I must admit that the Spirit by Will Eisner is completely new thing for me. And I ‘ve just learnt about it through your video. 🙏 thanks . I will definitely catch up on the excellent pieces of comic book art by Eisner.
Nice concise tour of Will Eisner's Spirit books plus some. I'm surprised that all those recent issues with new covers aren't cherished more by collectors. The man has an award named after him for god sake! It does offer an inexpensive buying opportunity. I did make it through the end, Good video it was.
Thanks for the comments and thanks for making it to the end. You are right about those covers! But I'm glad, selfishly, that not many pay attention to them...this reminds me that I have a few more of those still to hunt down! I have to guess that the complexities of the Spirit's publication and republication over the years keeps a lot of it out of view of modern collectors and speculators...while he maintains a position of incredible influence over professionals in the field.
Nice video. I collected a whole heap of stuff down the years, many of them signed. Kitchen Sink published a bunch of other Spirit collections - there's one of the Wally Wood Outer Space Spirit, a tabloid sized colouring book, and a pop-up hardback. They released a promo mask and hat cardboard cut out, and a 12" picture disc of the 'Ev'ry Little Bug' song from various stories, and a soap-opera radio style drama. Loads of other things to collect, too, like portfolios, postcard sets, etc.
I’ve seen some of those and am glad to learn about other things that weren’t on my radar. Thanks. I’m undecided whether to pursue everything, like the pop up and the coloring book.
This is amazing! This reminded me of my early comics collecting experiences. I loved Mad Magazine at a very young age for the interiors - cartoon realism art. But I had no clue who the artists were. It’s no coincidence that later in life, EC Comics had become my favourite publisher and comics to collect. And also be the place of birth of my favourite artists. I love your newspaper strip collection. I have some early The Phantom and Superman strips, but I have not found any Spirit around. The Warren magazine format is my favourite as well. I have a few, too. And I have a ton of the Kitchen Sink comic sized ones. The covers are just NUTS to look at. I can’t picture an Eddie Campbell interpretation of The Spirit. But I can see Mike Alred capturing the Eisner/Spirit charm the best. Take a bow, Damian. Best video ever!
Mad magazine is probably very influential on generations of readers/comics fans...much more than we all realize...I suspect I was reading it before I discovered superheroes...but my memories of the timeline are fuzzy. It something we all took too much for granted...
Very cool collection! I wish I had a piece of the original art! 🙌🙌. I’ve got about 130 or so of the original sections and about 30 of those are tabloids. And several of the archives and other misc reprints. All great stuff! Great collection!
I knew you had a lot of Spirit, but this is amazing. It would be interesting one day to make a series of videos discussing how writers and artists interpreted Eisner's iconic character. Great Collection, D:)
The Spirit is something I never bothered collecting, even though it was something they shoved in my face. The Brazilians published the Kitchen Sink repackaged magazines and advertised the hell out of them. Editora Abril did a good job promoting things they thought were of higher literary caliber, and they had a holy trinity of authors they liked, Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Will Eisner. They even published The Building in their Graphic Novel series, between Batman: Son of the Demon and Metalzoic. But they missed out on getting the rights to Contract with God.
I will try not to push the Spirit in anyone's face. Not everyone is going to be enchanted by these stories as I was. I had the advantage of stumbling across him before there was much hype and develop my own relationship with the work.
I'm more interested in Eisner now then I was back then. I was barely 12, and soon after the Image guys were the hottest thing around so it took me a while until I was interested in Eisner. It ended up being the graphic novels that made me understand Eisner better. The first one I read was Dropsie Avenue.
I’m not surprised. I personally will never buy anything I can’t page through. Comics will always be paper time machines to me. But i can understand the urge to preserve them…
There's alway more comics history to catch up on! The new Clover Press collection I show at the end might be a good way to dive in...or a used copy of one of the DC trades. Best of all, if you're lucky enough to stumble across them reasonably priced would be an issue or two of the old Warren mag reprints.
If you have an Ollie's store nearby, you might find Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel by Levitz at $6.99. There are a couple of '80s Ken Pierce books of Lady Luck in b & w that are worth seeking out. Thanks for the nice video.
I wish I had Ollies in my area. I paid considerably more for my copy of the Levitz book. It's a beauty. I'll have tp look into the lady luck books- thanks for the heads up!
Great video, thanks for sharing your collection! I have many of the same issues you have; my pride and joy are my Warren and Kitchen Sink magazine Spirits. However, you didn't cover the Spirit Dailies, do you have them?
Teenage Kubert was an inker on the Spirit in the 40's. I was pretty young myself at an Orlando convention where Eisner gave a slide show on his upcoming Contract With God. I was hawking a bizarre 6x9" book that tried to combine a play script with comic book style illustrations to attempt a new kind of graphic story. Eisner asked me to autograph a copy for him, flipped through it and, half-kidding, said (referring to the dimensions of it) "You stole my format".
