Will Eisner: A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman

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bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:39:00 PDT

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Will Eisner: A Spirited Life

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Will Eisner: A Spirited Life Audiobook Exclusive--Ch. 20: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons of Watchmen

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:09:03 PST

Cover of Watchmen

In 2005, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, Bob Andelman's authorized biography of the late American comic book master, was published by Dark Horse/M Press.

This spring, the audiobook version of the book will finally be released via Audible.com and iTunes.

In celebration of “Will Eisner Week” (March 3-7, 2009) and the release of the much anticipated film adaptation of Watchmen on March 6, 2009, Tampa Digital Studios agreed to release an exclusive audio excerpt of Will Eisner: A Spirited Life for broadcast on the BlogTalkRadio.com network.

Beginning at 10 p.m. ET on March 5, 2009, you can listen to the excerpt here: http://tinyurl.com/bqkk7e

Chapter 20, from which this excerpt comes, deals with Watchmen creatorsAlan Moore and Dave Gibbons reminiscing about creating the first issueof Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The New Adventures. It was their first collaboration in a decade, since the publication of the original Watchmen comic book series in 1986.

Will Eisner: A Spirited Life audiobook is narrated by the book’sauthor, Bob Andelman. It is produced by Michael Piotrowski andengineered by Joshua Agnew for Tampa Digital Studios.

Will Eisner: A Spirited Life

Mr. Media's audio interview with Dave Gibbons

Cover of Watchmen

In 2005, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, Bob Andelman's authorized bioraphy of the late American comic book master, was published by Dark Horse/M Press.

This spring, the audiobook version of the book will finally be released via Audible.com and iTunes.

In celebration of “Will Eisner Week” (March 3-7, 2009) and the release of the much anticipated film adaptation of Watchmen on March 6, 2009, Tampa Digital Studios agreed to release an exclusive audio excerpt of Will Eisner: A Spirited Life for broadcast on the BlogTalkRadio.com network.

Chapter 20, from which this excerpt comes, deals with Watchmen creators Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons reminiscing about creating the first issue of Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The New Adventures. It was the first collaboration in a decade, since the publication of the original Watchmen comic book series in 1986.

Will Eisner: A Spirited Life audiobook is narrated by the book’s author, Bob Andelman. It is produced by Michael Piotrowski and engineered by Joshua Agnew for Tampa Digital Studios.

Will Eisner: A Spirited Life

Mr. Media's audio interview with Dave Gibbons

Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist @ Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Jan. 19, 2009

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:24:00 PST

Image via Wikipedia

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (http://www.ajff.org/) will be showing Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, at Lefont Sandy Springs, on Monday, Jan 19, 2009, 4:40pm. It's possible a representative from ASIFA-Atlanta will introduce the film and do a Q&A. This will be the Atlanta premiere of the film, which is a documentary on Will Eisner. Mark Mayerson writes about it here:

http://mayersononanimation.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-eisner-portrait-of-sequential.html

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DVD Review: Will Eisner: Profession: Cartoonist (Newsarama.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:30:01 PST

Image via WikipediaBy Steve Fritz
22 December 2008

WILL EISNER: PROFESSION: CARTOONIST
(Image Entertainment)

With the arrival of The Spirit movie in theaters this week, no one should be surprised that a documentary about Will Eisner just hit the market. After all, the same thing already happened with Alan Moore (Mindscape of...). Can Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, you-name-‘em, be far behind?

The good news is this selection is well worth the effort. An American/Brazilian collaboration, this doc is divided into three key parts; Eisner’s roots and his work on The Spirit, his middle career and move into graphic novels and, finally, a solid analysis of his distinctive graphic style and importance to the industry/artform. Among those heavily interviewed are his wife Anne, Denis Kitchen, Stan Lee, Art Spiegelman and many, many other important colleagues he made through his long career.

The real “star” is Eisner himself, who apparently was quite generous with the documentarians, providing a number of interviews, a tour of his Ft. Lauderdale home and a generous sampling of the work he did over his 70 year career.

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Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel (The Bumpidee Reader)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:21:00 PST

Cover via Amazon

First things first Olympia bibliophiles: The Olympia Timberland Library is back up and running and the whole building is open starting today!

Today is also the first day of registration for a book discussion series that will start on Saturday afternoon, January 10th and continue every other Saturday for a total of five sessions.

