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Home , A Contract with God, A Life Force, Batton Lash, Ben Oda, Bob Powell, Bo Hampton

Deluxe Edition A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman

Introduction by Foreword by Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ...... 5 Author’s Note ...... 7 Introduction by Michael Chabon ...... 8 : 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 ) is Raised ...... 29 The 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 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 ? ...... 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. ...... 146 The Drew Friedman Interview ...... 155 The Scott and Interview ...... 161 18. God, Will Eisner, and the Origins of the ...... 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 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. Miller’s The Spirit ...... 237

APPENDIX A. : 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 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 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 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 . 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 . 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 poster of 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 , 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 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, 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 left out many details. For example, he himself had an unfulfilled crush on . • • • One day Eisner received a letter and sample art from two Cleveland kids, and . They were peddling two comic strips, one called “Spy,” the other “.” 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 (now known as DC Comics) got it from Maxwell Charles “M. C.” Gaines (publisher of the first ,Famous Funnies) as part of feature material for his new 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 Victor , 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 paid for it.” “Hey, Jerry,” Eisner said, “this sounds just like Superman.” “I can’t do that,” Eisner said. “It’s not true. Victor described the “Don’t ask me any questions,” Iger said. “Just do it. He’s paying character exactly the way he wanted him in a handwritten memo. us well for it.” Obviously, a complete imitation of Superman.” Eisner tried arguing with Iger, but it went nowhere. A paying “Will, the guy owes us $3,000. We need that money.” customer with deep pockets was like a newly crowned head of And Fox was no better. Worse, actually. “This guy was a little state as far as Iger was concerned. Bow, scrape, and collect your Edward G. Robinson type of a guy,” Eisner said. “He looked me money on the way out the door was his attitude. straight in the eye and said, ‘Kid, you go into court and you tell “Just do it,” Iger said. them it was your idea. Try anything else and you will never see the So Eisner did it. The character he created was called Wonder money I owe you.’” Man. Iger, meanwhile, told Eisner, “We’re dead in the water without Shortly thereafter, Fox Features Syndicate published Wonder that dough.” The studio was growing and thriving due to its reputa- Comics number one featuring Wonder Man and was promptly tion as a reliable source of quality art and stories, and Fox was a

19 The Ken Quattro Interview mong the many reputable experts on the work of Will Eisner is Ken Quattro, a long-time comics fan and self-proclaimed A“comics detective,” who started reading comics around 1960. He became interested in Eisner not long after reading a penned article about his friend and The Spirit in Help! magazine. He immediately started seeking out Eisner’s stuff to learn more about the forgotten early master. “At first, it was kind of hard, because I was just finding old color comic sections in antique stores or bookstores,” Quattro recalled. “Eventually, when Eisner became a hot property again amongst comic book collectors, in the late 1960s, I started literally trying to find everything I could about him. Every article, every interview, anything. Over time, I became intrigued by the man as much as the work that he put out. He was a fascinating person.” Quattro eventually wrote “Rare Eisner: The Making of a Genius,”1 which was posted online in 2003, and four years later published a print edition Will Eisner: Edge of Genius,2 which is adapted from “Rare Eisner.” His Eisner scholarship has proven to be extraordinary for fans and his reason for inclusion here is because in 2011 he uncovered , Inc. vs. Bruns Publications, Inc., Kable News Company, and Interborough News Co., a long lost court document relating to Eisner that, in many ways, he wished had never been found. The transcripts, which include complete court testimony from the DC Comics case against Victor Fox for alleged copyright infringement in Eisner’s creation of the character of “Wonderman,” dramatically The first page of “The Wonder Man” from Wonder Comics #1. contradicted Eisner’s years of contention that he was an innocent in Courtesy Michael T. Gilbert. Fox’s lifting of core concepts from Superman lore. “These [court] transcripts were just a byproduct of my own something I had looked for for over 40 years, and it just fell into curiosity about everything,” Quattro explained, “because [Eisner] my lap. referred to the trial so often in different interviews. I even went as “I admired Eisner, the man, as much as the artist, and one of far as contacting lawyers in New York City to see if they could find the things that I really admired [was this story]. It really took some anything about it, and nobody could find any transcripts. I just guts for a young kid to stand up to a big-time publisher as large assumed they were lost years ago. One lawyer told me that after as Fox at the time and to defy him and to end up losing thousands a period of time, most trial transcripts are destroyed, and I just of dollars because of it. And since he said it so many times, in so went with that until I got an email from this guy. He just happened many interviews, I just assumed that’s the way it was. to read my online article, ‘Rare Eisner,’ and he became curious. “So I was stunned when I read the [transcript]. “There’s a National Archives building in New York City, he “After I read it, I talked to my wife, and said, ‘What am I went there, and he looked it up; it was in the National Archives. supposed to do with this?’ I was stunned when he sent me this email saying, ‘Would you “Because I had this blog and I’m in touch with a lot of comic like to read this?’ I almost fell out of my chair, because this was historians and collectors and fans, a part of me felt obligated to let

1 “Rare Eisner: The Making of a Genius,” by Ken Quattro: comicartville.com/rareeisner 2 Will Eisner: Edge of Genius, by Ken Quattro (Pure Imagination Publishing, 2007), www.amazon.com/Edge-Genius-Will-Eisner/dp/B004F8I81G

23 The Spirit (and ) Is Raised 2verett M. “Busy” Arnold, publisher of Quality Comics, called Will Eisner in the fall of 1939. It was one of those fateful calls Ethat less fortunate people never receive, or don’t recognize the opportunity it presents until years later. “I don’t want to speak to your partner,” Arnold said rather mysteriously. “I want to speak to you.” Most of the studio’s customers didn’t like Jerry Iger, particularly when it came to discussing creative matters, and it wasn’t unusual for someone to seek Eisner out for a private conversation. Arnold and Eisner met for lunch, which led to another secret rendezvous. As a guy who spent much of his life reading pulp maga- zines and creating comic books, there was nothing like a whiff of mystery and intrigue to keep Eisner interested. If nothing else, he could always use it later as a plot point in a story of his own. At the second lunch, Arnold introduced Eisner to Martin, sales manager of the Register & Tribune Syndicate. “We have an idea,” Arnold said, “and we would like to see if you are interested.” Newspapers around the country were taking note of the explo- sive growth of comic books. They felt they were in danger of losing a segment of their readership to this new industry. Conversely, they thought comic books, properly presented, could be a for new readers. Martin’s idea was the production of a sixteen- page “ready-print,” a freestanding insert similar to today’s Parade magazine or the regional TV listings magazine distributed in Sunday newspapers. What the newspaper syndicate needed was somebody like Eisner to put it together. Arnold was at the meeting because he was the publisher of The front page of the July 21, 1940 edition of The Spirit as it appeared Quality Comics, as well as a printer. He could print the newspaper in the Sun. supplement for the syndicate. The Spirit © The Will Eisner Estate. Courtesy Heritage Auctions. Eisner said to Arnold, “Why come to me? You have all these would be a full-time job. Seven or eight pages a week were a daily guys working on comic books for you.” Eisner discovered that grind, not to mention supervising production of a second eight the syndicate already tried the best guy on the Quality staff, but he pages. Besides, Arnold said the only condition of the deal was that proved not good enough. The medium was still in its infancy and Eisner produce it independently of Iger. He wanted nothing to do not everybody understood it yet. Not only that, but the syndicate was with Iger. This obliged Eisner to make a decision. afraid that this particular artist wouldn’t meet deadlines because The Eisner & Iger Studio was a corporation of which Eisner he drank heavily. In newspaper production, there is no margin for owned fifty percent of the stock; Iger owned the other fifty percent. lateness. Newspapers come out at the same time every day, 365 The partners had agreed that the first person to leave the corpora- days a year. Nobody would stop the presses because the comic tion would offer his stock to the remaining partner. This arrange- book artist was on a bender the previous night and didn’t finish ment, common to partnerships, assured that, in the event of a the current installment. Eisner was reliable, and he respected an separation, neither of them would be saddled with a partner he inflexible deadline structure. So much for art! But Eisner was also didn’t know or like. astute, and sophisticated enough to recognize that his reliability Eisner offered Iger the option to buy his stock and Iger agreed, was his trump card to play. with the proviso that Eisner would not raid their bullpen for talent. Eisner took the assignment with the understanding that it meant Eisner would be restricted to hiring no more than three or four leaving Eisner & Iger. The comic book newspaper supplement people out of the Eisner & Iger Studio.

