The Spirit
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Spirit, Will Esiner's The Spirit |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Will Eisner |
| Date(s): | 1940-ongoing |
| Medium: | Comics, Television, Film |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Spirit, aka private investigator Denny Colt, is a masked crimefighter created by comic artist and writer Will Eisner. With his 1940s-era aesthetic and domino mask, the Spirit is easily recognisable as an iconic comic character and has also had a television film (1987) and a movie written and directed by Frank Miller (2008).
Canon
The Spirit was first published as a newspaper comic strip in 1940, as part of a tabloid-sized insert called "The Spirit Section" published by Register and Tribune Syndicate. The strip ran from 1940 until 1952 and was highly popular due to its experimenting with genre and tone, including horror, slapstick comedy, romance, fantasy, metafiction and science fiction. Eisner produced further stories from the 1960s to the 1980s, published by Harvey Comics, and over the years compilations of the newspaper strips and new stories (by different artists and writers) were produced by DC Comics, Dark Horse, IDW Publishing as well as other small publishers.
Characters
- Denny Colt / The Spirit: a private detective and criminologist who is buried after being believed killed by Dr. Cobra. Reviving, he and his old friend, Police Commissioner Eustace Dolan collaborate and Dolan "returns" as the Spirit, pursuing criminals the police can't reach. He has no actual super-powers, but is a master detective and outstanding hand-to-hand combat skills. Plus his apparent return from the dead generates fear in his enemies.
- Ebony White: taxi-driver and the Spirit's African-American sidekick. While his character design was certainly problematic, the other characters consistently treated him with respect by the strip's fellow cast-members, developed beyond the stereotype as the series progressed. He was phased out of the strip by 1949, with his last appearance as an adult office worker in a one-off Spirit story that appeared January 9, 1966.
- The Octopus is the archenemy of the Spirit. He is a criminal mastermind and master of disguise who never shows his real face, though he is identified by his distinctive purple gloves.
- Dr. Cobra is a mad scientist whose chemicals and machinations inadvertently help Denny Colt become the Spirit.
- P'Gell is a femme fatale who perennially tries to seduce the Spirit to a life of crime at her side.
- Officer Sam Klink is a brave, big-hearted but not particularly bright member of the Central City Police Department.
- Sand Saref is a childhood friend of Denny Colt, and knows he is the Spirit. Working in espionage, she usually ends up on the opposite side of the law from him.
- Silk Satin is a tall, statuesque brunette with a white streak in her hair, originally an adventuress who later reformed and worked as an international troubleshooter/CIA agent.
- Ellen Dolan, Commissioner Dolan's headstrong daughter and the Spirit's primary love interest,
Fanon
The Spirit is a small fandom, with most of the fanfiction on AO3 pertaining to the 2008 movie. As a "noir" fandom, it lends itself to crime stories, and also to crossovers with similar characters, such as DC's Batman or with Suits.
The comic was extremely popular with comics fans of the 1960s and 1970s, when the strips were being collected and published as comics by Harvey Comics and the release in the 1970s of Spirit Magazine by Warren Publishing. Fanart in particular was popular, with the character appearing as filler art or on covers of zines published at the time.
One of the novel things about the Spirit was that he often was not featured till the end of the strip and often only played an incidental part. His storys [sic] often had a moral. Fables and parables, wildly hilarious, dismally sad blend into the cartoon-style artwork... Another of the attractive things about the Spirit was his distinctively middle class background, which gave the most fantastic a grimly convincing atmosphere. The other thing which endeared me to the Spirit was his lack of long combinations [long johns] and cape.
...This is a special issue, featuring the Spirit's young friend and sidekick, Ebony; now that's a nice idea for a start, giving these issues themes, they plan to devote an issue to the Spirit's most memorable villainesses soon as well... But I'm sometimes not too happy about Ebony; in lesser hands, he could become a caricature. Will Eisner, though, is one of the great comics creators, and he knows how to handle his characters. His effects may not succeed every time -- but too many artists and writers never make an attempt, so even failed Spirit tales are refreshing. We need Denny Colt, the "spirit" who operates out of Wildwood Cemetery as an adventurer; he shows us something of the scope of comics. I hope this magazine goes on for years.
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Notable Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Return of the Spirit by DarkMark (2006): Will Eisner's classic masked crimefighter of the Golden Age returns in a story set just after the last "Spirit Section" in 1952. The Spirit is back from the Moon, but finds trouble as usual in Central City...and an old enemy is kidnapping his friends.
Archives
Gallery
Rocket's Blast Comicollector Issue 47 front cover by Buddy Saunders (1966)
Heroes Unlimited #6 interior art by Paul Neary, The Spectre, Deadman and The Spirit. (1968)
Front cover of Fantasy Unlimited #19 front cover by Laurence Piper (1974).
Rocket's Blast Comicollector #79 cover art by John Adkins Richardson (1971)
Comics Unlimited #45 front cover by Rafael Gonzalez Negrete (1977)
Flyer for the first Scottish Comics Convention by Tom Campbell (1985)
External Links
- "Spirit" tag at Fanfiction.net
- "The Spirit (2008)" tag at AO3 - tag for the movie
References
- ^ "Eisner" by Peter Parkin in Seminar Issue #1 (1969)
- ^ Review of The Spirit #7 (April) by Ruan Lanihorne in BEM #5, April 1975.