Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 72 of 581)

Today’s first entry in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for any fan of the upstart wrestling federation, AEW, or their their current tag-team champs, The Young Bucks. This book was just published yesterday, but it’s already available from any bookseller.

Young Bucks: Killing the Business from Backyards to the Big Leagues 
By Matt and Nick Jackson
Dey Street Books
ISBN-13 : 978-0062937834
$27.99 (discounted at Amazon)

This book has been highly-anticipated for some time, so let’s go to the press release for details…

The electric and daring independent wrestling tag team share their inspiring story of how two undersized, ambitious athletes from Southern California became the idols of millions of popular sports fans, coveted among the ranks of AEW’s elite wrestling lineup.

Young Bucks begins in Southern California, where two young boys grew up dreaming of success and fame. Matt and Nick look back on the sacrifices they made to achieve their ambitions, from taking odd jobs to pay for their own wrestling ring to hosting backyard events with friends. They share their joy at being recruited into the independent California wrestling circuit and the work it took to finally make it professionally, and speak frankly about what it means to have the support of millions of fans cheering their talents in arenas nationwide. The Young Bucks talk endearingly about their sport, their faith, and their families, sharing personal reflections and behind-the-scenes anecdotes while paying tribute to the wrestling acts and inspirations that came before them. They also elaborate on this historical time in the evolution of wrestling, as the sport and its culture dramatically change day by day.

Featuring over 60 photographs and alternating between each brother’s perspective, this entertaining memoir is a complete portrait of what it means to grow into—and give back to—wrestling, the sport and profession they embody and love.

Famous for their highflying moves, Superkicks, and viral videos, Matt and Nick Jackson are two of the hottest and most talented competitors in professional wrestling today. Known as the Young Bucks, this pair of ambitious brothers are an inspiration to both fans and aspiring wrestlers worldwide due to their message of resilience and determination. That they are also faithful family men devoted to their loved ones gives them additional appeal.

Told with the brothers’ signature wit and charm, Young Bucks is warm, heartfelt story of hope, perseverance, and undying ambition.

Young Bucks: Killing the Business from Backyards to the Big Leagues  is, by all accounts, a fun read. It’s a cool story, and the perfect gift for any wrestling fan. If they’re going to be tuned in to watch AEW’s Dynamite Wednesday night, then this is the gift for them!

Our final entry in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide for today is a website recommendation where you can find the perfect gift for anyone who loves and wants to support music made right here in West Virginia.

The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization devoted to celebrating and preserving the legacy of the contributions of West Virginians to the world of music.

You can help them in their mission by buying stuff from their webstore, where all proceeds go to the WVMHOF. They have lots of music, apparel and other gifts that could brighten up the life of the music lover on your gift list, and you could also buy a membership for someone, so they can feel the joy of supporting local music themselves.

Allow me to quote their mission statement,

The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting and preserving the rich and lasting contributions West Virginians have made to all genres of music.

The Hall of Fame’s mission is to recognize the many important musicians who have helped shape the rich spectrum of American music from country, classical and jazz to rock, R&B, gospel and traditional.

The WVMHoF’s mission also includes establishing a permanent facility to house the Hall of Fame and an accompanying museum to exhibit and archive recordings and memorabilia.

The mission of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame:

Recognition – inducting important West Virginians. The nominating process for the first round of inductees began in spring, 2007.

Education – offering themed displays, curriculum and speakers to schools around the state.

Preserving – collecting and preserving existing sound recordings.
Collection – collecting and displaying memorabilia.

Objectives include:

Educating people about state artists and reinforcing that a career in the arts is both viable and valuable.

Presenting lectures, workshops and performances.

Creating a catalog of LPs and tapes from West Virginia artists and archiving them in a format that will be easily accessible to the public.

Establishing a building fund for a permanent facility which will include a museum and performance hall, a sidewalk of “stars” around the facility and a shop that will feature CDs by state musicians.