29 In addition to the three artists who came over from Eisner & Iger, Eisner hired artist Phillip “Tex” Blaisdell. and —who both later became famous at Mad magazine for their distinctive humor and strange characters—eventually joined the shop as steady freelancers, with Berg drawing “Death Patrol,” a predecessor to “Blackhawk.” Back in the Eisner & Iger days, Eisner laid out pages for story- telling, and he had developed generally agreed-upon production standards. Like the Studios or any other, there was a creative philosophy characteristic of Eisner’s shop. Eisner insisted on stories that made sense—even in a comic book reality—and had a beginning, middle, and end. He believed in continuity of characters and their features, as well as keeping them similar to real people in speech and behavior when appropriate. His love of adventure and short stories gave him a grounding that less well- read competitors lacked. • • • The Spirit made its first appearance on June 2, 1940, in five Sunday newspapers with a total national circulation of one and a half million. The Record, one of the section’s charter newspapers, reported a ten percent increase in circulation after The Spirit began to be distributed. At the height of The Spirit’s success in the mid- 1940s, the strip appeared in twenty newspapers and was available to five million readers. Eisner’s handwritten notes from February 1941 detailing the price each Adults were drawn to The Spirit because of Eisner’s ability to newspaper pays for The Spirit. produce and tell a noir “B” movie every week in just seven pages. Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Library & Museum at The State University And his opening splash pages were amazing and consistently inno- vative. Unlike other artists, Eisner didn’t rely on a set logo every after gave a Batmobile. It just wasn’t necessary time, a practice that was unheard of in comic books, newspapers, in the stories that I wanted to tell.” or magazines. To put what he did in context, imagine changing its front-page logo every day. Not likely. The • • • Old Gray Lady is known for her moribund consistency. Because of In addition to The Spirit, Eisner needed two additional features to Eisner’s gutsy originality, The Spirit became universally recognized fill the Sunday supplement’s weekly sixteen pages. for the proud inconsistency of its brand mark. He added “” (created by Klaus Nordling) and his Despite his character’s instant popularity, Eisner always worried own creation, “Mr. Mystic” (itself a remaking of an earlier that someone else would come along with a competitive newspa- Eisner character, “Yarko the Great”), and turned them over to per supplement. And, indeed, the Hearst Syndicate tried produc- the veteran artists he brought with him from the Eisner & Iger ing one. Will Gould created a detective hero called “Red Barry.” Studio, Mazoujian and Powell, respectively. Powell offered the It didn’t last long. Hearst abandoned the product after about six extra bonus of being able to write his own scripts. months, and no one ever challenged Eisner again. As for , the third man in the new bullpen, he came with “On the other hand,” Eisner said, “competition is something Eisner because he wanted the freedom to work in his own way on that you really don’t worry about because it opens up the market- features of his own making. As part of his deal with Busy Arnold, place; it lends a legitimacy for your own product. The amazing Eisner was to create several traditional newsstand comic books. In thing—astonishing, really—is that The Spirit was the first of its fact, Eisner had aspirations of becoming a publisher himself. kind and the last of its kind. (creator of Spider-Man, Unlike the packaging operation of Eisner & Iger, Eisner made , X-Men, Silver Surfer) told me that he was going to a deal with Busy Arnold to publish two more magazines as equal try to start one at Marvel Comics in 1980 but he never got anywhere partners, plus The Spirit. One of the magazines was Hit Comics with it.” for which Eisner wrote “X-5 Super Agent”; the other was Police • • • Comics, which soon began reprinting the Spirit strips.

32 The new Eisner studio at 5 Tudor City consisted of one large room, a bedroom, and a small kitchen that was nothing more than a wall. Eisner used the bedroom as his private office. (Staffers frequently borrowed the key on weekends as a place to bring their dates. There was no bed, but the couch was extremely popular.) Only Bob Powell was given his own key to the Tudor City studio apartment. If Eisner wasn’t there, he could count on Powell to open up in the morn- ing or close up at night. By his own description— confirmed by those who knew him at the time— Eisner led a monastic life during those days. While guys like Powell were leading wonderful, colorful lives, Eisner was the outsider, drawing the lives he thought other people were having. One Friday evening, Eisner took a dinner break, planning to return and spend a quiet night drawing. But when he opened the door to his private studio, he discovered Powell with twin redheads. Embar- rassed, Eisner quickly closed the door and waited in the outer room for them to finish. Eisner drew beautiful women, but Powell—like Iger—actually got the women. In one famous example, Eisner gave the character Sheena the looks of one of Powell’s girlfriends. But what Eisner introduced to the pages, Powell some- times took away. In “Mr. Mystic,” a backup feature in the weekly Spirit comic, there was a character called the Shadowman of Death. Every time Powell dumped a girlfriend, the Shadowman took her away. Powell horrified Eisner because he was so casual The February 7, 1943, edition of The Spirit with its variation of the title logo. with women. Powell would sometimes start a conver- Courtesy Heritage Auctions. sation with, “I picked up a couple of whores….” He made snide remarks about from time to time, which • • • Eisner usually let slide, not feeling like it was worth making it into The main room in the Tudor City studio was the bullpen, the an issue. But when the war started and the world realized that the production shop where Powell, Fine, Blaisdell, and Mazoujian focus of Hitler’s wrath was the Jewish race, Powell’s complaining worked on The Spirit newspaper insert and the comic magazines and nastiness became bolder. Eisner created for Busy Arnold’s Quality Comics imprint. Busy Arnold offered Powell a sizable raise to leave Eisner’s shop Fine worked on the studio’s superheroes, The Ray and The and join the Quality Comics staff in . Powell told Eisner . He was a good artist, but Eisner found he needed better about the offer, thinking he would get his boss’s blessing and be writers to carry out his concepts. He hired Blaisdell’s brother-in- on his way. But Eisner was incensed. He called Arnold and let him law, Dick French, to be a full-time writer. have it. Fine sometimes slept overnight on the couch at the Tudor City “Do you want a lawsuit?” Eisner asked. “This is terrible, stealing apartment. He had polio as a child, which left him with one leg talent out of my shop! We’re partners!” shorter than the other, and he couldn’t walk well. Arnold backed down. He called Powell and apologized. “I’m Unlike Fine, Powell wrote and drew his own stories. Like Eisner, sorry, Bob,” he said. “I have to cancel the deal because Will Eisner he also wrote scripts for other artists in the bullpen. He wrote the is threatening to sue me if you come up here.” Eisner-created feature “Death Patrol.” To Powell, Eisner’s actions confirmed everything he always Another thing Powell was known for was being anti-Semitic. believed about Jews. In a rage, he stormed into Eisner’s office.

