San Diego Comic-Con: That's the Spirit

The biggest comic convention of the year , the San Diego Comic-Con, officially opened yesterday (Wednesday night is preview night). Most of the really big news comes on Saturday, but things kicked off on Thursday from an unexpected source. During a panel dedicated to the upcoming movie version of the late Will Eisner's The Spirit, two special projects were announced:

• Batman/The Spirit -- a one-shot special in December, written by Jeph Loeb (who's also writing the movie screenplay) and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, which will help kick off...
• A new The Spirit ongoing series from DC Comics, written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke.

Both comics projects -- as well as the movie -- were approved by Eisner before his passing in January.

DC is also planning to release an "affordably priced" trade paperback collecting several of Eisner's The Spirit stories from over the years. DC also produces the not-so-affordably-priced The Spirit Archives and other Eisner classics.