The brainchild of Michael Lipton, the Hall of Fame sprung to life in 2005. They recently inducted a new set of West Virginia music stalwarts, and currently have a temporary location in The Charleston Town Center.

Visit their website for the full story of their mission and history, plus information on how you can join and make donations. You can also shop their webstore for music, apparel and other gifts.

It’s a great way to support the local scene, support the WV Music Hall of Fame and make the local music lover on your gift list very happy.

Next up in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide we have three new series of one of the most popular toys introduced just before Christmas last year. These are available and in stock almost anywhere, and they can be ordered from Amazon, if you want to shop from home.

Barbie Color Reveal Doll with 7 Surprises 4 Mystery Bags, Surprise Wig, Skirt, Shoes & Sponge
Three series From Which To Choose
by Mattel
$14.99

It’s been a while since I recommended a Barbie in the gift guide. The Color Reveal Barbie concept is a pretty cool innovation that combines the fun of blind box toys with the play value of color-change toys and water play. It’s a great gift for kids who love fashion dolls, and also like to mess around with water and paint.

What you get is a basic Barbie doll, with molded hair and a painted-on swimsuit, only she’s covered, head-to-toe, in a layer of water soluable paint. Barbie and her mystery accessories come packaged in a large tube that is used for her transformation, and can be used for storage after.

With 7 surprises in 1 package, the Barbie Color Reveal dolls deliver all kinds of play value. You start the experience by removing the outer layer of packaging, unscrewing the top of the tube and pulling out a doll covered from head to toe in Color Reveal paint and 4 decorated bags that keep the contents hidden.

Fill the tube with warm water, place the doll inside and swirl her around -the water clouds up for a magical effect.

Pull out the doll to reveal her look -each doll has a different combination of eye color, sculpted hair color, skin tone and decorated leotard.

Open the 4 mystery bags to reveal their surprises -a color-change wig, skirt, pair of shoes and small sponge; store them in the tube after play.

There are three styles that are easy to find right now: The “Foodie Series” (seen left) comes with a Barbie covered in purple paint who has food-themed clothing; The “Mermaid Series” includes a Barbie Mermaid with rooted hair, who is covered with blue paint from the chest down; The “Sunny ‘n’ Cool Series” features a Barbie covered with metallic blue paint, who comes with bright, summer-y designs on her clothes.

Of course while these are great for younger kids, I can’t help but look at the customizing potential for 1/6 scale dioramas. The “Sunny ‘n’ Cool Series” Barbie, covered with metallic blue paint, makes a pretty good start for a custom figure of Platinum, from The Metal Men, or she could stand-in as any female robot type for a mad scientist lab diorama.

In fact, with the molded hair (the dolls with molded hair come with wigs), these dolls could be spray-painted any color, if you’re looking into a diorama or art project that doesn’t work well with rooted hair.

But the fact is, these are cool toys that would make great gifts for any kid who wants a one-time science project that results in a fun fashion doll for them. There is also a huge Color Reveal “Slumber Party” set (seen below) that includes one Barbie (painted silver), a Chelsea doll, three pets and over thirty accessories, all in one giant tube. You can find that set for under forty bucks at most online stores, including Walmart.

Our first entry in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide today is a great gift for fans of Star Trek who loved the Animated Series, but always felt it didn’t get enough attention. This is also great for any fan of Star Trek, or anyone interested in animation in general.

Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series
by Aaron Harvey (Author), Rich Schepis (Author), Saturday Morning Trek (Draft Writer)
Weldon Owen
ISBN-13 : 978-1681884219
$34.99 (discounted at Amazon)

This is the first and only guide to the beloved and star-studded Star Trek: The Animated Series, the in-canon (mostly) continuation of the iconic Star Trek: Original Series.

