Possibly the greatest comic book of all time was The Spirit, created by Will Eisner. It was unique in a lot of ways, including the fact that it originally appeared as a supplement in Sunday newspapers and not on a spinner rack in the corner store. But much more than its singular system of distribution, it was quite possibly the most imaginatively drawn strip from the Golden Age (the 1940s), very cinematic in its layout and story-telling. The Spirit was no superhero, though he wore a mask and fought crime; his adventures took him all over the globe and even once into space (during the sci-fi craze of the fifties). What really strikes me about those stories is how funny they could be in parodying certain conventions of the crime-fighting genre-- oh yeah, and Eisner also drew these really exotic and beautiful femmes fatale. I first discovered the character in Jules Feiffer's wonderful collection The Great Comic Book Heroes, but really got a chance to relish Eisner's creation when the old stories were collected in a series published by Warren in the 1970s. Over at this web-site, you can find full versions of a couple of stories that were reprinted in the first Warren issue. Enjoy.p.s. You may know that a movie version of The Spirit came out last year. I didn't get a chance to see it, but if anyone did, feel free to leave your review in the comments.
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