Each successive Spirit story
that Eisner wrote and drew beginning June 2, 1940, reveals that
he was still engaged in defining the concept he had developed. He
intended the concept to be a simple one, believing that such an
arrangement would afford him the greatest creative agility. Eisner
wanted a hero, a police comtnissioner, and the commissioner's daughter,
who would be the hero's love interest. "The freedom to tell pretty
much the stories I wanted was the main reason I agreed to create
The Spirit, and this sort of structure allowed me that
freedom," he said.
Eisner said his earliest Spirit work was
much more visceral, more intuitive, than intellectual, owing largely
to his youth. "As all writers do, I grew more mature in how I said
what I said, as well as in what I wanted to say," Eisner said. "I
was writing much more viscerally in the earliest days. Now I'm much
more conscious of structure. But one thing that hasn't changed,
from the very earliest work I did, is that I always started with
the ending and worked toward that."
"The
Origin of The Spirit"
(June 2, 1940)
"The Return
of Dr. Cobra"
(June 9, 1940)
"The Black
Queen"
(June 16, 1940)
"Voodoo
in Manhattan"
(June 23, 1940)
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