Star Trek was left for dead in 1969, after the cancellation of The Original Series (TOS). However, even though new adventures of the Enterprise and its crew were not being produced, it remained in the zeitgeist due to syndication and fan-run conventions. As a result, Star Trek became more popular and led to Gene Roddenberry and Filmation Studios continuing the Enterprise’s original five-year mission on Saturday morning television.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS) was a critical success, airing 22 episodes over two seasons and earning the franchise its first Emmy Award in 1975. The show featured the voices of almost the entire original cast, including William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, along with TOS writers Dorothy Fontana (“Journey to Babel”), David Gerrold (“The Trouble with Tribbles”), acclaimed science-fiction author Larry Niven, and many more.

This book is the first officially dedicated to TAS, and provides fans with behind-the-scenes production documents, never-before-seen art, and all-new interviews with the people who produced the Enterprise’s new animated adventures.

Star Trek: The Official Guide to The Animated Series reveals the efforts it took to translate TOS into animated form, includes a Databank encyclopedia of new and returning characters, ships, and planets, as well as trivia, bloopers, and TAS’s connections to other Star Trek shows.

This intense look at the first successful Star Trek spin-off is long overdue. Available from any bookseller, using the ISBN code, or at a discount from Amazon.

Our final entry today in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a pretty specific gift suggestion, since for some aging comics fans this represents a bit of a Holy Grail.

Marvel Comics Mini-Books Collectible Boxed Set: A History and Facsimiles of Marvel’s Smallest Comic Books
by Marvel Entertainment, Geoff Spear and Mark Evanier
Harry N. Abrams
ISBN-13 : 978-1419743429
$29.99 (discounted at Amazon)

You’ll have to excuse me for being old enough to remember this, but when I was just turning four years old, the idea of finding Marvel Comics in gumball machines was mind-blowingly epic. Thanks to some older fellow comic book fans I got to see some of these treasure years later, but I was not allowed to open them because they were so fragile. These were fifty-page comic books that were smaller than a postage stamp.

Being four when they were published, I literally didn’t have a dime to spare, if I’d ever have been able to find a gumball machine stocked with these in the first place, but for years I wondered what the books were like on the inside. Now I don’t have to wonder any more.

As the blurb goes…

Reprinted for the first time, the world’s smallest comic books—originally printed in 1966 and now enlarged to a more readable size—in a seven-book collectable boxed set

In 1966, Marvel printed what the Guinness Book of World Records certified as the world’s smallest comic books. Smaller than a postage stamp, and sold in gumball machines across the country, these six books told the quirky origin stories of Marvel’s most beloved characters at that time: the Amazing Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Mighty Thor, Captain America, Sergeant Nick Fury, and Millie the Model.

Marvel Comics Mini-Books reproduces facsimile editions of all six books in one affordable box set—along with a seventh book written by Mark Evanier that details the history and creation of these rare, vintage collectables.

That seventh book is the icing on the cake that makes this package worth more than just a novelty. It includes an essay by Mark Evanier that attempts to identify the creators of these comics (many are clearly drawn by Marie Severin) and weaves his personal quest for these when they came out with the sketchy history of the company that made them. Also of value in this seventh book is that each of these mini comics is presented actual size as a two-page spread.

That may seem redundant, since each mini-comic is also printed much larger as one of the other six books in this small slipcover edition, but the truth is, they actually read better at the tinier size.

Each of the seven books measures about four by six inches, and each small hardcover fits into a slipcover that is nicely decorated with the gumball machine insert graphics for the mini comics.

Geoff Spear did an amazing job photographing and enlarging the printed mini comics, but as small as these books are, it looks like they’re actually presented here larger than the size they were originally drawn.

These are cute and quaint and scratch the itch for collectors who have wanted to see them for more than fifty years, but they’re also a pretty cool gift for new fans of the Marvel Universe who are curious about the early days of Marvel’s merchandising. The “comics” are mostly one-panel drawings facing a page of text, but they’re a pretty cool example of forced minimalism in comics.