33 The Howard Chaykin Interview ne of the interesting facets of writing Will Eisner’s biography “It looked like it was gonna get into a fistfight,” Eisner said. “Joe was determining the reliability of my subject’s memory. Kubert finally separated us.” O Eisner was 85 when I met him in February 2002 and, Sounds like a great anecdote. And across two years of being inter- with repeated exposure over the next almost three years, I came viewed for this book, Will told many stories that were confirmed to believe his mind and recall were easily as sharp as mine—and down to the final detail. But in this rare case, his memory of events I was half his age. was not shared by others who were there. There were only a few stories that Eisner told me that gave me “Howie’s the kinda guy that says a lot of things for effect more pause over that time, tales that didn’t quite add up with indepen- than anything else,” Kubert said when asked about the incident. “It dent confirmation. One of them was about an encounter he had may have seemed to Will that it might have led to something. I’m with artist Howard Chaykin at a Barcelona . sure it happened and that Will felt that way. But I couldn’t imagine When I was dubi- Howard ever getting ous about his account, into an actual fight with Eisner told me to Will.” call his old friend . “Joe will Eisner insisted the story confirm what I’m telling happened the way he you,” he insisted. told it. He was pretty So I called Kubert, frustrated with me who got his first job that I left it out of the working for Eisner at book, in fact. But with his studio in Manhat- Kubert deflating Eisner’s tan’s Tudor City in 1941. version, there wasn’t any Kubert told me a lot point in going further of great stories, but he and calling Chaykin. didn’t exactly recall the Fast-forward to Febru- Barcelona incident the ary 2006. I was a guest same way that Eisner did. at MegaCon in Orlando, Here’s the way I wrote it promoting the book. On for a draft of A Spirited a break from my table, I Life: Blackhawk by Howard Chaykin (left) and Will Eisner (right). dropped by to say hello to Blackhawk © DC Comics. artists and Al Eisner told a story about attending a comic book convention in Feldstein, both of whom I interviewed for A Spirited Life. To Feld- Barcelona several years ago. He and several prominent artists, stein’s left was Chaykin. including Howard Chaykin and Joe Kubert, were talking about When I bid adieu to Cardy and Feldstein, I dropped promo- different comics. Chaykin mentioned “Blackhawk,” which he once tional postcards for my book at several booths. Seeing Chaykin was illustrated. occupied with a bunch of autograph seekers, I dropped a postcard “Will created ‘Blackhawk,’” someone said. on his table and tried to move on quickly. “It was one of the few fascistic things I’ve done in my life,” Will “Hey!” Chaykin called out to me. “Why the fuck do you think I’d said. care about a book about Will Eisner?” “Fascist?” Chaykin said. “I’m one of the most liberal guys you’ll Uh-oh. ever meet!” Trapped—and with an audience, too—I introduced myself. Eisner, as gentle and amiable as he was about most things, on Chaykin didn’t have anything nice to say about Eisner, so I tried to occasion antagonized a fellow artist and this was one of those excuse myself. Didn’t work. Instead, I told Chaykin about the miss- times. Chaykin felt Eisner was calling him a fascist and it made him ing story from the book. That stopped him in his tracks. He couldn’t quite angry. believe Eisner would ever tell an unflattering story about himself.

41 Joe Dope Saves the U.S. Army (from Itself) 3ill Eisner’s impending draft notice was like having the Sword of Damocles held over his head. W From the day he walked out of the Eisner & Iger Studio, Eisner kept telling himself, You are crazy! You will be drafted, and this whole thing will fall apart on you! Eisner sent the following letter to his partner, Busy Arnold, on July 30, 1941:

Dear Busy, I was interviewed by the Board last night and I feel that they looked favorably upon the sheaf of stuff in my dossier. What they want is proof, in the form of an affidavit, from the Syndicate, stating in effect that without me there would be nothing, and that this section is a new innovation and, consequently, in my absence, men in the engraving and printing plants would be without employment. The Syndicate might also state that, inasmuch as a great deal of the feature is my style of writing, artwork, mind, and personality and is unique, they feel sure that newspaper editors might refuse to accept substitution and, possibly, cancel present contracts, which they are permitted to do. You might also add that a daily strip is now in preparation for distribution in the fall, which will give my features an even greater daily circulation. Eisner in uniform, circa 1945. Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State It might not be amiss if you, too, in the official University capacity of publisher, state that you depend upon me to guide the policies and edit Military, and that my services brain storm to write Wood in Washington and see if he could use his in that capacity are unique and cannot be duplicated. drag to get you in the Army on a soft job with plenty of spare time.” Besides, the only reason you invested in a publication • • • was because of my personal services. I think it best to keep my position that of a nucleus—out of which When notice was finally served on him in late 1941, Eisner was at things come, rather than that of a bottleneck. first quite dismayed. There goes my career, he thought. But, after As always, Eisner absorbed the first sobering shock, the draft notice provided Bill him with a feeling of immense relief. At the age of twenty-four, Eisner had spent his entire adult life • • • working alone in one studio or the other, day and night. Work was Busy Arnold tried getting Eisner deferred as a “journalist” via the his mistress; the Tudor City studio was his home. Suddenly Eisner Register & Tribune Syndicate, which possessed some credible felt like Uncle Sam offered a chance to find out what the real world political power. But his attempt went nowhere. He did that not so was about. And, like other Americans, he was imbued with a sense much out of friendship, but as a matter of self-defense, because if of patriotism. America was at war. “The horrible, despicable Nazis Eisner was gone, Arnold was contractually bound to maintain The were slaughtering Jews—my people—and I was given the oppor- Spirit property. tunity to kill some of them for what they were doing to the Jews. When a deferment didn’t arise, Arnold wrote Eisner of another “All of those feelings were in effect for me,” Eisner said. “But to idea in this handwritten, undated letter: “P.S.” he wrote, “Just got a be perfectly honest, I was overwhelmed by a secret feeling—and I

46 Promotional material for the daily Spirit strip. Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The remember it so clearly—that, wow, this is my opportunity to really Because of his success in maintaining copyright ownership, the see the world.” value of that clause in Eisner’s contract with the syndicate came into play at this point. Eisner retained silent ownership of the prop- • • • erty because the work would be continued while he was away. While Eisner’s professional position didn’t exempt him from the In addition to producing The Spirit Sunday supplement, Eisner draft, it did give him a little special status. Because he was a busi- started a daily newspaper version featuring his reborn detective. nessman with responsibilities for the livelihoods of at least five Arnold and the syndicate—led by the Philadelphia Record— men, the draft board gave Eisner three months to put his business pushed him into it, but Eisner wasn’t ready. affairs in order. He immediately set to work on organizing the team “To this day,” he said, “I don’t think I’d enjoy doing a daily. To that would continue in his absence. me, it’s like trying to conduct an orchestra in a telephone booth.” He visited Busy Arnold in Connecticut and talked about the He didn’t get any satisfaction from it. But the Register & Tribune problem of going into the Army. Arnold suggested moving Eisner’s Syndicate wanted a daily strip almost immediately because they studio to the Gurley Building in Stamford, alongside Arnold’s own thought it would be a natural tie-in. operation. Eisner agreed and, effective March 28, 1942, he leased The daily Spirit debuted on October 13, 1941. Eisner only did six space right next door to Arnold’s office, on the same floor. He even weeks of dailies before he went into the service. The dailies didn’t do established a fund to help artists who wanted to move up there, well because he tried all sorts of weird ideas, such as a whole daily generously offering each of them enough for a down payment on strip without dialogue and with nothing but footprints in the snow. home mortgages. Criticism came from some of the Sunday Spirit’s strongest supporters: Arnold’s own on-site staff included editor , who had long admired Lou Fine’s work on “The Ray” in Smash Comics. “I think the daily Spirit is hard to follow from one day Fox, Fine, and their wives soon became close, lifelong friends. to another because of the complicated plots,” wrote