Event Type: Adult Book Discussion
Date: 1/10/2009
Start Time: 2:00 PM
End Time: 4:00 PM
Description:Join local scholar Danny Kadden in a five-part reading and discussion series entitled "Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature - Identity and Imagination." The series will explore the theme of "Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel." The first 25 registrants will receive free copies of the graphic novels to keep. Registration begins on Monday, December 15; call, 352-0595 or stop by the library’s information desk. This program was made possible by a grant from the American Library Association and Nextbook. The series begins January 10 with a discussion of "A Contract with God: And Other Tenement Stories," by Will Eisner.
Library: Olympia Timberland Library
Presenter: Danny Kadden

Each session will begin with a 15-25 minute lecture by local Jewish scholar, Danny Kadden, to be followed by a group discussion.

http://www.nextbook.org/ala/librl_marvels.html

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That's The Spirit! (National Post)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:29:00 PST

Image via Wikipedia

Frank Miller's noir craftsmanship inspired actresses Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes to embrace the femme-fatale flourishes of his newest film

Bob Thompson

National Post

December 22, 2008

The renowned graphic novelist Frank Miller knows how to write about anxiety, but he might have trouble dealing with his own as the opening of The Spirit approaches.

The Spirit is Miller's much anticipated live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series. Opening on Christmas Day, the movie arrives with an important question: Can Miller --on his first solo directorial effort -- translate the stylish 1940s noir images onto the big screen?

There's a good chance he can. For one thing, Miller appreciates The Spirit's creative origins. He was an Eisner friend and associate, and admits that he based some of his more popular graphic novels on Eisner's tones and textures. Miller also codirected and co-wrote the digital Sin City film with Robert Rodriguez and penned the popular graphic novels Sin City and 300 (the movie became a worldwide hit). And Miller also famously made over Batman as the brooding Dark Knight in comics that inspired Christopher Nolan's hit movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

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The Spirit's Sidekick (ComicBookMovie.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:28:00 PST

An early incarnation of the Spirit’s sidekick has been the center of controversy for many years. Here’s a look at the past issue the character faced.

Whether you agree with Frank Miller’s interpretation of the character, see eye to eye with the film’s similarity to his Sin City’s, or believe he butchered Eisner’s masterpiece, The Spirit has dealt with serious issues. The Spirit is considered to be one of the first comics with serious adult tones, creating a road for mainstream comics.

In the series’ living city, its inhabitants were always occupied with things. Whether they were criminals wanting to thieve, or female fatales in New York- style tenants, the people always had drama to deal with. According to Eisner, it “gave [him] an adult audience.” He managed to fill the pages with dramatic stories that were crime-noir dramas that had adventure, love stories, mystery and sometimes horror, and of course its noted humor.

One of the comedic elements that Eisner tried to inhibit was through The Spirit’s sidekick. Ebony White, an African-American citizen growing up in the harsh city, would constantly aid the masked hero. Not necessarily a sidekick like Robin or Bucky who would help the hero fight, but more of an Alfred/Jarvis assistant who would help in tough situations and drive him around in a taxi.

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12 Questions With Eva Mendes (Moviefone)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:24:00 PST

Image via Wikipedia

In 'The Spirit,' she's Sand Saref, a jewel thief so hot she can melt the hearts of the undead -- namely the eponymous crime fighter (Gabriel Macht). Eva Mendes dished with Moviefone about re-teaming with Scarlett Johansson, why she has no problem with artistic nudity ... and why she thinks certain body parts should be in proportion.

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Frank Miller gets in 'The Spirit' (Jam! Showbiz)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:22:00 PST

Image via Wikipedia

Comic-book icon channels The Spirit of his mentor in latest film

By JIM SLOTEK -- Sun Media

NEW YORK -- Apart from Marvel's Stan Lee, if there is a figure who represents the link between the comic books of old and the movies coming to a theatre near you, it's Frank Miller.

The artist-writer, who gave us 300, Sin City and the Dark Knight incarnation of Batman, began his career in the colourfully ink-stained New York-based cauldron of comic-book art, mentored by the likes of Jim Shooter, Neal Adams -- but most of all, the legendary and prolific Will Eisner.

Theirs was a strange, combative relationship -- one in which Miller is finally getting the last word, three years after Eisner's death, making his solo directorial debut with a stylized movie of Eisner's signature noir hero from the '40s, The Spirit. Wherever he is, the female-form-obsessed Eisner must appreciate the casting -- Scarlett Johansson (Silken Floss), Eva Mendes (Sand Saref) and Jaime King (Lorelei), all playing various forms of femmes fatale tormenting our mordant hero (Gabriel Macht).

