I’ve read some of the later Will Eisner stuff, and I’ve liked it and all, but it hasn’t knocked me out. So when I saw The Best of The Spirit at the library, I picked it up without much anticipation. And, in fact, I enjoyed it, without being knocked out by it. There were a few stories in it that were very good, and a couple of duds, but on the whole it was pleasant but unremarkable.
Which is remarkable. Since from everything I’ve heard, this stuff knocked off the heads of just about every major artist in the field, for two generations now. May be it’s just because I’m reading backwards, having not read any action or hero comics in my youth, and essentially started my comics experience with Miracleman in 1986 or something. Or perhaps it’s because I’m still not much of a comics reader, and much of the visual stuff, the tricks of narrative, the cleverness of it passes me by. Not sure.
Anyway, it’s nice to have this stuff available. I wonder what my Perfect Reader (who adores Calvin and Hobbes, and now reads the comics in the newspaper) will think of the form when she gets to the hard stuff.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.