Friday, November 18, 2011

Forgotten Books: Will Eisner + Pirates = Hawks of the Seas


Here's a cool one. Will Eisner's pre-Spirit Sunday comic strip that's sort of a cross between Treasure Island and Captain Blood. My 1986 Kitchen Sink Press edition of the book is BIG, measuring 10 1/4 by 14 1/2 inches. It was reprinted in 2002 by Dark Horse as an entry in the Will Eisner Library (with a new cover), but unfortunately shrunk down to 7 x 10 inches. Eisner was only 20 when this strip began in 1936, and used the pseudonym Willis Rensie, but there are many fine panels that hint at the wonders to come in The Spirit.

Some samples:

 




More Forgotten Books at pattinase!

11 comments:

  1. Never turn your back on a man with a hook hand! You'd probably like, at very least, the Eisner studio and SPIRIT supplement stuff in the Jules Feiffer memoir. You definitely see the shaping up of the Eisner approach here, as you note.

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  2. Bill Crider loves pirates. He either has this, or will have to acquire it.

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  3. The style is already there, absolutely. It's always a shame when reprints shrink down things like this, it's the art as much as the text and plot that we want to see! Thanks for posting this, Evan. After I finish the new Pogo [see Monday post] and the Blake & Mortmer books, I may want to take a look at this.

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  4. A new one on me. Always loved Eisner's work. I wished I'd saved all those PM mags he did for the Army.

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  5. I lost interest in comics as I grew older, but I can see the attraction of them now and may have to take another look.

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  6. Those PM magazines had some pretty sexy illos, as I recall, Bob. I wish I'd saved them too.

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  7. Man, that Will Eisner could work in any genre. So much great work from the man --there's a lifetime of discovery and re-discovery there.

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  8. Hey, lazybones, sure would like to see a new post one of these days!

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