You can order Marvel Comics Mini-Books Collectible Boxed Set: A History and Facsimiles of Marvel’s Smallest Comic Books from any bookseller using the ISBN code, or snap it up from Amazon for almost ten bucks off the list price.

Figures Toy Company

Our next recommendation in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is for the nostalgic action figure collector on your list who grew up in the 1970s. It’s also a great place to shop for any fan of DC Comics, KISS, The Three Stooges or classic Hanna Barbera characters.

If the adult action figure collector on your list is pushing (or pulling) 50, you may want to visit Figures Toy Company, who are currently creating an insane amount of MEGO-style 8-inch action figures. Their bread-and-butter are their DC Comics figures, and the offshoot Classic Batman TV Show figures, but they also create 8 and 12-inch figures of KISS, Evel Knievel  The Three Stooges and several other pop culture icons.

In addition to that, they also make wrestling action figures in the same scale as the popular WWE figures. You can find Ring of Honor figures of A.J. Styles and Kevin Steen (Owens) from before they joined WWE, and several independent and legendary wrestlers.

But the real meat of the Figures Toy Company website is the ReMEGO style stuff. Not only can you get classic DC Comics figures (tons of ’em), you can also get carrying cases and reproductions of the MEGO Batmobile, BatCycle and Mobile Bat-Lab plus a deluxe BatCave playset. . Of late FTC has really beefed up their line-up of less familiar DC Characters, creating cool 8-inch figures of The Creeper, Swamp Thing,Kalibak, Desaad and more. Fans of Hanna Barbera’s adventure cartoons can find figures of Jonny Quest, Birdman, The Galaxy Trio and of course, Scooby Doo and the gang.

FTC has also released sub-sets of DC Comics characters, with a focus on the Batman TV Show, The Superfriends cartoon, The Teen Titans, The Shazam characters and more.

You can also find figures of the group, KISS, in several different outfits, depicting different album covers. If you want to go old-school and give your giftee their gift a little early, they even have a ReMEGO style Santa and Mrs. Claus.

If you have a MEGO collector (or indie wrestling fan) on your shopping list, Figures Toy Company is the place to go.

First up in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide today we have three perfect gifts for the spaced-out Hippie in your life. Hippies are still a thing, right? If not, maybe these gifts will persuade someone to expand their mind and live their lives in the cosmic moment.

This entry in the gift guide is inspired by The Monday Marathon of Nigel Pye’s bi-weekly soul-expanding show, Psychedelic Shack, which you can hear until 3 PM this Monday on The AIR.

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
by Timothy Leary
Citadel
ISBN-13 : 978-0806538570
$15.95 (cheaper at Amazon)

The Shaman Shyster Guru of the Summer of Love, Timothy Leary, extrapolates the idea of better living through chemistry with the Tibetan Book of the Dead and created an artifact of how they thought we would move into the future, way back in the past.

Perhaps I should quote the PR…

Created by the prophetic shaman-professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), this foundational text serves as a model and a guide for all mind-expanding inquiries. Based on a unique interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Psychedelic Experience remains a vital testament to broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan meditation techniques and psychotropic substances.

More than fifty years after the Summer of Love, the promise of the psychoactive ’60s—that deeper self-awareness and greater harmony can be achieved through reality-bending substances and practices—is close to becoming a mainstream phenomenon. The signs are everywhere, from a renewed interest in the therapeutic effects of LSD and micro-dosing, to the popularity of the ayahuasca trips and the annual spectacle of Burning Man. Now, for a new generation seeking the trip of a lifetime, The Psychedelic Experience is the essential guidebook to getting there.

The updated edition includes a dedication to Aldous Huxley with a short introductory citation from Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, which was used by the Beatles in the song Tomorrow Never Knows and a brand-new introduction by Daniel Pinchbeck, author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism.

“It is a book for the living as well as for the dying.”
—Lama Govinda, founder of the Arya Maitreya Mandala

This book is either inspiring or hilarious, depending on your point of view, but you may know just the person who would really dig this, baby.

