The Spirit: An 80th Anniversary Celebration by Will Eisner is a wonderful collection of several of his short comics with introductions for each.

There are at least two main types of reflective collections, the first being a comprehensive type, whether of an entire run or of a specific theme or time frame. Those are great as collections of comics (or whatever: short stories, poems, essays, etc). The other type I want to mention is more like what this one is, namely, a memorial type. In this you have some number of comics with some contextualization, here with introductory essays. These serve to honor Eisner, point out an element of his art that is epitomized in that particular story, and simply offer readers some wonderful examples from the early days of the art form.

I was particularly interested in the essays because they touched on Eisner's life and career in addition to the history of The Spirit. I have never read a biography so I don't know a lot of details about him, though I have read enough interviews and chapters in books dedicated to him that I am not totally ignorant of his life. This collection fits nicely as an introduction to Eisner for those new to the genre and, for those with extensive knowledge, a nice trip down memory lane with a pioneer. As such, I can recommend this to almost anyone interested in comics and graphic novels, especially the history.

My review copy was digital so I don't know whether this will be an issue with either the print or the Kindle version, but some of the comics were extremely difficult to read and make out details. You might want to see a physical copy first or get some confirmation that they are all legible. I find it hard to imagine that they would release it in the form I saw it, so I am not holding it against the book in my rating or review.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

Will Eisner was a pioneer and legendary comic maker. There is an award after his name.
This comic takes us back in time to see what he made that carried comic to higher levels.
It has small stories by Eisner which are adapted by author.
There is experiment in treatment of comic.
It is a very good small read. When Eisner developed detective hero, it was start of perennial tradition for comics and thriller books.
Artwork is great. I wish font could have been larger.
A very good read. Vintage comics were real comic.

I've had an awareness of The Spirit for a while, but never went out of my way to try to check it out. Eisner's writing is good. It does suffer from being outdated. For the most part, the stories hold up pretty well. This is a decent place to start for someone new to the character that wants to check out a piece of comics history.

While I'm glad I got a little exposure to 'The Spirit', the collection was on the shorter side and it didn't seem like much of the lettering and line work was updated. The touches of coloring were appreciated, though.

A collection of 8 stories from the 40s and 50s with introductions from comic industry veterans. The 2 color stories are great. Eisner's art is sharp and in full glory. Unfortunately, the other 6 stories were in really bad shape, full of artifacts and missing bits of text and lines in the art. They looked like they were copies of copies of copies of copies. The condition made them really hard to follow. I'm not a fan of touching up classic artwork but it was warranted here. It's a real shame. If these were in better condition, I'd have given the book 5 stars.

This should have been a most worthy (in a good way) tribute to a comic great. Unfortunately, what I saw wasn't. The new colouring is garish, and I wouldn't really think the pink and purple scheme used for the Spirit origin story early on here is what Eisner would have been after. So while we get new introductions for every hand-picked Spirit outing here, that's about all we get that was worth my time, for the reproduction of these old strips – alongside pin-sharp and crystal-clear introductions – was one small step from completely unreadable. It might be that the end product has freshened up the art and lettering, but I can only go by what I saw, which was horrendous. I'm assuming it is a good book in the finish – other people reviewing it warmly is testimony to that. But what I saw just smacked of awful and awfully weak digitisation, and only the rejigged colourised pieces had the required clarity. Someone needed new software before getting this ready for me.

'The Spirit: An 80th Anniversary Celebration' edited by Ted Adams and featuring comics by Will Eisner is a nice collection.

There are 9 stories, each introduced by different folks from the comic industry, including a great introduction by Denis Kitchen. Each introduction features a favorite 7-page story, including 4 which are now in color. Stories featured include the origin and stories where Will Eisner mocks himself about deadlines and the pervasive nature of advertising.

I had a great time reading this collection, including some I'd never read before. Will Eisner was a master of visual storytelling, and while the contents of some of these stories can feel a bit dated, there is much here that endures.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Clover Press, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

THE SPIRIT: AN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION:

Filled with vintage art and comic strips from the series, this book is a bevy of history. Each entry is proceeded with commentary by comic industry experts, which adds insight and value to the history of The Spirit. The collection provides indisputable evidence of the canonization of Will Eisner, and rightly so. His supreme talent is highlighted throughout the book. The stories collected within show the artist at his most creative, and makes this book a must-read...and a must-have!

#THESPIRITAN80THANNIVERSARYCELEBRATION #NetGalley

The Spirit: An 80th Anniversary Celebration is a well put together collection of classic comics. I really enjoyed getting to read the background to each comic beforehand as well. It's always nice to have those little insights. For example, the fabricated feud with Lil' Abner's creator, is a hilarious bit of context that a modern-day reader wouldn't necessarily get if they were coming into The Spirit as a new reader, like myself. I really enjoyed reading each comic with its "historical" context.

The only downside I really see with the book is, at least in the digital version I received from the publisher for review, A couple of the strips are hard to read and look like poorly xeroxed newsprint. I could assume that the publisher wants to maintain the integrity of the strip as it was originally presented. But it makes reading some of them very hard. It would have been nice if there was some minor touch up done to the strips, at least with lettering. I don't feel it would have removed anything from the stories. though it certainly would have made them a lot easier to read. On the other hand, that does help to present the age of each strip, so maybe I'm completely offbase.

