A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman
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Deluxe Edition A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman Introduction by Michael Chabon Foreword by Neal Adams TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ....................................................... 5 Author’s Note .............................................................. 7 Introduction by Michael Chabon ................................. 8 Will Eisner: An Appreciation by Neal Adams ................ 9 Epigraph ................................................................... 11 FOUR-COLOR 1. The Eisner & Iger Studio ....................................... 13 The Ken Quattro Interview .......................................... 23 2. The Spirit (and Quality Comics) is Raised ............ 29 The Howard Chaykin Interview .................................... 41 3. Joe Dope Saves the U.S. Army (from Itself) ............ 46 4. The Spirit Returns ................................................. 55 OPAQUE 5. The Painter’s Son ..................................................... 63 6. “Nice Girls Are for My Mother” ................................ 71 7. The Unknown Man ................................................... 74 GREY 8. PS Magazine ............................................................ 79 The Ted Cabarga Interview ............................................ 93 9. Official Member, National Cartoonists Society .......... 99 10. Moving Cars, Filling Jobs… and Singing Dogs? .... 101 11. The Kitchen Sink Experience, Part 1 .................... 106 12. Jim Warren’s Dream ............................................ 111 13. What If… Will Eisner Ran Marvel Comics? .......... 116 14. Cat’s Tale ............................................................. 120 15. The Kitchen Sink Experience, Part 2 .................... 129 BLACK & WHITE 16. An Artist Rediscovered .......................................... 135 The Gary Chaloner Interview ....................................... 143 17. School of Visual Arts ............................................. 146 The Drew Friedman Interview ..................................... 155 The Scott and Bo Hampton Interview ............................ 161 18. God, Will Eisner, and the Origins of the Graphic Novel .................... 168 19. The First Spirit Movie ........................................... 174 20. The New Adventures ............................................. 177 21. The Library ........................................................... 181 The Mike Richardson Interview ................................... 186 The Pete Poplaski Interview ........................................ 190 22. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Eisner ....... 200 23. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ................ 203 24. Epilogue ............................................................... 207 The Benjamin Herzberg Interview ................................ 211 The Abraham Foxman Interview .................................. 220 LEGEND 25. DC Puts the Spirit Back in Comics ............. 222 26. Documentaries, Museum Shows, and the Love of a Grateful Nation ................ 232 27. Frank Miller’s The Spirit .......................... 237 APPENDIX A. Jerry Iger: A Postscript ................................ 247 B. A World of Influence .................................. 249 FOUR- COLOR 12 THE EISNER & IGER STUDIO 1am Eisner was impressed the first time he saw his sixteen- year-old son Billy’s byline—“by William Eisner”—on an Soriginal comic strip in his DeWitt Clinton High School news- paper, The Clintonian, in 1933. “It looks like you really want to do this,” he said. Billy smiled and nodded. Inspired, Sam told Billy about a cousin of his who ran a large boxing gym in New York City, Stillman’s. It was the “in” place where well-known boxers trained. Sam called Lou Stillman and told him about his eldest son’s desire to be a professional cartoonist and asked if he knew any other cartoonists. Stillman said, “I know one; he hangs around the gym a lot. He does a comic strip about a boxer. Let me get you an appointment, maybe Billy can get a job with him.” The cartoonist was Ham Fisher, creator of Joe Palooka. One day, Billy carried his big black portfolio up the stairs of an old, yet posh Tudor building. He went up the elevator, knocked on the outsize oak doors, and who should open the door but James Montgomery Flagg. Flagg, whose early published work appeared in Judge, Life, Scribner’s Magazine, and Harper’s Weekly, was the painter of perhaps the most famous piece of American propa- ganda in the twentieth century, the World War I poster of Uncle Sam pointing his finger above the slogan, “I Want YOU For U.S. Army.” Eisner would have recognized Flagg anywhere—he looked like his famous character. Eisner