It’s a quaint, historical artifact now, so enjoy it for what it is.

Dreams Unreal: The Genesis of the Psychedelic Rock Poster
by Titus O’Brien (Author), Andrew Connors (Preface), Scott B. Montgomery (Foreword)
University of New Mexico Press published in association with Albuquerque Museum
ISBN-13 : 978-0826361509
$39.95 (discounted at Amazon)

Okay, this is where my interest in psychedelica lay. I don’t care for the drugs, and if I expand my mind any further I’ll never be able to find a hat that fits me. I love psychedelic stuff for the art and the music, and this book combines both of them into a glorious collection of incredible images and the stories behind them. Again, we quoteth the blurb…

The music scene that sprang up across the Bay Area from 1965 to 1970 was energetic, immensely creative, and loudly outspoken. Bands needed theaters to play in, music promoters needed to get the word out about the shows, and a group of talented young artists producing dreamy, free-form work needed a medium of expression. Thus was born the psychedelic rock poster, one of the most explosively inventive, instantly recognizable, and profoundly influential aesthetic movements of the last century. A group of young visual artists provided perfectly trippy visuals to accompany soundtracks by bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Doors, and many more. These artists–including Lee Conklin, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Bonnie Maclean, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, Wes Wilson, and others created a new artistic genre: the collectible rock concert poster. Some are household names today while others are largely forgotten, but the poster art that gave visual life to the amazing music lives on in Dreams Unreal.

This book is the perfect gift for anyone who loves psychedelic art, music history or just coolness in general. This book is 392 pages of some of the finest rock poster are ever made, and the stories behind them.

Follow Me Down: Vanguard’s Lost Psychedelic Era (1966-1970)
CD/Vinyl/Downoad
Available from Amazon

This collection of killer Psychedelic Rock tunes doesn’t offer up many household names, but the music is amazing and it’s a great snapshot of one of the quickest-moving eras of musical evolution.

Vanguard is primarily known as a folk and blues label, so it was a bit of a revelation when we found the compilation Follow Me Down: Vanguard’s Lost Psychedelic Era 1966-1970.
As Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote for AllMusic,

” Like so many labels and musicians of the time, Vanguard expanded their horizons in the late ’60s, taking a cue from the success of their act Country Joe & the Fish to sign a bunch of weird, woolly guitar acts that specialized in winding, elliptical jams loosely rooted in folk. Elsewhere, there were bands specializing in fuzz-drenched stomps and frenzied journeys to the center of their minds, but the groups Vanguard signed — or at least the ones showcased on this 18-track collection of album cuts and forgotten singles — never followed a straight path and favored pulsating liquefied grooves. Sometimes these ever-circulating patterns are a shade too solipsistic — the Serpent Power’s 13-minute “The Endless Tunnel” does seem like it will never end — but that indulgence not only is the charm of this collection, it also results in several wonderfully elastic and ridiculous moments that capture all the odd, misshapen glory of the psychedelic era. A key thing to keep in mind with regard to Follow Me Down is that many of these acts — acts that aren’t strictly from the West Coast, either; the Third Power hailed from the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills and the Frost were from the Motor City proper, Elizabeth were from Philadelphia, Third Bardo leader Jeff Monn was from New York City — were more about sound than song. This emphasis on aural tides means the sculpted songs do stand out — whether it’s the frenzied “Travelin’ Around” from Circus Maximus or the distorto-hippie blues of Far Cry’s “Hellhound” or Monn’s “I Can Understand Your Problem,” which almost seems like a bid for AM radio in this context — but the best way to enjoy Follow Me Down is just to follow the compilation blindly: the point isn’t the destination, it’s the journey.”

This was originally a Record Store Day release six years ago, but it’s now widely available. And there you have it, a perfect record/CD/Download for the fan of Psychedelic Rock who may have all the more famous stuff in their collection already.

