A Tasty Spirit Jam!

Spirit Jam is a 1998 reprint of one of the more impressive artistic stunts of the Indy era. In the 30th issue of The Spirit Magazine from 1981, the folks at Kitchen Sink (spearheaded by in-house Eisner expert Cat Yronwode) arranged for a host of artists and writers to try their hand at a few pages of a single shared Spirit story. The story was kicked off and wrapped up by Will Eisner but in between were all manner of renditions of the 40's comic icon by some of the most potent names of the era.

Pete Poplaski penciled the wraparound cover. It's gorgeous and features the inking of the following talents: Peter Poplaski, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, John Pound, Denis Kitchen, Richard Corben, and Leslie Carbaga.

Also included in the square-bound reprint was the four-page Cerebus Jam story by Eisner and Dave Sim. Eisner handled the Spirit figures and Sim most everything else.

And to close things off here are two wonderful renderings of the Spirit with some iconic heroes.

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A Spirited Spanking!

This notorious image by the Spirit's creator Will Eisner says much about where we were once upon a time and points up where we are today. The idea that women were to be taken in hand, reared as it were by the adult men in their lives has been the classic mode for generations. But the world was soon change even as Eisner was drawing this cover in 1941.

Only a few months after the beginning of World War II women were called upon to leave their classic roles and step up to fill in. The returning men after the war needed for the old way to reassert itself and to some extent it did, but it was just another step in the progression of women to full participation in the society in which they are critical. Feminism has never stopped despite the caveman attitudes which deride it daily and work to "put women back in their place".  If we're lucky sooner than later women will take the wheel in the country in which I live. They will lead us out of the constant cycle of war and not-war, at least that's what I hope.

That said, it's still a nifty evocative image which has been used a few times over the decades. Nothing wrong with a little hanky-spanky to spice up the love life (with consent of course). The shadows added by Kitchen Sink's Pete Poplaski make it really...er...well pop.

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What's A Spirit To Do?

This notorious image by the Spirit's creator Will Eisner says much about where we were once upon a time and points up where we are today. The idea that women were to be taken in hand, reared as it were by the adult men in their lives has been the classic mode for generations. But the world was soon change even as Eisner was drawing this cover in 1941.

Only a few months after the beginning of World War II women were called upon to leave their classic roles and step up to fill in. The returning men after the war needed for the old way to reassert itself and to some extent it did, but it was just another step in the progression of women to full participation in the society in which they are critical. Feminism has never stopped despite the caveman attitudes which deride it daily and sooner than later women will taken the wheel in the country in which I live. They will lead us out of the constant cycle of war and not-war, at least that's what I hope.

That said, it's still a nifty evocative image which has been used a few times over the decades. The shadows added by Kitchen Sink's Pete Poplaski make it really...er...well pop.

Rip Off