Where to go if THE SPIRIT piqued your interest in the original comics

Typically when I review a movie based on a comic book I take along my friend Berko who spends more time than any thirty year old would care to admit reading comics. Aside from also being another movie buff, Berko fills me in on the original source material and whatnot. After watching THE SPIRIT we both agreed it was a pretty piss-poor movie - too much of a pastiche to be genuinely engaging, and with a visual style that merely replicated SIN CITY. Still, I thought the whole idea of the story and the characters was pretty intriguing and was interested to know how far Will Eisner's original comics differed from this adaptation. Now, in the case of THE SPIRIT Berko's knowledge was pretty sketchy but he did point me in the direction of a really great comic book podcast called AROUND COMICS. What I love about it is that it's a bunch of guys who really know and love comics and obviously have a lot of knowledge BUT are also keen not to intimidate new fans. In fact, they've helpfully set up a forum where newbies like me can ask seemingly obvious questions. In answer to my question of where people whose interest in THE SPIRIT had been piqued by the movie could go, I got the following answer, and I figured other people might be interested too....