

[Stewart Tame · Rating 5 out of 5]

With this volume, Eisner has finally settled in and started to explore the story space he's created more fully. The rough edges of the first volume have been polished smooth. Stories like these are why people praise the Spirit and Eisner so much. Considering the various folks who helped with The Spirit over the years (Wally Wood, Jules Feiffer, Manly Wade Wellman, etc.), having individual story credits would have been nice. Though, given the passage of time, I suppose such records may not exist, but surely some of those people still living might remember? I mention it because one of the stories, "Dusk and Twilight", feels very much like a Manly Wade Wellman story and I'm curious whether he wrote it or not. Having read all five volumes of his collected short stories, I think I've got a reasonable sense of his style and this just feels like one of his. Anyway, with volume 2 of this reprint series, Eisner has hit his stride. Excellent, excellent work!

[Óscar Trobo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi disfrute de estas primeras historias de Spirit es inversamente proporcional a las apariciones del aerocoche

[Scott Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

While these stories still aren't up to the level of the post WWII stories, they are a marked improvement over the stories in volume one. In fact, several of the stories are quite good when judged on their own merits. Of course, there are still quite a few that don't work. The stories where the Spirit stops foreign spies are especially annoying, particularly the one in Mexico which employs many ugly stereotypes. But even the worst of the stories are vastly superior to any other comics from 1941 that I've read, and there was never a dull moment. I'm looking forward to reading volume 3.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's cool to read this ground-breaking/fundamental stuff. The action and movement of the characters if really cool. It is interesting to see elements of the stories and characters develop even though it seems like the stories have a superficially episodic and dream-logic quality.
Admittedly there is a lot of object to in the racial stereotyping and the oddly ambivalent way that women are both powerful and patronized.

[Barry Haworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of Spirit stories. Very entertaining and highly recommended.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will Eisner deserves every bit of praise heaped upon him. The Spirit has all the trappings of a typical golden age comic hero, but the way Eisner played with genres and art styles, pushing the bounderies of what you could do with comic book art and helping create some of what today is the conventions of comic books.
Amazing stories from straight forward noir, to humor, to adventure, to whimsical comic booky stuff, to romance and character driven drama.
Eisner did a little bit of everything and for all his experimenting he never forgot that to tell a good story and to create a likable cast of characters.

Pure comic book magic here.

[Mark Stratton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality and variety of stories starts to improve with this volume. He first half of 1941 sees Silk Satin’s arrival in two different adventures, and Ellen Dolan starts to slowly become more than a plot device.

[Tankboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fun to see Eisner starting to hit his stride and get more inventive with the storytelling while tightening up his artistic style.

[Sylvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Spirit finally got better with new storyline and a change of tone.