I love Will Eisner. To me, few things are as heartbreaking as the knowledge that that man was doing more experimental, interesting, and avant garde storytelling in the 1940′s than 99% of the comic industry is willing to do now. For almost 70 years the guy made revolutionizing an artform look easy.
Like most comic geeks my age, I was weened on Frank Miller. Discovering his Daredevil run was almost like a comic book rite of passage. Inspired by Eisner, Frank Miller brought a maturity to the world of superhero and crime comics few would have thought possible before. Now, thanks to the film versions of SIN CITY and 300 Frank’s a superstar and on one level it is touching that his first solo directing work is an attempt to give his hero the same level of exposure.
Unfortunately, he’s tried to do this by systematically ignoring the work of the man he hopes to praise. The above trailer is just NOT Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT it’s Frank Miller’s. Really there’s nothing wrong with that, except for Miller’s continued insistence that he is paying homage to his friend and mentor. He’s not. If anything, by turning THE SPIRIT into another hardboiled denizen of SIN CITY Miller is posthumously forcing Eisner to pay tribute to him.
As an Eisner geek it’s sad and as an admirer of Miller’s it’s disappointing. I still hold out hope that the film may be fun on its own merits, but after watching Miller reach celebrity thanks to directors going to painstaking lengths to be true to his comics it is a shame Miller didn’t think to follow the same trend.
> “Miller is posthumously forcing Eisner to pay tribute to him.”
Yep, I think you nailed it. Although, I don’t mind him wearing the black suit. Due to the color printing process back then, blue was customarily a substitute for black. However, yes, now, blue is the traditional color of The Spirit.