Thanks Netgalley for the chance to read this title!

If you are not familiar with Will Eisner, this title is a a great opportunity to get introduced! There are nine complete adventure tales found in this volume along with introduction and setting the scene for each adventure. The reader really gets a feel for the pacing and style of The Spirit starting with his origin and ending with a cursed volcano. Do take a chance on this 80th anniversary of the origin of the Spirit to dive into his universe and enjoy yourself!

The story is good and readable where there are color pages. However, where it is simply black and white it is difficult to read and not possible to pick up all the detail, even on a computer screen. So five stars out of five where there is color, 1 out of 5 where there isn't, which makes an average of three, unfortunately, because the story seems to be good. But if I can't read it, it becomes worthless. My suggestion? Go back, fill in the detail with color and watch the detail.

Will Eisner's The Spirit was a revelation in graphic art when it first appeared 80 years ago. And it continues to influence comic artists today. This delightful compilation of stories will introduce new readers to Eisner's masterpiece and thrill long-time fans of this timeless hero.

A nice collection of one of the great comic series of all time, "The Spirit," by one of the great comic geniuses of all time, Will Eisner. While it's fairly short for such a long-running series, the reading experience is made even shorter by half of the stories reproduced so poorly in my review copy that they were hardly legible. Still, the ones that are in good condition show Eisner's mastery of layout and shadows with stories as inventive and suspenseful as the best radio dramas. Like everything Eisner does, this is highly recommended.

I have to say despite the 3.5 I'm giving this, I'm genuinely seeing what Will Eisner brings to modern comics. The surreal but campy situations like a curse and witch doctor but also the crime dramas with some science fiction. The Spirit encompasses a lot of stuff, including some behind the scenes details on the relationships between cartoonists and their creations. I just can't rate this higher because the material I've got is hard to read and interpret at some places.

A wonderful exploration of Will Eisner's The Spirit, told in detailed form. I found this book highly entertaining and recommend it for readers who want to get acquainted with this character, as well as those meeting him for the first time.

The Spirit: An 80th Anniversary Celebration is a new reprint collection of 8 weekly inserts (8 pages each) + an origin story + short art gallery with the iconic Spirit by comics legend Will Eisner. Due out 10th March 2020 from Clover Press (and Diamond distributing), it's 80 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook (comiXology) formats.

The stories in the collection are a mixed bag...traditional Spirit stories where the bad guy gets what's coming to him, philosophical musings, and a couple of fourth wall breaking unclassifiable pieces where Eisner has a cameo in the actual story and the Spirit doesn't make (much of) an appearance. The real value for me is the expert introduction and commentary by industry professionals and fellow artists which accompany every story (along with a nice but short retrospective history by Denis Kitchen).

It's nice to see these stories being re-released for potential fans to appreciate and seek out more of Eisner's (or the commentators') oeuvre.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The award for best in the comic book industry is called the Eisner. His body of work is not to be disregarded, so it is a good thing that this collection, no matter how short, or how little representational this is, at least gives a taste of the stories that he used to tell, in the 40s and 50s.

The thing is, when we look at the modern comic book or graphic novel, we are looking at the groundwork that Will Eisner laid out. They might not seem so striking now, but in his day, he was the pioneer.

First, is my disclaimer, that I have the entire collection of hardcover Spirits, plus all the graphic novels that Will Eisner wrote in later life. I have been a fan of his ever since I discovered him while I was in High School, and scooped up every printing I could find of his.

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So, while I think they could have shown other stories here, I do appriciate the introduction to each one of them, by someone who met or was touched by Eisner.

Will this turn people on to his works? I'm not sure. But I am glad that it exists for those who love his works.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Will Eisner is a legendary cartoonist who created The Spirit. Full stop. Anything I could add to that would be wasted space. Either you already know, you're vaguely familiar, or you've stumbled upon this title by accident. This collection is perfect for long-time admirers, casual fans, and complete newbies.

Everything you need to know to get a perspective on Eisner and The Spirit is presented in this book. There's a brief biographical introduction at the beginning of the book and then before each story there is a single page intro that gives great insight into the significance of the particular story with some fun bits of trivia and whatnot.

I liked this a lot. I'm more of a casual fan so the information provided by the "notable comic book insider" at the beginning of each story was greatly appreciated and very informative. It gave me a better understanding of exactly why Will Eisner is such a legendary figure.

My only complaint is that some of the stuff is hard to read. I tried to enlarge it on my Amazon Fire Tablet (<- shameless attempt at pandering) but in most cases it just got blurry. Maybe it has to do with the quality of the original prints or some such thing... I don't really know. Between the blurry enlargement and the style of lettering from the time period it did make it difficult to read some of the older stuff.

The copy I read was a digital review ARC (Advance Review Copy) so there may be some changes from the copy I received and the finished product. I wanted to make special note of this because there is mention in the blurb of some of the cartoons (4) being newly colored - someone has redone them to give a brighter more fresh look. In the copy I had only two stories were full color (Jeremy Cox is credited with the ones I saw - looks great!). All the rest appeared in black & white so that will likely change before final publication.

All the material (old comics and new commentary) is G-rated.

***Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, and Clover Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.