Thats amazing that you tied Eisner in the development of the graphic novel! ;) I never heard mention of that Kubert connection before. I wonder if that was during the war years or working directly with Eisner himself.
@@sleepyreader666 Wikipedia says Kubert was there 1943-44, which is non-Eisner. Kubert may have been inking Lou Fine, an obvious influence on his earliest work. I highly recommend the Comic Book Plus site, where you can see a lot of his old comics. They also have the Quality and Fiction House Spirits, which seem to reprint a lot of inferior stuff, probably because of when they came out.
One person to feel sorry for: ME! I started out with the first two volumes of the DC Archives and IMMEDIATELY flipped ‘em. There were hints of the later Eisner, but it was mostly too-dense Golden Age-style art with expression-free characters!!
@@ComicBookCovers Sorry about that. I imagine a lot of people who heard that the Spirit was a classic paid good money for those early volumes and threw their hands up in despair. And really the printing on those books, despite the archival paper, did not help much.
It's not my favorite of the Eisner focused books, but it's a very nice volume...it reprints Eisner and non-Eisner work. I wonder if Will Eisner the Centennial Celebration from Dark Horse is easy to get a hold of...
I must admit that the Spirit by Will Eisner is completely new thing for me. And I ‘ve just learnt about it through your video. 🙏 thanks . I will definitely catch up on the excellent pieces of comic book art by Eisner.
I hope you find a few good Spirit collections or mags. As I mentioned, ones originally published 1945 and after are the best. Cheers!
Still watching. Such a great overview of spirit publishing over the decades. This is super helpful as a collectors guide.
Really loving this video!
Thanks Sean. I was hoping it would give people a sense of what was out there and how to find some of more core Eisner reads...
Nice concise tour of Will Eisner's Spirit books plus some. I'm surprised that all those recent issues with new covers aren't cherished more by collectors. The man has an award named after him for god sake! It does offer an inexpensive buying opportunity.
I did make it through the end, Good video it was.
Thanks for the comments and thanks for making it to the end. You are right about those covers! But I'm glad, selfishly, that not many pay attention to them...this reminds me that I have a few more of those still to hunt down! I have to guess that the complexities of the Spirit's publication and republication over the years keeps a lot of it out of view of modern collectors and speculators...while he maintains a position of incredible influence over professionals in the field.
Nice video. I collected a whole heap of stuff down the years, many of them signed. Kitchen Sink published a bunch of other Spirit collections - there's one of the Wally Wood Outer Space Spirit, a tabloid sized colouring book, and a pop-up hardback. They released a promo mask and hat cardboard cut out, and a 12" picture disc of the 'Ev'ry Little Bug' song from various stories, and a soap-opera radio style drama. Loads of other things to collect, too, like portfolios, postcard sets, etc.
I’ve seen some of those and am glad to learn about other things that weren’t on my radar. Thanks. I’m undecided whether to pursue everything, like the pop up and the coloring book.
This is amazing! This reminded me of my early comics collecting experiences. I loved Mad Magazine at a very young age for the interiors - cartoon realism art. But I had no clue who the artists were. It’s no coincidence that later in life, EC Comics had become my favourite publisher and comics to collect. And also be the place of birth of my favourite artists.
I love your newspaper strip collection. I have some early The Phantom and Superman strips, but I have not found any Spirit around. The Warren magazine format is my favourite as well. I have a few, too. And I have a ton of the Kitchen Sink comic sized ones. The covers are just NUTS to look at. I can’t picture an Eddie Campbell interpretation of The Spirit. But I can see Mike Alred capturing the Eisner/Spirit charm the best. Take a bow, Damian. Best video ever!
Mad magazine is probably very influential on generations of readers/comics fans...much more than we all realize...I suspect I was reading it before I discovered superheroes...but my memories of the timeline are fuzzy. It something we all took too much for granted...
Very cool collection! I wish I had a piece of the original art! 🙌🙌. I’ve got about 130 or so of the original sections and about 30 of those are tabloids. And several of the archives and other misc reprints. All great stuff! Great collection!
130, wow! That's really cool.
Sadly the original art gets further and further out of reach, financially...
@@sleepyreader666 yeah, I love the sections. They’re a lot of fun. But yeah, unfortunately that art is so far out of my range it’s not even funny
Eisner taught at The School of Visual arts (SVA) in Manhattan. The school started out its life as "The Cartoonists and Illustrators School."
Thanks Jared. It sounds like it would be an amazing place to go to school!
@@sleepyreader666 I know a couple of people who had him as a teacher and they loved him.
I knew you had a lot of Spirit, but this is amazing. It would be interesting one day to make a series of videos discussing how writers and artists interpreted Eisner's iconic character. Great Collection, D:)
That’s not a bad idea...it would be fun...if I find the time :)
The Spirit is something I never bothered collecting, even though it was something they shoved in my face. The Brazilians published the Kitchen Sink repackaged magazines and advertised the hell out of them. Editora Abril did a good job promoting things they thought were of higher literary caliber, and they had a holy trinity of authors they liked, Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Will Eisner. They even published The Building in their Graphic Novel series, between Batman: Son of the Demon and Metalzoic. But they missed out on getting the rights to Contract with God.
