InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "if you're bored, you're boring"

dr_hermes (dr_hermes) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-19 00:27:00

Entry tags:

char: the spirit/denny colt, creator: will eisner, era: golden age

SPIRIT Splashes
Every now and then, I'd like to do a little gallery of splash pages from THE SPIRIT. The strip appeared as an insert in syndicated newspapers (and as such, the Spirit had an astonishing circulation; many thousands who never picked up a comic book read THE SPIRIT every week). This impromptu selection leaves out several of the types of stories Will Eisner did so well. There were his satires on advertising and consumerism and current fads; there were his whimsical fantasy or science-fiction romps, his tough gangster sagas and locked-room mysteries; the little misadventures that Ebony or Sammy went off on their own; and so many that are hard to classify. You just never knew what you would find when you opened your Sunday paper.

It flummoxes me how heartbreakingly good Sunday comics used to be. From the 1930s to around 1960, you might pick up a paper that had THE SPIRIT, POPEYE, PRINCE VALIANT, TERRY AND THE PIRATES, POGO, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN, GASOLINE ALLEY, KRAZY KAT... Then the size of the pages started to shrink faster and faster, the quality of the printing and coloring dropped, the era of high adventure and screwball humor faded away.

	tilly_stratford 2009-08-19 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	Ooh, I approve of this post! Old S_D made a Spirit fan out of me, and I've been reading the stories chronologically from then on (I've come as far as 1948!) His use of light and shadow is just... beyond description. I spend ages just looking at splash pages like those. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-08-19 10:31 pm UTC (link)
	It's wonderful art and storytelling. I don't follow current comics, but I'll always post THE SPIRIT, PRINCE VALIANT, POGO, KRAZY KAT.. stuff like that. (Reply to this) (Parent)