Fun Fact: In the early 1970s, William Friedkin bought the film rights to The Spirit and asked Will Eisner to write a screenplay. Eisner declined, but recommend Harlan Ellison to write the script. In 1976, it was announced that Friedkin's Spirit film would be a television movie and air on NBC. Plans for the film dissolved when Friedkin and Ellison had an unrelated argument.
Brad Bird also made an attempt to pitch an animated The Spirit movie, but no film studio wanted to produce it. You can watch an animated pitch trailer for on youtube, it's really good.
In sprite of his cantankerous reputation, Ellison was very respectful of the classic writers, and very much a stick to the source kind of guy when tasked with adapting the work of another even with the blessing of the author. I have no doubt that Ellison's argument had everything to do with Friedkin wanting changes to the script that would have butchered the story. If memory serves correct, this would have been around the time he had a falling out with the producer of "A boy and his Dog" for making changes to the story he did not approve of, and left the production, as well as insisting his name be removed. Years prior to that he actually had a physical alteration with a T.V. producer who wanted him to add an idea to the script that would have resulted in plagiarism. He was fired from the show, but apparently someone higher up then the producer realized Ellison was right, and the bit was never added.
spirit is such an underrated character! You should definitely do a history of Captain Planet, Freakazoid, the Powerpuff Girls,Ben 10, Savage Dragon, Fire Breather(Duncan RosenBlatt),Popeye,Danny Phantom,XJ9 Jenny The Sentry,Sailormoon,Samurai Jack and Link(Legend of Zelda)!
There was also a 1987 TV movie staring Sam Jones as The Spirit which I remember most is when Jones would get his clothes torn and he would look like the images of The Spirit from his comic.
Thank you Variant for addressing the racial stereo types in the Spirit books and the racial discriminations black citizens had to put up with during those cruel times. It takes-GUTS-to mention and address these topics that in today's society most people deny it's existence. And it's usually denied by the people who doesn't feel it's effects.
I will always have a soft spot for The Spirit. Even the movie, which I can easily recognize as not being good, has such intentional kitsch charm that I cannot help but love it.
Brad Bird (The Incredibles, etc) attempted to make an animated version of the character that was way closer to the mark than any other mediated effort. Denny Colt was resurrected after being declared dead, teamed up with young Ebony, and spent time clowning when he wasn't on a case. A brief sample of the animation can be found on youtube. Lack of funding prevented any more of a effort. but the sample gave a pretty durn good look at a superior what-could-have-been.
he stopped carrying a gun after the first few issues leaving him to handle crooks with fists alone. he fought like a maniac and in the end wound up looking as bad or worse than the bad guys he beat the snot out of. His only power was pluck combined with a good right cross on the button.
Did you know Brad Bird (Director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille & Mission Impossible 4) wanted to make a animated adaptation of the Spirit but sadly didn't happen. Test footage can be found and it's actually pretty good, wish this project was greenlit. Could have been a classic.
Can you do the history of magneto, gambit, judge dredd, Cassie hack, qwenpool, hit monkey, vamperrella, moon girl & devil dinosaur and league of extraordinary gentlemen
Can you do history of Cyclone, Rhino, Sandman, Chameleon, Scorpion and the Human Fly along with Kurt Connors the Lizard. Also can you do the history of the Flash Villains like Turtle, Magenta, Cobalt Blue, Mirror Master and Top?
Any chance of doing a history of episode on “Madman” by Mike Allred? I don’t think anybody ever talks about him but every time I see or think of freakazoid, I remember him! Just a suggestion, happy new year!
Saw The Spirit in NYC on new years eve in 2008. Thought it was going to capture the same vision as Sin City did..unfortunately not so much, but was still a decent film. The cinematography is really good.
The black characters looked like THAT in many incarnations even in live action. It's not something we should be proud of but we should remember our mistake. We need to REMEMBER & UNDERSTAND our mistakes not erase them.
You left out the Warren Magazines reprints of the 70's. Those were published in B&W with a center section re-colored by the late, great Richard Corben. New covers were provided by Eisner.
Man I loved the Frank Miller movie and would end up falling in love with the comics soon after. Sad to say, but the spirit probably wouldn’t last long in the modern age. He comes from a time in history when the average superhero was just a white guy and a nice pressed suit with a mask and whatever car the rider fantasized about having. Dick Tracy, was the OG but Pulp Heroes as a concept in the modern day is just John Wick
If you're discussing The Spirit you should really mention John Law, essentially The Spirit without a mask, and how Eisner re-used art between both characters.
Are you going to do history of the Supreme Intelligence, Ronan the Accuser, Dar-Benn and Ael-Dan who all played a major role in the upcoming The Marvels movie? Are you going to do history of Jentorra, Kryler(played by Bill Murray), Multiple Man, Cassie Lang as Stature/Stinger and the city of Chronopolis in honour of the Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumainia movie?
in 1987 NASA launches the last of it's deep space probes. Captian William Buck Rogers. Ohh and of course Flash! Ahhh Ahhh, savior of the universe! The coolest and OG flash, Flash Gordon.
Since you did history of Marvel's Black Knight, Can you do history of Marvel's Dreadknight? If you seen the recent episodes of season 7 of the Flash, can you do history of Impulse, XS, Psych, Fuerza, Steadfast, Chillblaine, Abracadabra, Rainbow Raider, Mirror Master and Top in your next video?
What do you think is the best thing about the detective Spirit? Which one of his abilities do you think is the best? Who's his Marvel counterpart and what would happen if he was similar to Deadman?