47 The Spirit Returns 4ill Eisner was in the Army for almost four years. In many ways, they were the best four years of his life, a period Wduring which the man matured into the talents that first surfaced in a boy on the sidewalks of . When he mustered out in 1945, he finally began telling the kind of Spirit stories he always intended to do. His first post-warSpirit was published on December 23, 1945. He wrote or pencilled or inked virtually every story from that day until August 12, 1951, when he would turn The Spirit over almost completely to his assistants. “It was a wonderful time for me as a comic artist because I was free to do anything I wanted,” he said. “There was no censorship, no editorial direction from the [Des Moines] Register & Tribune Syndicate at all because, as far as they were concerned, they didn’t know anything about comic books, and I was the authority.” One of the few times Eisner got into any trouble with the syndi- cate was in the pre-war days when he wrote back-to-back stories about an ape that fell in love with a human girl (“Orang, the Ape Man” and “The Return of Orang, the Ape That is Human!”). “Busy Arnold called me at work and said that the San Antonio newspaper objected strenuously to what it felt was the promotion of racial mixing, miscegenation,” he recalled. And then there was the issue of the Spirit’s black sidekick and taxi driver. One day, Eisner heard about Ebony from a high school classmate who was now a union organizer in Philadelphia. “He was ashamed of me for ‘writing this Negro stuff’ the way I did,” Eisner said. The former classmate didn’t appreciate the overt cari- cature of Ebony. The September 1, 1940, Spirit strip (and the following week’s strip) “This is terrible,” the friend complained. received a complaint over perceived miscegenation. The same week, Eisner got a letter from the editor of an African- Courtesy Heritage Auctions. American newspaper in Baltimore who complimented him on the “nice” treatment of this character. old Tudor City bullpen either moved to Connecticut with Busy Eisner, who was never troubled by his portrayal of Ebony, had Arnold or became a freelancer. Bob Powell was still in the service, his own issues with the feature. “After about two years of doing The Lou Fine was exiting the business, and Jack Cole was eager to move Spirit,” he said, “I found it harder and harder to deal with a hero on from The Spirit. Not that Eisner ever socialized with those guys walking down the street, wearing a mask, dealing with real situa- anyway; they were his employees, not his pals. tions like standing in a subway train.” Needing a place to work, a leasing agent found him an office at 37 Wall Street. • • • “That was a very significant address,” Eisner said. “When I Freed of his military obligations, Eisner nonetheless found himself walked into the building, I realized that I had sold newspapers in as socially isolated as he was before being drafted. The Army front of that building during the Depression.” changed him in many ways, forcing him out and about, and he Artist John Spranger, his first new staff hire, assumed responsi- discovered the fully formed, social animal within. He made a lot of bility for pencilling The Spirit as Eisner worked himself back into friends during his service. But civilian life found him once again the rhythm of strip life. entrapped by his own creations, particularly the seven-page weekly • • • Spirit comic. There was no studio to return to—everyone in his

55 “He didn’t give me any instructions at all,” Grandenetti said. “Bill was busy writ- ing his stories. He left it up to me. He was never critical. As I look back on it, it gave me an air of confidence.” The Spirit pages Grandenetti received from Eisner typically had the figures and heads already drawn and inked. In the background, Eisner left scribbled direc- tions as to what should be filled in or left blank. Soon after Grandenetti arrived, John Spranger left the studio to draw The Saint, a syndicated comic strip. Abe Kanegson shared the load with , and a young —the future -winning cartoonist—joined the bullpen, which relocated to 90 West Street about a year after Grandenetti came aboard. Artists Klaus Nordling and André LeBlanc became regular contributors to The Spirit and other Eisner projects around this time. Marilyn Mercer joined the staff as a secretary in 1946, but, like many people who started in menial jobs in an Eisner studio, it turned out she, too, could write. Here’s how Mercer remembered those days in an article for the Sunday Magazine from January 9, 1966:

As I remember it, I was a writer and Jules was the office boy. As Jules remembers it, he was an artist The December 30, 1945, Spirit strip, Eisner’s second after returning from the war. and I was the secretary. Will can’t Courtesy Heritage Auctions. really remember it very clearly. It is another artist who received his first break in is his recollection that Jules developed into an excel- comics thanks to Eisner. Until he met Eisner, he was a junior drafts- lent writer and I did a good job of keeping the books. man with a landscape architecture firm who daydreamed about Neither one of us could, by Eisner standards, draw. drawing comic books. One day in 1945, Grandenetti ducked out of work and, tuck- Mercer later became a freelancer and, in the early 1960s, intro- ing a portfolio under his arm, paid a visit to Quality Comics. Busy duced her ex-boss to another up-and-comer, . Arnold, sufficiently impressed by the work he saw, said, “There’s “Gloria Steinem was an editorial assistant at the time for Harvey a guy named Will Eisner looking for an assistant.” He gave him Kurtzman’s Help! magazine,” Eisner recalled. “We talked for a few Eisner’s new studio address in Lower Manhattan and set Granden- minutes, and Marilyn said, ‘Maybe you should hire her.’ Frankly, etti’s career on a new path. at the time I wasn’t impressed with her. She seemed to be kind of Eisner started Grandenetti as a background artist (he was a a reclusive person, not at all the outgoing person that she later landscape architect, after all) until he learned the craft. And there became. Good looking, very attractive, though—I noticed that.” were a few skills to pick up, such as inking, which he never tried • • • before.