was awestruck. All he could say to the legendary artist was, “Uh, what pen do you use?” Will Eisner’s original cover art for British publisher T. V. Boardman’s “Gillott #290,” Flagg said. Okay Comics Weekly, featuring Ham Fisher’s Joe Palooka. Boardman was one of the Eisner & Iger Studio’s first clients. “I went out and bought Gillott #290 pens,” Eisner said later. Courtesy Heritage Auctions “But I couldn’t draw like him.” Startled by meeting one of his idols in that way, Eisner replayed the scene many times in his mind. exposed and kicked out. Fisher himself was eventually banned from Retelling the anecdote to art students sixty years later, he said, “I the National Cartoonists Society for allegedly manufacturing fake always wished I could redo that moment.” evidence against Capp.) Ham Fisher—his full name was Hammond Edmond Fisher, in his “That son of a gun is a dirty crook!” Fisher snapped. “I am fed fifth year of producingJoe Palooka at the time Eisner met him— up with assistants!” appeared a few seconds later and Flagg introduced their young • • • guest. But Fisher didn’t even want to look at Eisner’s work. Instead, he railed about someone Eisner had not yet heard of, Fisher’s “rotten Since meeting Ham Fisher was not the big break Billy imagined, he assistant who cheated me and stole my characters”—a fellow by finished high school and applied for jobs at advertising agencies. the name of Alfred Gerald Caplin, better known a year later as Al College was not a financial option. His struggling parents needed Capp, creator of Li’l Abner, one of the most beloved strips in comics whatever income he could bring home to the family. He made the history. (Capp quit Fisher in 1933, complaining of poor pay, and rounds with his big black portfolio and was turned down over and allegedly lifted several hillbillies for his own use. They fought like over again. In New York City, that is a lot of rejection. Then as now, cats and dogs through the ’30s and ’40s. In the early 1950s, Fisher there were more agencies in Manhattan than in any other city in took Capp to the National Cartoonists Society and tried to get him the world. 13 Referring to Blum’s daughter, Bob Powell once told Will—in front of the entire studio—“I could fuck her anytime.” Incensed, Tuska slowly cleaned off his brush, placed it on his desk, and decked Powell. Then he walked back to his table and calmly returned to drawing. Eisner’s telling of the Tuska story in his 1986 graphic novel The Dreamer left out many details. For example, he himself had an unfulfilled crush on Toni Blum. • • • One day Eisner received a letter and sample art from two Cleveland kids, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. They were peddling two comic strips, one called “Spy,” the other “Superman.” Eisner wrote back and told them they weren’t ready yet and suggested they study their craft at the Cleveland Art Institute for another year. “The truth of the matter is that when I saw their stuff, I didn’t think that any of our customers would buy it, and I was right,” Eisner said. “They sent their work all over New York, and none of the publishers bought it until Harry Donenfeld, publisher of National Comics (now known as DC Comics) got it from Maxwell Charles “M. C.” Gaines (publisher of the first comic book,Famous Funnies) as part of feature material for his new Action Comics series.” Siegel and Shuster, of course, went on to great fame, if not great fortune, and Superman became one of the world’s greatest cultural icons. Eisner shrugged off the missed opportunity because virtually everyone else in the industry missed it, too. Wonder Comics #1. • • • Courtesy Gemstone Publishing Victor Fox, a small-time publisher housed in the same building as sued by Donenfeld. It was the only issue published, although Eisner National Comics, played a strange and unpleasant role in Eisner’s did produce a second, unpublished story for the character, who in early comics career. Privy to National’s financial books, Fox saw how “real life” was mere mortal Fred Carson, a “timid radio engineer much money the company made on its Superman and Action comic and inventor.” Carson received his powers from a magic ring given books. He quit working for Donenfeld and started his own company, to him in Tibet by a yogi. hiring the Eisner & Iger Studio to produce his books at $7 a page. As Wonder Man’s creator, Eisner was subpoenaed. He felt the “What I want,” Fox told Eisner at a meeting, “is a guy with a red, weight of a great dilemma. Iger, however, didn’t see what the big tight-fitting costume, and a red cape.” deal was, and couldn’t understand his partner’s angst. “It’s simple. By the time Eisner returned to his studio, he was more than a Go into court and say you thought up the idea, and that’s it,” Iger little dubious about Eisner & Iger’s new assignment. said. “They can’t sue you because you were