DRAWN & QUARTERED
COURTESY WILL EISNER STUDIOS / DC COMICS
Darwyn Cooke's take on the "Spirit" is an updated version of the classic crime fighter of the 40s.
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Comic artist plunges headlong into ‘Spirit’
Darwyn Cooke hopes that even though you might know nothing of Will Eisner's "The Spirit," his own "spirited" and updated relaunch of the classic crime fighter for DC Comics will be engaging enough for anyone to jump right into the action.
The late Eisner practically revolutionized the comics medium, proving it could become a legitimate art form -- with a more engaging and effective means of storytelling -- in the right hands. "The Spirit" originated in 1940 as a weekly serial for newspapers and hit its artistic peak in the postwar years. Eisner's innovative and inspirational illustrative style and characterizations hold up to this day.
In his introduction to "The Best of the Spirit" paperback collection, fantasy author and "Sandman" creator Neil Gaiman wrote that "a lot of the delight in 'The Spirit' is in watching Eisner invent and discover new ways of telling stories -- the use of white space and panels to represent freedom and captivity in one story, the echoing, reflecting dual panels in another, the use of the murderer's point of view as a third." All told through the adventures of Denny Colt, who fought evil-doers and femme fatales with just his wits and fists in an any-America place known as Central City.
Speaking by phone from his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cooke said he decided to follow in Eisner's footsteps by not rehashing the character's origin. "I thought it was way better to plunge right in and address some of the Spirit's idiosyncracies as we went along. This cat's been around a long time, what with his blue hat and blue mask. So it'll be fun in how to explain his motivation."
For instance, in the first issue, during the Spirit's attempt to rescue TV anchorwoman Ginger Coffee from the clutches of crime boss Amos Weinstock, a k a the Pill, "he's screwed by a cell phone. It seems he has a superstitious aversion to them. ... With 'The Spirit' the juice is between the characters, and that's what Will had."
Coincidentally, Cooke has twice won the industry award named after Eisner, first for "The New Frontier," his DC superhero limited-series set in the 1950s, and second for his work in the "Solo" showcase title. Like Eisner, the native Canadian has distinguished himself with his own storytelling skills, so-called "cartoony work" honed through years holding previous jobs as a magazine art director, graphic and product designer, and in animation storyboarding.
COURTESY WILL EISNER STUDIOS / DC COMICS
An example of Darwyn Cooke's film-influenced style.
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Cooke started off professionally in comic books at age 20, returning to it in his 30s after working with Bruce Timm, creator of the animated "Batman/Superman" TV series at the Warner Bros. studio. Cooke's re-entry was a project called "Batman: Ego" which, ironically, he originally pitched to DC Comics years earlier.
After that, in 2001, he and writer Ed Brubaker revamped "Catwoman," turning her and alter ego Selina Kyle into more stylish and engaging characters. In '02, Cooke wrote and drew the entertaining prequel to the series, the graphic novel "Selina's Big Score."
From there he did "The New Frontier" and now, a year later, his take on "The Spirit."
Cooke is happy that the powers-that-be at DC have given him free rein. He plans to have each issue contain a stand-alone story, with some broad continuity in terms of characters. "My only contribution to Will's character is that I place him in the here and now. It's the only honest shot I got. Fortunately, everybody's good with that. Will did about 600 of these stories. Anything that could happen in an analog world, he covered two or three times over, so I have to put the Spirit in a new social context."
Besides working on issues 5 and 6 of "The Spirit," Cooke finds himself back working with Timm and the Warner Bros. animation studio, this time on a video version of "The New Frontier."
BECAUSE OF his broad graphic experience -- along with the simple fact of being older -- Cooke feels he can better handle an assignment as important as "The Spirit."
"It's interesting that my work in comic books runs tangential to my interest in film and animation," he said. "I try to put a more cinematic flow, more panels, into my work to help analyze any given situation. I want to breathe a flow and life into it.
"I tend to think of a panel as a frame of a movie and not just illustration. In contrast, I know a lot of classically trained artists who do panels as separate moments of illustration, as opposed to an overall series of events in motion.
He added: "What I'm trying to do is create work that will be able to seem relevant visually 10 years from now. My work definitely has a particular look and attitude. But it's not tied to this moment in time so much as to the fundamentals of solid cartooning.
"And comics is the only place where cartooning is generally not employed, which I find hilariously ironic."