56 The end of the line for The Spirit was in clear sight by then. Eisner lost interest, Wood was gone, and Feiffer was drafted away from the business by his country, much as Eisner was a dozen years earlier. “He was getting second- and third-rate artists, and the quality of the work really declined,” Feiffer said. “Continuing was only of interest to me if I had a free hand writing it. But Will still insisted on chang- ing stories and doing things I didn’t agree with. It became a tethered situation; the fun had gone out of it and I was only doing it for the money. I was relieved to give up the job when I went into the Army.” The final reason Eisner gave upThe Spirit in 1952 was that it no longer attracted new subscribers. The Spirit topped out at about twenty newspapers, and never reached beyond that. It was carried in in the Parkches- ter Review. Other major newspapers around the country included the Sun, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadel- phia Record, Minneapolis Star, and the Washington Star. In terms of sheer numbers, The Spirit Sunday supplement had far more copies in circulation than any comic book in its day, including Superman and Captain Marvel, whose circulation topped one million copies per issue. And, while comics such as Superman and Batman were published monthly, The Spirit was printed weekly. But unless you lived in a community where the local newspaper carried it, you never heard of The Spirit. It was a strange duck. The problem with continuing the Page 6 from the August 3, 1952, Spirit strip drawn by . comic was that the manufacturing cost was Courtesy Heritage Auctions. continually going up, and, after a while, it outweighed the value inherent in the feature. One year, the newspa- in the newspaper was going nowhere. The cost of it was getting so per distributors went on strike and demanded extra pay for insert- high, I was unable to sustain the sales of it, and I realized that if ing, or stuffing, the paper with inserts likeThe Spirit. That raised I dropped anything, The Spirit would be the thing to drop. It was the subscription cost. The other rising cost was newsprint. When an emotional period there. Personally, I felt that I failed because Eisner went into the Army, newsprint cost about $75 a ton. When it never became the great success story financially or circulation- he got out, the price had almost doubled, hitting $150 a ton. Today, wise that I had hoped it would be. I was satisfied with the work I newsprint is about $500 a ton. had done. I had worked hard on it, produced a lot of interesting Eisner abandoned The Spirit completely in 1952. stuff, but it wasn’t until years later that I was credited with being “I was sorry to see it end, yes,” Eisner said. “It was caused by a innovative. It left me with a sense of failure about what I did.” combination of things. It was obvious that the future of this insert

61 OPA QUE

62 The Painter’s Son 5illy Eisner, like most kids maturing into teens in the mid- 1930s, didn’t know his family was poor until much later in Blife. Everybody in his corner of Brooklyn suffered equally from the ravages of the ; going without new clothes or what would later be called “disposable” income wasn’t an issue for him. Growing up in the Depression was hard on ambition and opportunity. The lack of opportunity put a perpetual economic squeeze on all but the hardiest of dream- ers. For Fannie Ingber Eisner—Billy’s mother—however, going without was never good enough. Born at sea as her parents emigrated from Romania, Fannie grew into a statuesque woman with high cheekbones, Frannie Eisner with Will at the age of five a swarthy complexion, and a tough exterior. (above), and eight-year-old Will playing the She kept friends at arm’s length and family violin (left). Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon only slightly closer, never growing comfort- Library & Museum at The Ohio State University able with physical affection, not even with her children. cigarettes and playing immies— Her Austrian husband, Samuel, was the marbles—to watching cowboy serials at family’s sole source of income, but only the movies and pretending to be Cowboys thanks to Fannie’s perseverance. Through and Indians afterward. their entire married life, Fannie regularly He also got into fights, sometimes for pushed Sam away from dreaming and doing what he loved—paint- no reason other than because he was Jewish and that made him a ing—and toward the practical aspects of supporting a family. target, sometimes because he couldn’t control his own anger. Part of her problem might have been a result of the suspicion “I was trading baseball cards with a kid named Jummy and we with which she treated everyone she encountered. Another expla- got into a fight,” Eisner recalled. “He cheated, and I ran after him nation that her eldest son discovered in his thirties: Fannie was down the street to get my cards back, and he ran into his house. illiterate. Her husband always read the newspaper to her, a custom This house had French doors as you went into the little lobby, and that seemed quaint until her children were old enough to realize he put his foot behind the door so I couldn’t push it open. Well, he she couldn’t read it herself. made a fatal mistake. He stuck his in one of the windowpanes Fannie dreamed of owning a bakery, although she was a lousy of the French door and stuck his tongue out. In a blind rage, I cook. But a bakery, she believed, was a clean business and would slammed my fist against his face, breaking the glass, and as I pulled convey status upon her. Fannie was preoccupied with her financial it out, I cut my wrist and blood gushed out like a fountain. I ran and social status in the community. It was a trait her husband, who home. My kid brother, Pete, had measles, so he had to stay in a was a good man and father in so many other ways, never devel- dark room and my mother was sitting with him. The first thing my oped, despite fathering three children. mother—the classic Jewish mother—said was, ‘How could you Fannie often blistered her husband about his better-off siblings; do this to me?’ My father ran around all day, it was Sunday, trying he was too ready to accept their handouts, she said, and not will- to find a doctor. It took six stitches. The stitches are still visible on ing enough to stand on his own two feet. One time, her husband’s my wrist.” sisters delighted in pointing out that Fannie wore the same dress When he lived in the Bronx, before high school, Billy became a to two different weddings, which embarrassed and irritated her. Yankees fan, attending games as often as he could. He even caught Eight-year-old Billy was like other kids in many ways, from a ball in the outfield bleachers once and got several players— collecting the baseball cards that came with his father’s Murad including Lou Gehrig—to sign it after the game. He lived with his

63 The Unknown Man 7 ill and Ann Eisner became parents in 1951 when their son John was born, and again a year and a half later when WAlice arrived. The family moved to 8 Burling Avenue in the Gedney Farms neighborhood of White Plains in 1952. Living in the suburbs was something of an adjustment for the Eisners, both of whom grew up and lived much of their adult lives in the concrete canyons of New York City. Until then, the family journeyed only twice a year to the suburbs. Will liked to get his biannual fresh air fix, but if you told Ann she could never go to Manhattan again, she’d say, “Fine.” She would miss the people, but not the environment. The Eisner family was extremely close, with Will providing his children the emotional—and finan- cial—support largely missing from his own childhood. He knew what they were doing in school, who their friends were, and what they liked to do for fun. Will taught John to play chess. He Above, Will, Ann, John, and Alice Eisner enjoy the surprised the kids once by bringing hot tub, and at left, Will feeds baby Alice. home an old rowboat from the pier Courtesy Ann and Will Eisner at Sound and filling it with sand for them and their friends In another letter, to Ann, he wrote: “Many to play with in the backyard. And Americans here who have married Japanese girls the kids always loved watching dad (AND I DON’T BLAME THEM—WOW!!).” work at his drawing board. Stopping in Hawaii on the way back from “I felt that I was giving John Seoul, Eisner sent separate notes to each of the something more than I had because children. I was a reasonable success,” Eisner said. “Never talked to him about what he should do. One summer, Dear John, we sent John and a friend to a summer school in Switzerland. He I got your letter and I’m glad to know that the hurri- was about fifteen. Ann said to me, ‘You know there are girls out cane did no damage. I’m proud of the way you are there. Have you talked to him about sex?’ So I went to John’s room taking care of the girls. and said, ‘I’d like to talk to you about sex.’ He said, ‘What do you Your buddy pal want to know?’ Left me speechless.” Ann, John, and Alice were able to endure Will’s long absences Dear Alice, on civilian Army business in the 1950s and 1960s by reading the You wrote a very, very fine letter. I’m glad you helped wonderfully illustrated letters he sent home. One letter detailed his John put up those tracks. I’m sure the willow tree will first day at the Akasaka Prince Hotel, near the Imperial Palace in grow back as it did once before when you were very Tokyo. Among the images included in the letter was one depicting little. I miss you and mommy and Johnny. Will in the bathroom, still in his traveling suit, trying to figure out Your daddy-o which knobs would turn on the shower. Settling on one, he pulled it. Water came out from everywhere. He was drenched. The family went to Europe in 1966. John was fourteen and becom- “Apparently,” he wrote, “the whole room was a shower.” ing a teen in words and deeds. During the trip, something Ann did

