Number 425
Wally Wood gets into the Spirit
The story of the last few weeks of The Spirit are told in this excellent book from Kitchen Sink Press, published in 1983. After a run of a dozen years the Spirit Section wound down, but did it with a flourish. Wally Wood stepped in, and over a script with layouts from Jules Feiffer, did a well illustrated sequence of the Spirit on the moon.
This sequence is from the original art, which I culled from one of my forays onto the Internet, pirating--errrrrr--I mean saving online artwork and comic book stories. With this you see the rich texture that Wally Wood added to every panel he drew. It didn't always come out in the printing of the era; comics were cranked out on huge high-speed web presses. But he had a lot of pride in his work and it showed. Wood also did the lettering, which like his drawing, is instantly recognizable.
As a bonus, and especially for our Spanish speaking Pappy's readers, here's a story from El Spirit #19, published in Mexico in the late 1970s.
It's too bad Frank Miller couldn't swallow his pride and simply adapt any of the excellent Spirit stories by Will Eisner into his filmed version. What they are showing in the trailers looks nothing like the Spirit to me.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I know. The movie hasn't even opened yet, but nothing about what I am seeing has me the least little bit interested in buying a ticket. Looks too much like "Sin City" to me [and I liked that movie alot; but it ain't the Spirit].
Ah, The Outer Space Spirit!! My copy of the Kitchen Sink book has seen some love, (bought around the time of it's publication)--but oh boy! Wood assisted Eisner in New York early on in his attempt to break into comics, and you can see the influence of Eisner runs deep, really knocked ol' Woodrow into shape.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these beautiful originals, pap!
(It seems, Chuck, that Rodriguez can make sacrafices to keep the integrity of Miller, but Miller can do no more than Miller-ize Eisner, and it's a shame. The upcoming Spirit flick reeks of Millerism, from the melodramatic monologue to the fukin' sneakers on his feet! I've a miind to boycott the blasted thing.)
thanks for the spanish version spirit
ReplyDeleteplease do post more "foreign language" strips if possible
this one was fabulous
no i do not speak/read spanish
peter
I'm admitting my ignorance, but didn't know there was a Spirit movie coming out! I don't read much in the fan press about upcoming comic projects or movies...I'm too busy with the musty, dusty past.
ReplyDeletePeter, I like the foreign language stuff, too, even though I don't speak or read it. Years ago I met a woman who came to the U.S. in 1947 from Germany. She learned to speak English from her American husband, but she learned to read it from comic books.
So who says comic books are sub-literate? When you try reading this you might just learn something.