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The Eva Mendes Spirit Interview: Kicking Ass And Revealing Some Too (NewsBlaze.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:59:00 PST

By Prairie Miller

Even though Eva Mendes has a reputation lately for playing simultaneously gorgeous and evil in movies, like The Women, Ghost Rider and now Frank Miller's comic book thriller The Spirit, don't ever talk to her for a minute about being all body and no brains.

At this gab session get-together for The Spirit, Eva, in the midst of fighting off a serious case of jet lag, gave a detailed discourse on her philosophy of vamp attitude, while listing the various thrills of flaunting 1940s 'dames' and 'broads' type of appeal, all in a day's work. And how an uncontrollable lust for diamonds on the part of her materialistic-minded femme fatale Sand Saref, is not necessarily all about doing the gold digger thing. But don't even think about turning Eva into a mere female accessory, hot or not, in a movie, even if the leading man, whether in Spirit only, happens to be Gabriel Macht. In other words, revealing her fabulous body in nothing but a towel slipping off her rear end is fine, but there had better be an impressive high IQ in evidence behind it, no pun.

What was it exactly that lured you into The Spirit?

EVA MENDES: Yeah I think...Um, what was the question?

Well, what turned you on about your character Sand Saref?

EM: Yeah, I loved that my character was created in the 1940s. So you know, I have this real 'dame' and 'broad' kind of appeal to the character. And she was just so over the top. And fantastical. And, she has some of the best lines in the movie, you know what I mean? Like, 'Shut up and bleed!'.

That's one of my favorites. Which, strangely, I've used it since! But for me, this movie was just so collaborative. That was the main thing. Am I even answering your question? I'm sorry, I'm in the middle of jet lag!

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Paz Vega…UH YUMP!!! (StraitPinkie.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:46:00 PST

Not much to read here, but if you'd like to see a mess of photos of lovely Paz Vega, who co-stars in The Spirit movie, this is your site.

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Bob Thompson: Scarlett Johansson and company get The Spirit (National Post)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:20:00 PST

By Bob Thompson, National Post

If you can't wait to catch The Spirit, you are not alone. For those who might not know, The Spirit is the Frank Miller live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series.

Opening on Dec. 25, the movie arrives with lots of anticipation and a question; as in can Miller translate the 1940s noir images onto the big screen? At least Miller gets The Spirit. He was an Eisner friend. And his resume suits the challenge. Plus his intention to shoot the movie in the fancy Sin City CGI style made sense to just about everybody.

After all, Miller co-directed and co-wrote the digital Sin City with Robert Rodriguez and wrote the popular graphic novels Sin City and 300 and restored Batman as the brooding Dark Knight in comics which inspired Christopher Nolan's hit movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

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Uslan and DeSanto Catch the Spirit (PW.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:18:01 PST

Image via Wikipedia

By Douglas Wolk

Publishers Weekly

12/15/2008

From February through April, DC's The Spirit series will have a guest writing team: Michael Uslan and F.J. DeSanto, the producers of the Frank Miller-directed Spirit movie that's opening this month. Uslan hasn't written many comics since he became the producer of the Batman movies (aside from the Batman graphic novel Detective No. 27 a few years ago), but he wrote stories for The Shadow, Beowulf, Detective Comics and other series back in the early '70s, when, as he put it at a recent interview in New York, "I was a Junior Woodchuck at DC Comics. They didn't have the term 'intern' then, but it was me and that skinny kid—what was his name?—Paul... Levitz! Levitz! I don't know what happened to him, but he was a Woodchuck too."

The difficulty with creating new Spirit comics, DeSanto noted, is that the character is so closely identified with Eisner: "It's not like Batman, where you have 70 years of Batman stories by so many different creators that you can do The Dark Knight or you can do the Brave and the Bold cartoon—it's Eisner, and that's it." So, before they started writing, he and Uslan made a list of elements of Eisner's work they had to incorporate into every Spirit story.

"They had to have cinematic storytelling, influenced heavily by Hitchcock," Uslan said. "In terms of the heart of the story, they had to be influenced by Frank Capra. There had to be humanity in these stories. They had to be character-driven. Eisner's humor had to be there. Eisner's violence quotient had to be there. Eisner's over-the-top villains had to be there, and Eisner's femme fatales"—the three issues Uslan and DeSanto have written are built around Plaster of Paris, Silken Floss and Lorelei, all of whom also appear in the movie, and they're connected by a plot involving Eisner's foremost villain, the Octopus. Drawn by the former Shadowpact team of Justiniano and Walden Wong, they're full of other little nods to Eisner's work; the first page of their first issue echoes the first page of the classic Spirit story "Ten Minutes."