74 GRAY

78 PS Magazine 8orman Colton, civilian editor of Army Motors, stayed on with The quality of our work won this contract. I saw what the competi- the Ordnance Department when World War II ended and the tion offered… lousy!” Nmagazine suspended operations. “I approved it.” In 1949, with the on the horizon, Colton came “That doesn’t mean anything to me,” Eisner said. “Besides, I to see Will Eisner in New York. Colton said that the Army wanted can’t give you ownership in the magazine; it’s against the law.” to start a new magazine similar to Army Motors; would Eisner’s Colton, who became the magazine’s first editor and continued studio—still licking its wounds after a disastrous attempt at inde- in the position until 1953, wouldn’t take no for an answer. On the pendent comic book publishing—be interested in bidding on the pretense of production business, he came up to New York every production work? Eisner said sure. other week, always with a new scheme for “Colton was eager to have me because getting away with what Eisner knew to be I had a history of success with Army wrong. Eisner’s lawyer advised him not to Motors and was identified with the publi- discuss Colton’s schemes. But the more cation,” Eisner said. “But it had to go Eisner said no, the angrier Colton became. through the process of bidding. Al Harvey, He thought Eisner was trying to cheat him of Harvey Publications, found out about out of what he was convinced was his. it and competed for it, but I won the bid Colton was a colorful guy, small in stat- and I helped write the contract. It was ure, but always nattily dressed. He didn’t totally different than most contracts that just smoke cigarettes like the other guys; the Army had at the time. At that time, the he used a long cigarette holder. Army paid for services on the basis of time. “He was a strange kind of guy, a quiet My contract was based on a flat sum with guy, but an incredible promoter,” Eisner a profit measurement that allowed the said. “He would do things that really shook government to restructure the contract you up in the military. He would get things downward only.” done in the military in a very, very quiet but Colton was one of those guys we all devious manner. He was quite devious in meet sometime in life who thinks he has his ways. His talent was his ability to put it all figured out. An “operator,” Eisner these things together. He was, I guess, what PS #1 from June 1951. called him. At his own cost, Eisner Courtesy Heritage Auctions the Germans called a luftmensch, an air designed a dummy—a sample edition of person.” what the magazine would look and feel like. The effort paid off; One day, there was a new twist. As usual, Colton was expected in the actual dummy of the book helped Eisner win the contract to New York to visit Eisner. That morning, however, Eisner received a produce what became PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly. preemptive visit by two FBI agents. “Dark suits, tall, good-looking “PS” implied “Postscript” to other, more traditional Army equip- guys,” he recalled. One carried a little envelope with him, the other ment and maintenance publications. a note pad. Once all the t’s were crossed and the i’s dotted, Colton dropped “We would like to talk with you,” one of the agents said. his own bomb on Eisner. “I would like to have a piece of this,” he “I don’t know what this is about,” Eisner said, “but I would like said. to have my attorney here.” “I can’t give you a piece of this,” Eisner said, surprised by “No, that won’t be necessary,” the agent said sternly. “We’re not Colton’s boldness. “You’re an Army employee!” after you. We just want to have a conversation. Off the record.” “Not if you give me stock,” Colton said. “I can exercise options They said that the man harassing Eisner was suspected of cheat- on it later.” ing on his Army travel expenses. Not that it surprised Eisner. But, “That’s illegal!” he thought, “Oh boy, I’m going to jail.” By coincidence, at the same “I got you into this contract!” Colton said. “I recommended moment that Eisner was talking to the FBI in his studio, the phone you! You owe me!” rang. It was Colton. “Technically, that’s true,” Eisner said. “But in fact, you didn’t. “I’m at Grand Central Station,” he said.

79 to try to solve that problem or please his father, tried to be a businessman rather than just an artist, and I later found out that it was his mother…. In one of his novels he talked about that, so it turned out that it was actu- ally his mother that was trying to discourage him. So I thought that that was sort of eating at him and that that was why he had this image of himself, that he wanted to be a businessman rather than just an artist, which is ironic, since he was a great artist and a lousy businessman.

ANDELMAN: What was like to work with? CABARGA: Ploog was terrific. I just have to tell you that , poor Murphy Ander- “Joe’s Dope Sheet” from PS #222 (May 1971), quite possibly inked by Mike Ploog. son, he was the most wonderful Courtesy Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, Digital Collections guy in the world, but he was slow, and he would work nights, and he production of the artwork, and that would force the production would work two weeks in a row overtime late into the night trying people to give us less time to finish the book. We really felt like we to get the book inked. When we were finally across the street and were being cheated by them. So at one point, Gary and I confronted away from the office and we were running our own sort of little mini- them and just really laid it on the line, and they thought that Will business there getting out PS magazine, Ploog would come in and ink Eisner had put us up to it. That was absolutely not true. Will had the whole damn book in one day, and he was just stupendous. When nothing to do with it, and I could never convince them that Will was he first got there, his art was a little tentative, because I guess he was not behind it, that it was us who were pissed off at them, not Will. But cowed by the great Will Eisner, but very soon, within a few months, after that point, there was a rift, and we were never the same again. he was in stride, and he was just very fast and very good. Dan and Chuck had their quiet little clique, and we were no longer friends, but before that, we had been good friends. ANDELMAN: What was he like to be around? Dan was a pretty solid guy. He was not really a cartoonist. He CABARGA: He was a great guy. He was a mesomorph; he was did the technical stuff. built like a fire plug. He had these big arms. He was a little guy but very stocky and sturdy, and he had come from the West Coast. ANDELMAN: I want to ask you again about Will and money. One of He was working at Hanna-Barbera. I don’t know why. I guess he the things that he told me that drove him crazy was when the folks wanted a change or something, so he was hired from the West down at Ft. Knox would want changes. I don’t know if he said that; Coast, but apparently he wasn’t happy, because he finally went back maybe Ploog said that, that they would want changes, and it drove there. During the time that I knew him, he was very congenial, very him crazy because it meant overtime, and it meant more cost, and nice in every way. I had no problem with him. As I say, he was really it cut into the budget. very good. CABARGA: Absolutely. When I was talking about them being insulted by Will’s unwillingness to come and talk to them and ANDELMAN: And Dan Zolnerowich? see them, part of the way they punished us was to watch every CABARGA: Dan was a good guy, too. I also had an assistant art comma and every line space and every tiny little thing that they director working with me, Gary Kleinman…. Gary was assistant art could possibly find wrong with the book. They would call us on director for a few years. I don’t remember how many, but maybe as it and make us re-do it, and that was part of that whole thing of many as five. At one point, Gary and I got really pissed at Kramer and costing money. Zolnerowich, because we felt that they were featherbedding and in so doing were hurting the whole operation. They would delay the ANDELMAN: Did Pete work there at the time?