During the month of November, PopCult’s Monday Morning Art will present pieces of art created using MAX Build More bricks. You can read all about them HERE.

Today’s piece is  a mixed-media hybrid of a building brick scultpure and digital painting. I was interested in creating a structure that would only be photographed from one angle, and then digitally attacked to create a psychedelic/impressionistic thing-a-ma-jig.

If you want to see it bigger, just click on the image. Below you can see a non-clickable image of the raw photo, before I got all painty with it.

Remember to check back with PopCult later Monday around 11 AM EST for the continuation of The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. Today we’ll bring you three entries, with about an hour between each. One will have more than one item! You can read about it below.

Meanwhile, Monday at 9 AM on The AIR, the Monday Marathon brings you six hours of Psychedelic Shack, as we employ Nigel Pye to tie into the first entry in the gift guide.  The marathon follows the regularly-scheduled repeat of last weeks Big Electric Cat at 7 AM.

At 3 PM on Prognosis, Herman Linte brings us a show made up entirely of progressive rock that was released in the year 2020.  That’s followed by a classic Prognosis and an evening with one more NOISE BRIGADE plus Radio Free Charleston. You can hear replays of Prognosis Tuesdays at 7 AM, Wednesdays at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 9 AM. 

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

Today’s final pick in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a pre-order for an item that will ship on December 1. This is a new creation from Parker Jacobs, who has created art and designs for The Aquabats and Yo Gabba Gabba (and is in a cool ska band called GoGo 13!),  and it’s the kind of gift that families will want to bust out early, because it wallows in the holiday spirit.

I’m recommending the big bundle, and I’m just going to turn it over to their website entry, because it explains everything…

It’s the hottest holiday item of whatever year this is!

IT’S SANTA ON A PANDA!

The original (and not quite yet world famous) newest holiday phenomenon starting this holiday season!! Are you sick of doing Gnome on a Phone every year? US TOO! This is way more fun for everyone!

It’s the fun, wholesome story of Santa getting help from a Panda (since his reindeer are all on vacation), a boy who wants to ruin Christmas for everyone, and sharing the gift of Christmas and saving the day! Santa magnetically AND MAGICALLY attaches to Panda, and you get a hardcover book that you can read along with! OR you can just scan the code on the back of the book with your camera phone and be whisked away to a video that will read & sing the story to you! DO YOU HEAR THAT PARENTS?? KIDS CAN DO IT THEMSELVES! So you, or a fun video on the internet, can read & sing it to your kids whenever you want! The internet is open 24/7.

Included are:
– A plush Santa
– A plush Panda
– A hardcover fully illustrated book of the story of Santa on a Panda
– A QR code on the back of the book that takes you to the website to sing along to the Santa on a Panda song. Just open any phone camera app and hover over the code. It’s so easy, even Santas and Pandas can do it!
– A 45rpm (limited edition of 300) record featuring Santa on a Panda on A side and Peppermint Ice Cream as the B side. All signed and numbered by the artist and author, Parker Jacobs!

Santa measures approximately 5″ high
Panda measures approximately 13″ long
Book measures approximatly 8.5″ x 8.5″
And our love for you is, of course, immeasurable.

 

To read & sing along with Santa on a Panda:

you can go to https://tinyurl.com/yxnc5pqt as well as download the Santa on a Panda song (and the Peppermint Ice Cream song!) on all major streaming services! iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and more!

Special pre-order offer: item will ship 12/1/20

If you’re a cheapskate, you can order Santa on a Panda without the cool vinyl. You can also get T Shirts and enamel pins. You find all these things now at THIS LINK, so you can make sure that you can groove out this Christmas with Santa on a Panda. Check out the short infomercial below. This is great for kids of all ages (and Aquabats fans, too)…

Our next recommendation in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a slim, inexpensive collection of some of the best comic book stories ever published. Any comic reader who enjoys excellence, any fan of the legendary Will Eisner, and also any fan of crime noir will love THE SPIRIT: AN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.