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VIDEO: Eva Mendes Gets In "The Spirit" (The Early Show, CBS)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:17:01 PST

Eva Mendes image via Wikipedia

(CBS) From Denzel Washington and Johnny Depp to Will Smith and Nicholas Cage, actress Eva Mendes has worked with some of the Hollywood's hottest leading men.

Mendes is now co-starring in the "The Spirit," a film based on a 1940s comic book series. She plays Sand Saref, a woman who has a special relationship with The Spirit.

"They are childhood sweethearts, explains Mendes. "This film is visually stunning. It comes from the creative, genius mind of Frank Miller. What's really unbelievable with my character is I get to play not only a jewel thief, but a woman who's been married 14 times and killed every last one of her husbands. I mean, ladies, is that not just -- it's a sick fantasy, but, still a fantasy. Somewhat of a fantasy."

"Now she is quite a dame," adds Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "[She's] got the lashes."

"She's a dame. She's a broad," says Mendes. "We paid homage to the women back then, in the 1940s -- the Rita Hayworths and Bette Davis' of the world, the Ava Gardners. I had a lot of fun paying homage to those women."

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Behind the 'Spirit' mask, a substantial career for actor Gabriel Macht (New York Daily News)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:15:01 PST

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

BY ETHAN SACKS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

December 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

Gabriel Macht as the title character in the comic book-inspired film 'The Spirit,' opening Friday.

Who was that masked man?

The star of "The Spirit," opening Friday, may not be as recognizable – with or without the mask – as castmates Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes, but the strong-jawed Gabriel Macht is ready for his closeup.

To get in the head of a character grappling with identity issues even as he wrestled with the bad guys, Macht plastered every inch of his trailer with storyboards and Xeroxes of the 1940s comic strips by Will Eisner that the movie was based on.

"His trailer was full of Spirit-phanelia," marveled Jackson. "He was dealing with his identity crisis all the time."

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Exclusive: Frank Miller Gets Into The Spirit (Superherohype.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:13:01 PST

Cover of Batman: Year One

By Edward Douglas

Dec. 19, 2008

When you talk about the comic book characters who have been around the longest, the first ones that will come to mind are Superman, who first appeared in 1938, and Batman a year later. In both cases, you can probably list and discuss their movie and television incarnations, as well as the cartoons and comic books in which the two have appeared. Then there's the case of Will Eisner's The Spirit, a pulpy comic character created by legendary cartoonist Will Eisner for a Sunday comics insert in 1940 that's only ventured off the comic pages once, in 1987, for a television movie.

The Spirit is the reincarnated alter ego of police officer Denny Colt, who was shot and killed on duty but then returned later as the indestructible crime fighter who works with Commissioner Dolan to take down Central City's tougher criminal element. Eisner's work was influenced by the early days of film noir, but it was also filled with humor and pathos and a never-ending supply of beautiful femme fatales to tempt and tease The Spirit. The character continued to appear in strips and comic books throughout the '40s, '50s and '60s, and then was reprinted extensively after that, most recently in a series of hardbound archives from DC Comics, who also resuscitated the character with new stories by top comic book talent.

When it came time to give The Spirit his first big screen feature film, there really was only one man to call for the job, and that was Will Eisner's close friend and frequent sparring partner Frank Miller, whose work during the '80s and '90s was as much influenced by Eisner as it was an antithesis to the virtues of The Spirit.

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The threads of THE SPIRIT (Mania.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:12:00 PST

Image by Strandell via Flickr

By Rob M. Worley
December 19, 2008

When we left the cast and crew of 'The Spirit' yesterday , actor Dan Lauria (who plays commissioner Dolan in the film) expressed his enthusiasm for the wardrobe he had in director Frank Miller's modern noir vision of Will Eisner's comic.

"I loved the costume you picked out for me. Right out of Bart MacLane's closet," Lauria said, referring to the actor who appeared in over a hundred classic movies including 'The Maltese Falcon'.

Of course the most important costume to get right were the threads Gabriel Macht wore as The Spirit.

"I worked hard on Gabe’s costume because at first it looked really foolish, until we spruced you up with the black outfit and everything," Miller told reporters but credits costume designer Michael Dennison for bringing the leading man's look to fruition.

