Comic-Con 2007
are we going to make them actually read it? The other thing was, from a purely selfish point of view, New Frontier completely pigeonholed me into retro, and I knew that if I went ahead and did The Spirit that way, that would be it for me. I would forever be pigeonholed that way With New Frontier there was a purpose to going back and doing it that way. But with The Spirit, to go back and do it in (Will’s) time frame is like copying the best stuff there. And yes, it became a challenge because we have a trademarked character here and he has to have a blue hat, the mask, and the whole look of the guy is not modern. So we’re playing with that in a small way with the characters who encounter him. Nobody calls him “The Spirit.” He’s “Mr. Blue,” he’s “Gainsborough,” he’s all these different things to these people. CCI: Are going to be continuing on with The Spirit? there’s this old Harvey Kurtzman MAD cover, and it shows this African safari and they’re standing in the footprint of this giant ape, and the guy says something like, “I’m telling you guys, I don’t see a giant ape anywhere around here.” And that’s like Eisner’s footprint and I’m this little bug standing in it looking up. I mean, he’s the most beloved creator in the industry and he created a character that’s not been screwed up in the 40 years it’s been in existence. So there’s a lot of pressure. There are a lot of people who don’t even feel it should be done let alone by who. And I kind of knew that would be the case so it took a while to come around to it. First off, I can’t top what Eisner did, so what would be the purpose of doing it? And secondly, how much crap am I going to have to take for having the balls for doing it? And casting about in desperation because I was so afraid of the job, it occurred to me that if it could take place today, there were a whole new bunch of social conditions and story ideas and graphic treatments that I could bring into it.
DC: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I will be involved with this book for at least two years, and if things are going well, who knows? The minute I found out we were allowed to do present-day stories, we got forty story ideas in a week. I mean all I have to do is turn on Fox News for five minutes and I get so pissed off that I’ve got another story to write. It’s remarkable. The way I sold it to Dennis and DC was, look at The Spirit (and a story of Eisner’s such as) “Olga Bustle, The Girl With Those Big, Big Eyes,” the Jane Russell parody he did. We all look at this now and we think it’s quaint and it’s old-timey, but this came out when the movie (The Outlaw) came out. Something was happening in the news and he’d do
CCI: I think you threw everyone a curve by setting it in the present. DC: I think it had to be. The question is what is the purpose of relaunching this character at all? To me, the answer is it’s going to introduce a new generation of readers to Will’s work. So it was like, “How are we going to capture 20-year old readers with a retro book about 1945?” Whether they think it’s pretty or not is one issue, but how Mad ©2007 E. C. Publications, Inc.; The Spirit ©2007 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.
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