20 Absolutely Masterful First Pages Of Comics

4. The Spirit: The Elevator

Spirit The Elevator1
Will Eisner

Eisner's Spirit intro pages are often celebrated as masterpieces, the closest thing early comics had to a Citizen Kane, and if this list evaluated first pages collectively rather than individually, The Spirit would probably come in first.

This representative splash page has all Eisner's trademarks, a dizzyingly creative use of the series title, further experimentation with the graphic form (the use of that elevator would continue through the remaining six pages) and a fantastic two-line exchange that gives us the premise and kicks off the tension.

Contributor
Contributor

T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.