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Eva Mendes captures 'Spirit' of film genre (NJ.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:11:01 PST

by Lisa Rose

The Star-Ledger

Thursday December 18, 2008,

Glamorous, enigmatic and cutthroat in a literal way, the women in films and graphic novels from Frank Miller tend to be a bit more, er, proactive than typical comic genre female characters.

"The Spirit," opening Christmas Day, features Eva Mendes as a jewel thief/ace swimmer named Sand Saref. She co-stars with Scarlett Johansson as murderous scientist Silken Floss and Paz Vega as knife-wielding belly dancer Plaster of Paris.

Based on a 1940 comic by Will Eisner, the picture is the sole directorial debut from Miller who co-directed his graphic novel adaptation of "Sin City" with Robert Rodriguez. The writer's swords-and sandals epic "300" has also been made into a hit film.

The title character (Gabriel Macht) is a masked misfit for whom death is a curable condition. He battles a fashionable nemesis called the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).

On paper, Sand Saref could seem a type, a woman fixated with diamonds. Mendes says, however, that the character's neurotic need for shiny things is more than simple materialism.

This is the Cuban-American star's second appearance in a comic book adaptation, following her performance in "Ghost Rider" as a journalist in love with the engine-revving hero (Nicolas Cage). At 34, she has a list of credits that ranges from early roles in music videos to big parts in comedies -- "Hitch" -- and dramas -- "We Own the Night."

LIONSGATEEva Mendes in "The Spirit," opening Christmas Day.

We sat down for a chat with Mendes -- looking fab in a strapless dress -- during a "Spirit" press day at a New York hotel last weekend.

Q: Frank Miller is such an interesting visual stylist, how would you describe his technique working with the cast, helping you work on the characters?

A: He was very specific. Sometimes, when he was trying to communicate something to me about a scene, he would draw it out for me. In two seconds, he'd draw me as Sand Saref. I was like, "Can you sign that for me?"

Q: Did you get to keep any of them?

A: I kept a couple.

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FAST CHAT Frank Miller talks about 'The Spirit' (Newsday)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:09:01 PST

Frank Miller in London, image by juliet_a via Flickr

Frank Lovece
Dec. 21, 2008

One of the few comics creators who has become his own brand, writer-artist Frank Miller first made his mark with a gritty, film-noir take on Marvel Comics' "Daredevil." He went on to pop-culture stardom with DC Comics' " The Dark Knight Returns," a 1986 miniseries envisioning a bitter, reactionary Batman a few decades from now, fighting against a corrupt world as seen through Miller's Ayn Rand-devotee eyes. His vision helped inspire the similarly dark Batman movies, and the less successful "Daredevil" film (2003).

Miller went on to such creator-owned comics as "Sin City" and "300," from independent publisher Dark Horse. Each became the basis of a popular movie, with director Robert Rodriguez granting Miller co-director credit for his help on "Frank Miller's Sin City" (2005).

Now flying solo, Miller, 51, has adapted " The Spirit," Will Eisner's legendary 1940-52 comics series that appeared as seven-page stories in Sunday newspapers. (The movie opens Thursday.) Its tales of an average-Joe-masked crime-fighter in a rumpled suit, encountering both Everyman criminals and exotic international thieves, became famous for both their humanistic fables and Eisner's pioneering techniques. Miller recently spoke at the Waldorf- Astoria with frequent contributor Frank Lovece.

For those poor, deprived souls who don't know his work, what makes Will Eisner so important to comics?

Well, it's like asking what Thomas Edison did for the lightbulb. Eisner was one of the people who created [the medium of] comic books. He was one of the first people who ever took comics out of the four-panel strip and showed the possibilities of the full page. And so he was one of the founding fathers. It's like asking what Thomas Jefferson had to do with the Constitution.

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Spirit stars at abandoned warehouse (The Press Association)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:32:01 PST

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Dec 4, 2008

The stars of comic book film adaptation The Spirit have appeared at an abandoned warehouse.

Rather than a Leicester Square premiere, Samuel L Jackson, Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johannson graced the red carpet at the Old Post Office in central London, ahead of the film's world premiere in New York next week.

Jackson, who plays The Octopus, said his character was the villain to The Spirit's eponymous superhero. "He's kind of crazy, kind of wild, kind of genius and he wants to be the biggest criminal in the world," he said.

Johannson and Mendes both play sexy female characters. Mendes, wearing a ruffled yellow Bill Blass dress and Louis Vuitton heels, said she enjoyed baring her flesh for the film.

