Today marks 5 years since the launch of @DynamiteComics' WILL EISNER'S THE SPIRIT, by Matt Wagner (W) Brennan Wagner (C) and me -- a 12 issue jog though The Spirit's canon / a 12 month boot camp in which Matt hammered me into a proper cartoonist. SO grateful to and for this book.

There were a TON of rounds of tryouts for this book. First, I did these spec pages -- you can see I was still using the super fine SAN HANNIBAL microns. Some good stuff here and there, but there's a pervasive stiffness. It was that last pinup that ended up pushing me forward.

Next round was a test page from a sample script Matt had written. A version of this was eventually run with the Hollywood Reporter announcement of the series. I love Matt's scripts -- brief, percussive, with highlight words to dictate the tone of the panel. Great to work from.

Lucky thing, too -- this Gil Elvgren painting became the basis for my Ellen Dolan, which apparently was one of the things that finally put me over the top. I had the gig! Now it was time to get to it, we needed the issue in a month. An appropriate start to a comics career.

More WILL EISNER'S THE SPIRIT by Matt Wagner, Brennan Wagner & me. Haven't actually looked at these in a while -- I'm appreciating how much Brennan's cool, lurid palettes do to make this really feel like the world of The Spirit, all damp and funky and uneven. He's GREAT on this. https://t.co/rAXJ9zZenr