I had always heard about The Spirit but never read any of his adventures until I had already been a comic book fan for decades. It was kind of like the first time that I watched Citizen Kane and saw all of the scenes that other filmmakers were clearly inspired by. Will Eisner was the same way with The Spirit - endlessly inventive and expanding the medium in ways that so many creators who followed would be influenced by. It's such a shame that the recent Spirit movie was so poorly executed. The character deserved much better and I hope that folks won't bee too reluctant to sample his print adventures based on what was presented on the silver screen.
The movie was in and out of theaters before could see it. I'm still looking for the bizarro made-for-TV-version from the 1980's. Or a CD version of the 12" vinyl picture disc I picked up a while back. You'd think that since DC, part of a multi-media WB empire, picked up the character that they'd take advantage of their resources to consolidate his far-flung back catalog.
ReplyDeleteDespite Eisner's involvement, the TV film isn't very good. The Miller film is awful in just about every way IMO.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get that picture disk- I could burn it direct to CD easily!
Dave sez,
ReplyDeleteAs a fan of Sam J. Jones, I kinda liked the TV-ization of The Spirit in a cheesey sort of way.
This latest movie is probably going to be like Jonah Hex - Netflixed and then maybe a Birthday or Christmas pick...