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You may not have heard of Will Eisner, but you've felt his
influence and will know his name after 'The Spirit'
David
Walker
Special to MSN Movies
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Will Eisner was one of the most influential creative forces of the 20th century. Even today, 91 years after his birth and almost four years after his death, the man still has a profound impact on the world of pop culture. The problem, of course, is that the average person doesn't know who he is. But all of that will change when Eisner's most recognizable and enduring creation makes the transition to the big screen later this month in "The Spirit."
"The Spirit" is the latest comic-book-to-film adaptation, something that 20 years ago was a bit of a novelty. In recent years, movies based on comic books have become big business in Hollywood and a driving force in the world of pop culture. In 2008 alone, "Iron Man," "The Dark Knight," "Wanted," "Hellboy II," "Incredible Hulk" and "Punisher: War Zone" accounted for more than $2 billion in worldwide box-office revenue. And that doesn't include money from DVD sales and rentals, video games, and the avalanche of merchandise that ranges from action figures to breakfast cereals. In fact, comic books have become such an influential part of pop culture that it is hard to conceive of what the entertainment industry would be like without comics. It is equally difficult to conceive of what comic books would be without Will Eisner.
My introduction to Will Eisner came in 1975, shortly before my eighth birthday. I was already a devout comic book fan, but there was something markedly different about the cover of the ninth issue of "The Spirit," a magazine-sized publication that was bigger than the average comic book. I had never heard of the Spirit before that fateful day when I spotted that issue on the rack at Arthur's Drug Store in Hartford, Conn., and for that matter I had never quite seen anything like it before.
The cover of "The Spirit" No. 9 featured a superhero like no other. He was wearing a simple mask, like the one worn by the Lone Ranger, but had no fancy costume like Superman or Batman. No tights with the underwear on the outside or flowing cape. Just a blue business suit. The name of the character, the Spirit, was at the top of the cover, and he was hanging from the logo itself, courtesy of the knives that were sticking through the sleeves of his suit jacket. The Spirit had an evil-looking thug in a leg-lock chokehold, and the bad guy, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, was struggling to break free. Meanwhile, more bad guys were closing in on our hero, who looked to be fighting for his life, and I clearly remember thinking, "How is this guy gonna get out of this."
The purpose of every comic book cover ever drawn is to make someone want to pick it up and read what is inside. In that regard, the cover of a comic book must be especially compelling, in some ways more so than the contents inside, telling just enough story, mixed with just enough mystery and an element of cliffhanger, while being careful not to give away too much. And if a cover does that, like the cover of "The Spirit" No. 9 did for me, then it sells the pages that follow. But it takes a very special type of storyteller to create a cover like that one, which was compelling in 1975, and has not lost any of its impact more than three decades later. And that's what made Will Eisner a master storyteller.
Born in New York in 1917, Eisner began working as a professional cartoonist while still in his teens. This was in the early days of comics, before the creation of Superman and Batman, when a comic book was little more than a collection of reprinted cartoon strips that had previously run in newspapers. It was the tremendous popularity of Superman, who first appeared in 1938, and Batman the following year that led to an increased demand in comic books with original content.
By 1937, Eisner had partnered up with Jerry Iger to form Eisner & Iger, a studio that produced original cartoon content that was packaged in magazine format. Eisner was approached in 1939 by Quality Comics publisher Everett "Busy" Arnold, who was looking for a new costumed character to appear in his books. Selling his share of the business to Iger, Eisner went on to create a comic series that centered on slain police officer Denny Colt, who was resurrected as a masked crime fighter known as the Spirit. Nothing would ever be the same after the Spirit's creation.
"The Spirit" debuted in 1940 as a seven-page strip that was part of a weekly comic book inserted in Sunday edition newspapers nationwide. The character was far from what Arnold had been looking for when he approached Eisner. Clad in his business suit, red tie, fedora and domino mask, the Spirit look ridiculous in his simplicity, especially when compared with other contemporary crime fighters like Hawkman and the Human Torch. But the eclectic cast of characters, action, sense of humor and mix of pulp fiction writing and film noir visual aesthetics made the strip a huge hit.
Inspired by film and literature, and convinced that comics could be equally
expressive as those other mediums, Eisner used the Spirit to cultivate the
language of comic storytelling, or as he would eventually call it, "sequential
art." Taking his visual cues from film, he employed different angles and framing
techniques within his panels, played with shadow and light, and began to push
the boundaries of how ideas and information could be conveyed in comics.
Next page: More on Eisner's
influence
