Frank Miller blogs about the success of the recent New York Comic-Con and the city that gave birth to The Spirit.

EXCLUSIVE: SPIRIT BLOG#8

NEW YORK REPORT

The recent New York Comic-Con was a blast. Just three years on, the show has made it clear that it wants to be a healthy rival to the San Diego Goliath.

Allow this New Yorker a moment to be thrilled by this development. It’s good for everybody, especially, and incidentally, it’s good for my friends in San Diego, who have startled the entertainment world by transforming their show from a lonely shepherd for a much-maligned story form —comic books — into a pop culture force to be reckoned with. Well done, friends: now let’s see what my town can do to compete!

The crowd was generous and wildly enthusiastic, showing New Yorkers’ secret virtue: our sweetness.

I was fifteen years old when I first fell in love with my city. Chief among my reasons for this love is that New Yorkers are as friendly and generous a bunch of folks as you’ll find anywhere. Our alleged gruffness and meanness aren’t even an act we put on for tourists. They’re a myth. This kid from farmland Vermont was embraced by the city the first time I came here. I called up the legendary Neal Adams my first day in New York. He invited me to his studio, told me my work sucked and that I’d never make it in comics, then threw a sheet of tracing paper over my crude pages and showed me how to make them better with swift, incredibly skillful slashes of marker drawing. Typical of a New Yorker, Neal never once asked me to credit or thank him. He just busted my ass until he thought I was good enough—then he got me my first job drawing comics.

So yeah, I love New York. Not my best-kept secret. Nor was it a secret Will Eisner kept to himself. Fooling nobody, when he wrote and drew THE SPIRIT, he called New York “Central City”. I’m happy to go along with that conceit, provided “Central City” stretches from Houston Street down to Jane Street, and just happens to be a melding of the best-looking elements of New York from the 40s to today. (Just wait till you see the sewer grate! You’ll plotz. It’s perfect, thanks to the masterful work of the movie’s art department and the technological wizardry of Stu Maschwitz.

It was with provincial pleasure that I got to introduce THE SPIRIT teaser trailer in the city that so wonderfully inspired Will Eisner, and inspires me like a son of a bitch today. It was, to say the least, the perfect setting. THE SPIRIT movie is a love letter to New York, and here we were: Deborah Del Prete, my producer and a behind-the-scenes warrior without whom the movie would’ve been unachievable, me, Eva Mendes, who brought Sand Saref to unforgettable life, and Mike Uslan, the man who held tight to the license, and the trust Will Eisner extended him, until he was confident Eisner’s treasure could be portrayed with the respect it deserved. And right there, filling the hall was a raucous New York crowd, roaring in response to their first glimpse at what, I believe, is a dream come true for all of us.

Only two regrets: I’d have happily suffered Eisner’s inevitable criticism, and our inevitable argument, were my Mentor alive to see it.

And, one other regret, a complaint that I have to air in defense of my femme fatale, Eva Mendes: guys, I know she’s almost inhumanly beautiful, but some of the “questions” thrown at her…they were just plain out of line. She handled them with the humor and grace I’ve learned to expect from Eva, but really…asking the woman for her phone number? It wasn’t funny.

Eva is a woman, and an actor of much merit, not a plaything or a proper target for lewd suggestions. She deserves the respect you’d afford any talent. I’ve known you all for many years. You’re better than that. You know you’re not going to get a date with her. Don’t harass her.

Those gripes aside, the crowd was great. THE SPIRIT couldn’t have asked for a better sendoff—right in the city that gave it birth.

Watch out, San Diego—New York’s hot on your ass!

FM

Thanks to Frank and Lionsgate for this exclusive blog. You can find past and future blog postings by Frank at The Spirit Blog.

With the end of the New York Comic-Con The Spirit shifts it’s attention onto the San Diego Comic-Con. In light of this fact, Lionsgate has launched the I'M ON MY WAY sweepstakes in support of THE SPIRIT, written and directed by Frank Miller. By grabbing the SPIRIT widget, users are automatically entered into a virally incentivized sweepstakes - the user whose widget gets the most views wins a trip to Comic Con in San Diego, where exclusive content for the upcoming Frank Miller movie, THE SPIRIT will debut. You can grab your own widget at www.mycityscreams.com.

Comic-Con Magazine has also debuted a new photo of Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus in Frank Miller's The Spirit! THE SPIRIT opens everywhere Christmas Day 2008!