By CJM
June 19, 2011
Prior to 2000 I only knew two things about Will Eisner:
1. He created comics
2. He has an Award named after him at Comic Con International
I know it sounds sacrilegious, but I grew up on superhero comics from DC and Marvel and you really never saw his name on a regular basis in any of those comics. But something special happened in May 2000 – DC Comics started Will Eisner’s The Spirit Archives. 26 Volumes in nine years, it collected every single newspaper strip of the title character whether it be from Eisner’s pen or not. It even collected comics from other publishing houses. Dark Horse got into the action with a Volume 27 reprinting their 1998 comic book run. I bought every volume as it came out and in 2010 I finally sat down and read them all in one calender year. It was a challenging task to say the least – both in size and in my wallet, but it was worth every penny. Since I finished just a few months ago I’ve been itching to read more from this master of the craft. I was pleased to find out that W.W. Norton attained the rights to several of Eisner’s other works. Among the catalog are two deluxe hardcover omnibuses that I will talk about over the course of two consecutive Sunday’s.
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