97 Moving Cars, Filling Jobs… And Singing Dogs? 10ill Eisner, a newlywed and legend in the comic book busi- ness at the ripe old age of thirty-four, recognized in 1951 Wthat his long run in the industry was winding down. New sales of the Spirit Sunday section topped out several years earlier. In many major American cities, competition for circulation dimin- ished because conglomerates often owned both the morning and evening newspapers. Meanwhile, newsprint prices were rising and publishers resisted increased rates for the product. Top talent was more interested in magazine illustration and graphic design than four-color costumed characters. And kids were rapidly trading in the genre for another emerging medium—. PS magazine was on the verge of first publication when Eisner decided that it could be the project to lead him in a new career direction. It would fulfill his belief that the medium had teaching potential, as he demonstrated in the Army from 1942 to 1945. In the late 1940s, Eisner founded a commercial art company called American Visuals Corporation and began a twenty-year detour away from comic books in favor of working with corporate America. The shop produced PS, as well as educational , illustrations and giveaway comics, primarily for East Coast clients such as the Baltimore chapter of the American Medical Associa- tion. His other clients were a diverse bunch that included RCA Records, Fram Oil Filter, the Baltimore Colts, and New York Tele- phone. In the early years he wrote and illustrated the booklets, or at least roughed them out and drew the covers. There were two kinds of comics produced at American Visu- als. The first was “attitude conditioning,” creating propaganda for everything from jobs and vacations to fire safety, political campaigns, and dental hygiene. The other was “product proce- Sample panels from Grammarfun. Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State dures” done in the mode of PS. University Job Scene, for example, was a series of comics produced for the Department of Labor. America’s Space Vehicles was a hardbound He created “sequential training booklets” that instructed foreign textbook containing no comics at all. Grammarfun was an illus- nationals in the care and operation of military equipment, farming trated supplement for elementary English classes. Deadly Ideas procedures, and social concepts. These products were purchased was used by General Motors in its job safety program. and distributed by the Agency for International Development, the Eisner created the Rip Roscoe series for New York Telephone, United Nations, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Department touting the excitement of using a Touch-Tone phone. Hoods Up of Defense. was a magazine “For Profit-Minded Fram Dealers.” And Eisner • • • even drew the jacket for an RCA Victor album of music by The Singing Dogs entitled Hot Dog Rock ’n’ Roll. In 1957, one of Eisner’s salesmen was trying to sell General Motors “The impression that I was an operator—I was,” Eisner said. “I on an informational, labor-relations pamphlet called “Help! What enjoyed business; I enjoyed the chess game.” Makes a Boss Tick?” For twenty years, Eisner explored his belief that comic books Jules Feiffer was just out of the Army, out of work, and he could be more than child’s play, bringing the medium’s potential dropped by American Visuals to say hello to his former boss and to the attention of government leaders and business executives. inspiration.

101 “Jules,” Eisner said, “would you like to do this pamphlet for About a month later, Feiffer sold on a regular us?” comic strip and suddenly he was a name in circles beyond comic Feiffer worked up a dummy and the salesman took it to General books. Not long after, the salesman was back in Eisner’s office. Motors, which rejected it, outright. “Hey Will,” he said, “can you get that guy Feiffer back? I think “The artwork is lousy,” the automaker said. we can sell his stuff now.” And the salesman wasn’t too impressed, either. • • • “Will,” he said, “you’re running a soup kitchen here for all your old comic artists and friends. Why don’t you get some real profes- Three years later—without Feiffer’s involvement—General Motors sional artists in here?” Corporation finally signed on with Eisner and American Visuals for an educational comic book. The company’s initial response to the manuscript demonstrated how much tougher working with corporations versus newspaper syndicates could be:

June 2, 1960 Dear Mr. Eisner: Attached is the manuscript you submitted on “How Your Company Buys.” This doesn’t seem at all interesting and I doubt that it would do much for GM or its employees…. Cordially yours, William H. Lane Editor, Special Publications Personnel Staff

Six days later, Lane passed along his editorial board’s comments on another sequential art training idea, “How to Get Across the Street and Survive.” It must have made Eisner wish for a “Yarko” revival. “It left me cold,” one corporate critic wrote. And a week after that, Lane returned the dummy of a third concept, “Stop and Go on Ice and Snow”—for good.

August 1, 1960 Dear Mr. Eisner: The people who reviewed “How to Get Across the Street and Survive” said that they were not too impressed with it. They felt the presentation was rather scrambled. Also, they still feel there is a general indictment against motorists. Possibly the title is partly responsible for this feeling…. Cordially yours, William H. Lane Editor, Special Publications Personnel Staff

A “Rip Roscoe” page for New York Telephone. Give and take flew back and forth in page after page Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University of itemized notes from General Motors to Eisner. If

102 The Kitchen Sink Experience, Part 1 11enis Kitchen discovered The Spirit in the early 1960s via Jim —whose name was inspired by the newspaper in Spider- Warren and Harvey Kurtzman’s Help! magazine. Harvey wrote Man comics. He drew a weekly comic strip and many Bugle covers. Da feature on Eisner and reprinted one of the “Sand Saref” About the same time, Kitchen started Krupp Comic Works and episodes of The Spirit, which became an eye-opener for Kitchen. Kitchen Sink Enterprises to publish and distribute underground A decade had passed since the last original Spirit adventure; it comix. Initially, it was fun and daring, but profit-challenged. InThe was largely unknown to teenagers in the age of Gilligan’s Island Bugle’s 1970 Christmas issue, Kitchen and his comix cohort Jim and . A few years later, in 1966, Kitchen picked up Mitchell placed a quarter-page ad with examples of their art for the short-lived reprints. They whetted his appetite sale, and wrote, “Save a starving artist from sure death … and give further. He became a fan, although it wasn’t easy. a unique X-mas gift at the same time.” They didn’t get any response The original newspaper sections from the 1940s and early locally, but, remarkably, a couple weeks later they received a Coney 1950s were impossible to find. There were no comic shops yet Island salami in the mail with a tag on it that said, “Never let it be and few mail order operators. Collecting was the luck of the draw. said that let a cartoonist starve.” Sometimes Kitchen found a reprint in a used bookstore or flea Seuling, Kitchen later learned, was a Brooklyn schoolteacher market, but it was far and few between. These were the prehistoric and comic book buff who almost single-handedly imagined and days of collecting comics. produced the comic book convention system, and later invented the comic book distribution method that essentially saved the industry from extinction. Seuling liked Kitchen’s sardonic, humorous style, both artistically and personally. He hired Kitchen to create the cartoonish ads that became a trademark of his conventions, and invited him to be a guest at Seuling’s 1971 4th of July show at the New York Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street, next to Grand Central Station. It was the first convention that Kitchen attended, and while it was Eisner’s second, there was no comparison in scope. They were both in awe. It was amazing for them, coming from completely different corners of the industry, to see thousands of people in a single place with a single thing in mind: comic books. When Eisner started in comics, no one ever dreamed the industry would ravenous fans, collectibles, or conventions. Promotional ads by Eisner for the debut issue of Harvey Comics’ The Spirit #1. In the dealers’ area, Kitchen was brows- Courtesy Will Eisner Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University ing through display tables looking for old copies of Humbug, Li’l Abner, and Tip Top Comics when the man • • • next to him read his nametag. He did a double take and said, with In 1969, Kitchen wrote, drew, and self-published an underground a heavy French accent, “Oh, !” comic book in , Wisconsin, called Mom’s Homemade “Yes?” Kitchen said, startled. “Do I know you?” Comics—subtitled “Straight from the Kitchen to You.” In the fall It turned out to be French comics historian , of 1970 he co-founded an alternative weekly newspaper called The co-author of A History of the Comic Strip, one of the earliest seri-

