Darwyn Cooke to do ongoing Spirit series

Well, I'm not sure how I feel about someone other than Will Eisner doing the Spirit, but Cooke is probably the best guy around to do it.

According to a Newsarama report from the International Comicon in San Diego, the new series will debut in 2006, following up a Spirit meet Batman oneshot written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Cooke.

Cooke will write the ongoing title himself. It'll be set in a the modern age, not Eisner's 1930s/40s milieu but, aside from that, he's shooting to stay as loyal as possible to the original, citing these two goals for himself:

”One - preserve and if humanly possible, enrich the core essence of the Spirit. Give long-time readers a contemporary look at the magic that has held them for decades, and introduce a new generation to the irresistible pull of this rich human drama. Action, crime, romance, humor and pathos will all be generously employed in the ‘spirit’ of the original strip. There'll be no deconstruction and every issue will be a story unto itself, making every issue an ideal jumping on point. Every story will try to add and hopefully strengthen the essence of Eisner’s characters and vision.

”The second goal is to produce a work that reaffirms the Spirit as the strip for graphic innovation that enhances storytelling. This second mandate is, I believe, the one to be artistically important. While we cleave to Eisner’s vision and world-view for Central City, we should be equally mindful of his vision that contemporary storytelling techniques be continually introduced to engage the reader in fresh and appropriate ways. I believe that this would have been very important to Will, and I feel it is the key to avoiding a simple homage.”


Eisner's longtime associate Denis Kitchen helped bring the project to fruition.

Also in the works, a series of "Best of the Spirit" paperbacks featuring some of Eisner's top work on the strip.

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