The Spirit

In June of 1940 Will Eisner created The Spirit, a comic serial which would appear weekly in the Sunday newspaper. This comic section would contain 4 to 5 stories, each 7 or 8 pages long. Eisner worked as editor but also wrote and drew many entries. The stories told inside The Spirit would include a wide variety of style types, such as: crime drama, love stories, mysteries, horror, comedy, drama, and black comedy.

The strip showed real similarities to both Batman and Dick Tracy, featuring colorful villains and fast-paced story telling. The Spirit, a "middle class crimefighter", was the hero persona of young detective Denny Colt. Colt, presumed killed in the first three pages of the first serial, would later reveal that he had not died but was in suspended animation from one of the arch villain Dr. Cobra's experiments. When he awakened in Wildwood Cemetery, he established a base there and, using his newly gained anonymity, began a life of fighting crime wearing only a small domino mask, blue business suit, fedora and gloves for a costume. The Spirit would bring justice, funding his adventures with the money from his own estate and the rewards from capturing villains.

During World War II Eisner enlisted in the army. While Eisner was away, the newspaper syndicate kept The Spirit going by having ghost writers and artists to continue the strip till his return. Many fans, however, believe the best stories of all are those which Will Eisner penned and drew. Eisner developed a cinematic style; through the use of shadows and different angles of view he draws the reader into the seedy atmosphere of his stories. The 1st frame of series became famous for working the title "The Spirit" into the background or scenery.

The Spirit worked mostly out of Central City. However, his adventures took him around to the globe to different and exciting places. He met up with eccentrics and kooks, beautiful (but deadly) women most notably P'Gell, and brought his own form of justice to all of them. Although the story was constantly changing, certain themes remained constant; the love between Ellen Dolan and the Spirit, the annual Christmas Spirit stories, The Octopus (a criminal genius who was never seen but recognized by his distinctive gloves). The Spirit also gained a sidekick, an african american named Ebony White who, especially in the beginning, as a racial stereotype typical of the era. To this day, Eisner has always expressed affection for that character, but has acknowledged the unconscious racism in his depiction although Ebony gained a measure of courage and resourcefulness as the series progressed.

The Spirit ceased publication in the 1950s, following the Trip to the Moon stories by Eisner and Wally Wood.

Compared to contemporary properties, The Spirit has proven highly durable as one of the most respected American comic book series from the Golden age of comic books. For instance, Kitchen Sink Press published extensive reprints of the series, both as a regular comic book and trade paperback. In addition, shortly before the company's demise, a revival series featuring the work of many star talents was produced featuring their stories with the characters.

The character was the subject to a television movie adaptation in 1986 that Will Eisner is disapproved of. This was on account of the tone of the film which resembled the 1960s Batman television series' tone of camp parody.

In addition, the character was the inspiration for numerous characters that took a similar approach. This included Jack Cole's Midnight which was originally intended as a simple replacement for the original during Eisner's enlistment, but then took on its own life in broader stories. Steve Ditko created his own character, The Question, which took on much of the urban visual tone of Eisner's work. That in turn was reflected in Alan Moore's version of Ditko's character, Rorschach, in Watchmen. In addition, Moore created his own parody of Eisner's strip in his ABC imprint called The Grey Shirt.