Concluding a month of shows about ‘Masters of American Comics’, Alex Fitch talks to a quartet of comics experts and historians about the 75th anniversary of Will Eisner’s seminal crime comic The Spirit. Richard Reynolds (Senior Lecturer, Central Saint Martins), Ian Rakoff (Lecturer, Victoria and Albert Museum), Guy Lawley (contributor: 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die) and Steve Edgell (co-author: The Complete Cartooning Course) discuss the early days of American adventure comics and the other characters Eisner created in the 1930s, how The Spirit was influenced by film noir, and representations of racial minorities in the author’s work. Originally broadcast 26th Feb 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)
Excerpts from The Spirit by Will Eisner, originally published in 1940, 1949, 1952 and 1997
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
Listen to the accompanying podcast on Eisner’s autobiographical comics
Links: Wikipedia pages on Will Eisner and The Spirit
willeisner.com page on The Spirit
Info about Richard Reynolds on Central Saint Martins website
Ian Rakoff’s blog
Info about Guy Lawley on Paul Gravett’s website
Steve Edgell’s bibliography on goodreads.com
Will Eisner week website