THE SPIRIT: AN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
by Will Eisner
Clover Press, LLC
ISBN-13: 978-1951038052
$12.99

Will Eisner’s The Spirit is one of the most important comic book features ever, due to the influence it’s had on comics since it debuted in 1940. Eisner’s mastery of short-form storytelling, combined with his innovation in building much of the language of graphic storytelling and the comic book continues to influence comic book artists many decades after the publication of new stories of The Spirit ended. Eisner was not only a master of laying out a story and panel composition, but his finished art (some of it completed by assistants under his direction) still stands out as some of the best comics has ever seen.

It is a testament to Eisner’s talents that The Spirit has remained relevant and has been kept in print for such a long time. I first discovered The Spirit in the 1970s, when Jim Warren brought the character back to newsstands in a magazine-sized reprint series.

My first impression of the character was in black-and-white, with tones added, so even forty-five years later, it’s still a little jarring for me to see the character in color.

But The Spirit was originally published in color, as a comic book/comic strip hybrid. The Spirit Section was a weekly tabloid-sized comic book, distributed as a Sunday Newspaper insert, and at its peak in the 1940s, was delivered to over five million households.

The Spirit was the masked vigilante identity of Denny Colt, a Central City police detective gunned down in the line of duty who fakes his death so that he can continue to fight crime outside of the boundaries of the law, with the approval of the city’s police commissioner.

While that might lead you to think that The Spirit is a gritty, noiresque crime drama, you’d only be partly correct. In addition to being the finest comics noir ever created, The Spirit also offered up light-hearted character studies, poignant urban fables and regularly mixed in elements of romance, comedy, horror and adventure with the not-so-standard detective stories.

THE SPIRIT: AN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION is a delightful sampler, with nine vintage stories (five of them with new color by award winning colorists Laura Martin and Jeromy Cox), each with a brief introduction by a selection of comics professionals and historians, including Denis Kitchen, Paul Levitz, Craig Yoe and Kenova’s own, Beau Smith.

My only nit-picky criticism of the introductions is that they don’t all give the original date of publication of the story. Chalk that up to me being a comics nerd who was spoiled by reading reprint comics curated by E. Nelson Bridwell while I was growing up.

The intros are short and filled with great information, and the selection of stories is top-notch, avoiding the “Classics” that have already been reprinted a million times before in favor of lesser-seen, but still amazing works that show off Eisner’s range as a storyteller. We get to see The Spirit in different settings, a Western, a monster movie, a broad parody, a radio drama, a nuclear spy story and more. This volume also includes his “origin” tale, as re-told in 1946.

All of this demonstrates Eisner’s timeless quality as a writer and artist. These stories still stand head and shoulders above most of the comics produced before or since. Eisner’s work does not seem like “Golden Age” comics work, but it is. However, it fit right in with the Warren Magazines when I discovered it in the 70s, and it still stands out compared to the best of today’s comics.

If you were to compare Eisner to a filmmaker (which is easy to do because he was a pioneer when it came to bringing a cinematic style to comics). you couldn’t just compare him to one director. Eisner’s work is like the best of Orson Welles, Frank Capra, Sam Fuller and Stanley Kubrick, all rolled into one.

THE SPIRIT: AN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION is a great introduction to Eisner’s work. The Spirit has been collected many times before (notably with the entire run collected as part of DC Comics’ Archives Series), but in this nicely-bound, slim but ample collection, at a low price, it’s affordable and easy to hold and read. This is in the “Graphic Novella” format, which is a softcover book with hardcover binding and trim, and only around a hundred pages or so.

THE SPIRIT: AN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION is highly-recommended for any fan of comics, and can be ordered from any bookseller using the ISBN code. If you are shopping online to avoid dying from COVID-19, you can order the book from Amazon, or directly from Clover Press.