The American comic-book writer and artist, Will Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) created the character the Spirit in 1940.
During the 1940's his stories of The Spirit were published in 16 newspapers and had 5 million weekly readers.
The Spirit is the alter-ego of ex-detective Denny Colt, he fights crime in Central City wearing a mask to hide his identity. In his stories the plots and genres are diverse, including crime, comedy horror and romance. A feature film based on this character and directed by Frank Miller was produced in 2008.
Eisner is considered one of the most influential artist in the comics. Apart from The Spirit and many other characters he created several graphic novels that became very successful such as A Contract with God and NewYork: Life in the Big City.
His book Comics and Sequential Art, based in his lectures in the School of Visual Arts, is praised as one of the best teaching book for aspiring comic-book artists.