Regrettable lack of Denny Colt icon
Apr. 27th, 2009 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tilly_stratfordEg har folda mine hender
Spilt blod, knekt tenner
Nå sitt eg her
Every time I take a break from reading The Spirit, I always remember it as just some camp entertainment suitable for unwinding after a long day of school.
And sure that enters into it, but each time I pick it up again I'm surprised by how astonishingly engaging and well-made it is. Yesterday I read the story 'Showdown with the Octopus' from 1947 and I was literally holding my breath. When the Octopus fired a shot straight through the Spirit's hand I winced, which is not something I do even at modern comics.
It's refreshing to read a hero comic where the creator obviously isn't head over heels in love with his own creation. Though Eisner obviously respected his comic hero, he would let the Spirit be wrong about things, or guilty of not paying attention to vital details. He gets beaten up and framed and shot, and of course he always recovers eventually, but Eisner keeps you guessing for as long as humanly possible.
For example, at the end of 'Showdown with the Octopus' the Spirit is rendered blind. Of course I thought things would be back to the status quo by the next week's issue. They weren't. The Spirit was still blind. And the week after that. And the week after, and the Spirit was even started to sink into a depression...
Although there was no doubt in my mind that the Spirit's eyes would heal (and they did), I was just caught so flatfooted by having my expectations proved wrong. Brilliant storytelling.
There's also something entertaining about the cartoon logic that while nobody recognizes The Spirit when he's got sunglasses on (the Clark Kent effect), everybody knows who he is when he shows up with a bandage over his eyes.
Oh, and browsing through the comics shop today, I noticed they had stocked a copy of Darwyn Cooke's first volume of modern Spirit comics. Very excited at this. Looking forward to reading them one day, when I've exhausted the Eisner collection at the library.
There are three good reasons I look forward to Cooke's Spirit:
1. People say they're actually very good and fun and tongue in cheek like The Spirit ought to be.
2. Covers like this (Strong, capable female characters, that's The Spirit I know!)
3. I've mentioned it before, but the Spirit teams up with Batman for an issue. The Spirit and Batman. How can that possibly not be the greatest, funniest thing in the entire world?
In non-vigilante news, the new Kaizers Orchestra album was released today. So far I like about half of it, we'll see if the rest grows on me (it usually does when it comes to Kaizers). Just four days until I see them live, and just two days until they come to Bergen to do a signing.
And yet, while I was sitting at the library researching the martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria for my term paper, what song was continually playing in my mind? This. damn. thing. Sometimes I want to ask my subconcious a big dubya tee eff.
Spilt blod, knekt tenner
Nå sitt eg her
Every time I take a break from reading The Spirit, I always remember it as just some camp entertainment suitable for unwinding after a long day of school.
And sure that enters into it, but each time I pick it up again I'm surprised by how astonishingly engaging and well-made it is. Yesterday I read the story 'Showdown with the Octopus' from 1947 and I was literally holding my breath. When the Octopus fired a shot straight through the Spirit's hand I winced, which is not something I do even at modern comics.
It's refreshing to read a hero comic where the creator obviously isn't head over heels in love with his own creation. Though Eisner obviously respected his comic hero, he would let the Spirit be wrong about things, or guilty of not paying attention to vital details. He gets beaten up and framed and shot, and of course he always recovers eventually, but Eisner keeps you guessing for as long as humanly possible.
For example, at the end of 'Showdown with the Octopus' the Spirit is rendered blind. Of course I thought things would be back to the status quo by the next week's issue. They weren't. The Spirit was still blind. And the week after that. And the week after, and the Spirit was even started to sink into a depression...
Although there was no doubt in my mind that the Spirit's eyes would heal (and they did), I was just caught so flatfooted by having my expectations proved wrong. Brilliant storytelling.
There's also something entertaining about the cartoon logic that while nobody recognizes The Spirit when he's got sunglasses on (the Clark Kent effect), everybody knows who he is when he shows up with a bandage over his eyes.
Oh, and browsing through the comics shop today, I noticed they had stocked a copy of Darwyn Cooke's first volume of modern Spirit comics. Very excited at this. Looking forward to reading them one day, when I've exhausted the Eisner collection at the library.
There are three good reasons I look forward to Cooke's Spirit:
1. People say they're actually very good and fun and tongue in cheek like The Spirit ought to be.
2. Covers like this (Strong, capable female characters, that's The Spirit I know!)
3. I've mentioned it before, but the Spirit teams up with Batman for an issue. The Spirit and Batman. How can that possibly not be the greatest, funniest thing in the entire world?
In non-vigilante news, the new Kaizers Orchestra album was released today. So far I like about half of it, we'll see if the rest grows on me (it usually does when it comes to Kaizers). Just four days until I see them live, and just two days until they come to Bergen to do a signing.
And yet, while I was sitting at the library researching the martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria for my term paper, what song was continually playing in my mind? This. damn. thing. Sometimes I want to ask my subconcious a big dubya tee eff.