I will try not to push the Spirit in anyone's face. Not everyone is going to be enchanted by these stories as I was. I had the advantage of stumbling across him before there was much hype and develop my own relationship with the work.
I'm more interested in Eisner now then I was back then. I was barely 12, and soon after the Image guys were the hottest thing around so it took me a while until I was interested in Eisner. It ended up being the graphic novels that made me understand Eisner better. The first one I read was Dropsie Avenue.
They are now grading the Spirit Sunday comic sections by CGC..
I’m not surprised. I personally will never buy anything I can’t page through. Comics will always be paper time machines to me. But i can understand the urge to preserve them…
Good morning Sleepy. Thanks for the vid.
I think this was a very early morning? Hopefully the rest of the day went well!
I need to read more of The Spirit. I just started catching up with Will Eisner stuff recently. That's a blindspot I need to fix.
There's alway more comics history to catch up on!
The new Clover Press collection I show at the end might be a good way to dive in...or a used copy of one of the DC trades. Best of all, if you're lucky enough to stumble across them reasonably priced would be an issue or two of the old Warren mag reprints.
Yeah I've felt this way for awhile when D talks about The Spirit. But this video lays out some good possible entrance points.
If you have an Ollie's store nearby, you might find Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel by Levitz at $6.99. There are a couple of '80s Ken Pierce books of Lady Luck in b & w that are worth seeking out. Thanks for the nice video.
I wish I had Ollies in my area. I paid considerably more for my copy of the Levitz book. It's a beauty. I'll have tp look into the lady luck books- thanks for the heads up!
I found “volume 3 July 6 to December 28 , 1941” - spirit book at ollies for 10 bucks last week
@@sleepyreader666beautiful book for any collector if you don’t have it
Great video, thanks for sharing your collection! I have many of the same issues you have; my pride and joy are my Warren and Kitchen Sink magazine Spirits. However, you didn't cover the Spirit Dailies, do you have them?
I have two comic book style collections of the dailies and plumb forgot to include them!
Teenage Kubert was an inker on the Spirit in the 40's. I was pretty young myself at an Orlando convention where Eisner gave a slide show on his upcoming Contract With God. I was hawking a bizarre 6x9" book that tried to combine a play script with comic book style illustrations to attempt a new kind of graphic story. Eisner asked me to autograph a copy for him, flipped through it and, half-kidding, said (referring to the dimensions of it) "You stole my format".
Thats amazing that you tied Eisner in the development of the graphic novel! ;)
I never heard mention of that Kubert connection before. I wonder if that was during the war years or working directly with Eisner himself.
@@sleepyreader666 Wikipedia says Kubert was there 1943-44, which is non-Eisner. Kubert may have been inking Lou Fine, an obvious influence on his earliest work. I highly recommend the Comic Book Plus site, where you can see a lot of his old comics. They also have the Quality and Fiction House Spirits, which seem to reprint a lot of inferior stuff, probably because of when they came out.
@@russworks2882 Thanks. I’ll check that out!
Sleepy !
Hey hey Mr McDuck!
WILL EISNER LIVES
Forever my friend, forever.
One person to feel sorry for: ME! I started out with the first two volumes of the DC Archives and IMMEDIATELY flipped ‘em. There were hints of the later Eisner, but it was mostly too-dense Golden Age-style art with expression-free characters!!
Or I should say characters too teeny to have an expression!!
@@ComicBookCovers Sorry about that. I imagine a lot of people who heard that the Spirit was a classic paid good money for those early volumes and threw their hands up in despair. And really the printing on those books, despite the archival paper, did not help much.
Is the out of print best of 75th anniversary of the spirit HC by DC worth hunting down?
It's not my favorite of the Eisner focused books, but it's a very nice volume...it reprints Eisner and non-Eisner work. I wonder if Will Eisner the Centennial Celebration from Dark Horse is easy to get a hold of...
Good morning!!!
Great collection bruddah! Thanks for sharing. I think I prefer black and white for the spirit it adds to the noir ascetic and heightens the drama
@@NerdtasticNews Great point...it really works with the subject matter!
Paul Pope !? Ill buy
Who looks just like the Spirit..
You’re welcome 😉
Did you know about the knockoff character called Midnight ?
I vaguely remember him! I think somehow eventually DC gained ownership of the character- if memory serves saw him in a few DC obscure books.
Which of those volumes is your favorite? 1 or 2? Thx!
A very slight edge to volume one of those artist editions....but it's not an easy choice :)
Why is The Spirit # 22 worth so much money... Because of the classic cover ?
I didn’t know it was particularly valuable!
Well this video just cost a few dollars. But I forgive you.
Not use to adds. Hurts
Did ads show up on this video? I'm not monetized. Always wonder how many ads they put on my vids. (I pay for the ad free yt, so don't see them myself)