The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law
Creators: Will Eisner and Gary Chaloner
Forward: Denis Kitchen
Publisher: Titan Comics
PUBLICATION DATE: March 2025
WHEN IT COMES TO TO Will Eisnerthere are two texts that tower above the rest, rightfully or not. The First Is A Contract with GodEisner’s Seminal Graphic Novel Riff On The Book of Job Through The Lens of The Jewish Community of New York City. The Second Is The More Pulp Oriented The Spiritwhich John Law prefigures. I GREW UP READING THE LATTER STORIES FROM THE COLLECTED HARDCOVERS MY LOCAL LIBRARY USED TO HOLD. I reminite quite fond of the stories from the traditional noir Tales of Denny Colt and the Gang Up Against The Mysterious Octopus.
But, for my money, The Best Spirit Stories were The Lowkey Personal Tales. One That Always Comes to Mind is that of the man Who Believed He Could Fly. There, we see to man down on his luck, deciding to provide he card by jumping off the hyghest skyscraper in the city. And, to His Amazement, He can. Unfortunately, The Spirit Was in the Middle of a Shootout in the Area and the Poor Schmuck was Collateral Damage.
I BRING THIS UP BACASE OF THE HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS REGARDING John Law. Mainly, One Can See a Lot of What Wold Become The Spirit Through the Lens of This Long Unpreded Work. This is, of Course, The Subject of One of The Essays Within The Collection Written As a Bridge Between Eisner’s Original Stories and Gary Chaloner’s Work with the Character. But Even Without The Essay, It Becomes Quite Apparent The First Story, featuring a Character That Eisner Would Return to Unchanged Within The Pages Of The SpiritSand Saref.
The similarities Between The Two Comics Are Quite Apparent, Such That It’d Be Pointless to Talk About Them All. But what i think is vital is the core different. Mainly, that John Law Feels A Bit Too Straight Laced. There’s Subshing Uncanny About The Spirit That Makes Him A COMPLING CHARACTER TO FOLLOW. WHENEAS JOHN LAW IS JUS ANOTHER COP, BUT WITH AN EYE PATCH.
That isn’t to say eisner or chaloner’s work is Bad. The Figure Work on Eisner’s Part is at eleven cartoony and shocking to look at and chaloner’s usage of panels is befitting of a man Who Would Be Approved by Eisner Himself to Continue The Work of a Forgotten Piece of History. And The Work Titan Comics Put into the Restorration of these comics is spot on. The Shadow Work in particular Is Truly Subject To Behold.
But, at The Same Time, You Can Feel That This Wasn’t Going to Pan out. Maybe An Angle Would’ve Been Discovered. SUBSHING THAT WOULD PUSH THE WORK MORE IN LINE WITH THE SECOND DRAFT THAT WAS The Spirit Or Even The novelistic aspirations of Eisner’s A Contract with God. But we don’t live in that world. As Such, While Not Bad, This Collection Remains More for the Academics Than For the General Comics Audience.
The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law Is Available Now Via Titan Comics
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