"It's so fun because it's not me. The minute I think it's me I wig out but it's so not me. I'm playing a character so if I drop my towel and show my bum it's not my bum."

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"The Spirit" inspires us to talk femme fatales (AfterEllen.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:06:00 PST

by StuntDouble

Christmas day is just around the corner, and you know what that means: ribbons, tags, packages, boxes, bags — and the release of half a dozen much-hyped, mega-budget films. Among them is the movie adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit. It doesn't have any Nazis, puppies or backward-aging babies, but it promises killer performances from a bevy of women who want nothing more than seduction and destruction.

Scarlett Johansson plays Silken Floss, a frigid vixen; Eva Mendes plays Sand Saref, a conniving jewel thief; and Jaime King plays Lorelei, a phantom siren.

Of course, no superhero's tale would be complete without the quick-witted girl next door. To balance out Spirit's femme fatales is the police commissioner's daughter, Ellen Dolan, played by out actress Sarah Paulson.

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Book Review: The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion (Parka Blogs)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:33:00 PST

This is a hardcover book with no dust jacket. It's thick and the paperstock is good.

Included are many stories on the production process, Will Eisner's comic panels, behind the scenes photography on set, film stills and movie storyboards. The pages are well laid out and literally soaked with high resolution photos.

Mark Cotta Vaz has provided an in-depth writeup into the production process. The book starts all with a little history of Will Eisner and The Spirit, and goes on to talk about the process of making the movie. There are many interesting things to read, like how the studios negotiated the contract with Will Eisner, the casting of characters, shooting in front of the green screen, shooting different parts of the movies, death and rebirth of The Spirit on the movie and more.

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'Up, Up and Oy Vey!' Jews utilize comics to find a way to soar (JewishExponent.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:31:00 PST

Cover via Amazon

By Aaron Passman
December 04, 2008

If your idea of comic books is capes and tights and nefarious villains, then it's time to look again. As comic books and graphic novels have become an increasingly respected literary format in the past few decades, there's been a complementary trend in examining the Jewish connection to comics -- a medium that, like the film industry, began with no small amount of help from the Jews.

In fact, the connection between Jews and comic books has spawned something of a cottage industry over the past few years, including panel discussions, blogs and several books published on the topic -- the most recent of which, Arie Kaplan's From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, was released by Philadelphia's own Jewish Publication Society.

Superman was not Jewish, per se, although Jewish themes abound.

According to Paul Buhle, senior lecturer in the history and American civilization departments at Brown University, the past decade or so has seen "a broad legitimization within Jewish studies of looking at popular culture, and thinking about popular culture and Jewish roles [in it]."

"Eighty years ago, to talk about the Jewish role in popular culture was considered to be slightly dangerous, because it raised Hollywood-like hackles of Jews controlling young minds in America," continued Buhle, who edited the collection Jews and American Comics. Now, however, "these subjects are an object of examination, both entirely positive -- Jewish contributions to basketball -- and not so positive -- the Jewish role in organized crime.

"The field is open," added Buhle, to almost any area where Jews have made an impact, so it's only natural that comic books would be examined as well.

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Scarlett Johansson Says She'll Record Another Album, Still Has Leonard Cohen On The Brain (MTV.com)

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:04:00 PST

MTV Shows

Actress released Tom Waits cover LP in the spring.

By Jocelyn Vena, with additional reporting by Josh Horowitz

Scarlett Johansson has had quite an active year. She starred in a couple of movies, married actor Ryan Reynolds and even indulged her inner rock star by releasing an album. But don't think that Johansson is done with the music business just yet, because she has plans for a follow-up.

Back in the spring, Johansson released a Tom Waits cover album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, and she promises it isn't her last. "I would love to do another album," she told MTV News while promoting "The Spirit," the new film based on Will Eisner's comic book.

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NY Times on Frank Miller's "The Spirit" Movie: "108 overstuffed, interminable minutes"

bob@aspiritedlife.com (Bob Andelman) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:11:00 PST

By A. O. SCOTT

December 25, 2008

"... I’m just trying to figure out why, somewhere in the middle of “The Spirit,” Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson arrive on screen decked out in swastikas and jackboots. Nothing in the logic of the film explains it, but then, to use the phrase “the logic of the film” when talking about “The Spirit” may be to take the “oxy” out of “oxymoronic.”

To ask why anything happens in Frank Miller’s sludgy, hyper-stylized adaptation of a fabled comic book series by Will Eisner may be an exercise in futility. The only halfway interesting question is why the thing exists at all."

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