106 Jim Warren’s Dream 12im Warren first encountered Will Eisner’sSpirit in the Phila- delphia Record as an eleven-year-old boy in 1941. But he Jdidn’t read it. “Other people read it, but I didn’t,” Warren said. “I studied it— every panel, every black shadow of India ink, every architectural rendering of a section of a house, layouts that could make the eye go exactly where Will wanted it to go. It was unbelievable to me. This man, for me, and for the rest of the world, single-handedly changed so-called comics into a sequential art form. ‘Sequential art form,’ that’s a technical term. A timeless thing of beauty was what Will produced.” Two decades later, Jim Warren was a magazine publisher. In August 1960, with Harvey Kurtzman as his editor and partner, he launched Help! magazine, which ran until September 1965. The magazine featured standup comedians such as Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis, and Jonathan Winters on its covers, reprinted comics by Winsor McCay, , and , and introduced to America such future underground innovators as and . It was hip before its time, bursting with talent and creativity. “We had an incredibly small budget,” Warren said. “One day, Harvey matter-of-factly said to me, ‘I have always liked Will Eisner’s work.’ I jumped up, and I said, ‘You like him? The man changed my life!’ Will agreed to let us reprint seven pages from a classic Spirit story in Help!” Fast-forward to 1973 and Jim Warren was essentially America’s most successful alternative yet mainstream comic book publisher. If Marvel and DC were the mainstream, and and Rip The first issue of The Spirit from . Courtesy Heritage Auctions Off Press were the underground, Warren Publishing was somewhere in the middle. It was mainstream in that its major titles—Creepy, After a tour of military duty in the 1960s, W. B. DuBay’s first , and —were available on most U.S. newsstands. professional art interview in New York was at a Park Avenue studio But it was alternative in that it published comics in a magazine format where he had been directed after answering an ad in The New York and in black and white. Warren’s gore and horror fests were as likely Times. They were looking for a layout artist for what he recalled as to be found racked next to Time or Good Housekeeping as Batman “a little military magazine.” or X-Men. And where Marvel and DC made household names of Stan “Will himself interviewed me,” DuBay said. “I think he was Lee and and the made Robert Crumb impressed with my credentials. I’d just been discharged from a two- and Gilbert Shelton famous, Warren developed his own stable of year stint as editor of the Army’s biggest post newspaper and had won craftsmen, including renowned fantasy and horror artists Richard a few design awards in the process. Moreover, I showed him I could Corben, , and Jeff Jones. draw anything in any style he wanted, including his. And I was partic- What Warren didn’t have was a product that would draw in ularly good at diagrammatic cutaways of the Army’s biggest diesels.” comic book buyers who disdained the blood and guts stuff. As it turned out, another military veteran, Mike Ploog, got the job. DuBay was more disappointed than at any other time in his • • • life. After six months and a stint at Warren Magazines, he went back Many of the men and women who worked for Warren in those home to . days became stalwarts of the comics business behind the scenes Several years later, DuBay returned to New York. During his for decades to come. time away, he wrote and drew several horror stories for Warren’s

111 Negotiation is someone who says, ‘I want X,’ and then you say, and in more respectable places than Weird Harold’s Head Shop. ‘Well, we will give you X, less something,’ and then after six hours Making royalties on The Spirit after twenty years was like receiving you meet halfway. I couldn’t do that with him. I hated negotiating an inheritance from a forgotten uncle. with creative people, but with Will Eisner, it was like negotiating And it wasn’t a total loss for Kitchen, either. with God. How do you do that? You say, ‘What do you want?’ And he “To clear my conscience,” Eisner said, “I demanded that says, ‘This,’ and you say, ‘Okay,’ which is exactly what happened.” Warren buy Kitchen’s unsold inventory. It was probably this move Eisner’s terms were simple—to a point. He asked for $1,000 an that gave birth to a thirty-year relationship.” issue, paid in advance, plus a royalty from profit sharing. Eisner made buying out Kitchen Sink Press’s remaining Spirit That was the simple part. The complication was Denis Kitchen. inventory a condition of his deal with Warren. “Will felt guilty With his company’s broader and more traditional newsstand because Denis is a nice guy,” Warren said. “I said to myself, ‘This distribution system, Warren told Eisner that he could easily distrib- man Eisner also has a loyalty to people—something rare in our ute up to 100,000 copies of a monthly Spirit magazine. industry.’ I instantly said, ‘Of course we will.’ And I sent him a Those numbers were hard to ignore, much as Eisner was check immediately. Who else would do otherwise? And I didn’t indebted to Kitchen for bringing the character out of retirement. negotiate Denis’ price one dollar; we bought it at exactly the figure Eisner called him immediately and broke the news. Will represented to me, because I knew I was dealing with two “I am really impressed with how well these have sold,” Eisner people who weren’t running a scam. One was Will Eisner, and the told Kitchen, “especially in your rickety distribution system. But I other was Denis Kitchen, and both of these men had reputations just got an offer I can’t turn down from Jim Warren. He thinks he for integrity and honesty in an industry that is not exactly famous can get 100,000 in circulation every month. No offense; I hope we for those qualities.” can still do some business, but after you sell the second issue out, Years later, Warren told Eisner that he would have agreed to I am not going to renew the contract.” $5,000 or even $10,000 an issue. “I would have sold the farm, I Kitchen was crushed and Eisner didn’t blame him. But Eisner would have mortgaged the house, I would have sold my first-born was a businessman and he had somebody who would not only because working with you had been a dream of mine since fifth sell many more copies but could sell them on a regular schedule, grade,” he said.

Two preliminary sketches for the cover of Warren’s The Spirit #11. Neither concept was used. Courtesy Heritage Auctions

113 What If... Will Eisner Ran Marvel Comics? 13tan Lee called Will Eisner twenty years after production During the course of the conversation, Lee’s boss from Marvel’s ceased on The Spirit and Eisner had turned his back on the then-corporate parent joined them. The meeting quickly became Scomic book industry. a job interview. He wanted to know what Eisner thought about The creator or co-creator of every major Marvel Comics comics, where he thought the industry was going, and what he character from Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to the X-Men would do about it. and the , Lee—born Stanley Lieber, himself a graduate of “Well,” Eisner said, “one of the first things I would do is aban- Eisner’s alma mater, DeWitt Clinton High School—was editor don the work-for-hire system that you have here.” and publisher of the Marvel line in 1972. Lee, in fact, had over- There was a noticeable evacuation of air in the room. seen Marvel—a company started and run for decades by his Lee winced. uncle and boss, Martin Goodman—since his teenage days in the “Oh, we can’t do that,” Lee’s boss said. “That’s impossible to 1940s. Every modern Marvel comic book began with the line do here.” “Stan Lee Presents.” He was the first brand name talent in the “I don’t see why,” Eisner said. “First of all, allow the writers and maturing business. But after more than a decade of incredible artists to keep copyrights. The book publishing business does that growth and fame, Lee was ready to move on. He wanted Eisner and does it quite profitably. Then return their original art to them. to replace him at Marvel so he could go to Hollywood and make You asked me what I would do in my role here; that’s what I would movies. do right away.” Lee felt that Eisner might be the only comic artist around who Other comic book artists that Eisner knew sustained a certain had the respect of cartoonists and who also had the business expe- amount of animosity toward Lee. Jack Kirby, for example, always rience to manage an enterprise of Marvel’s size and scope. maintained that he brought the idea for Spider-Man to Stan. Until When Lee rang in the 1970s, Eisner figured it was a social call. the Spider-Man movie debuted in 2002, Lee generally took sole Eisner had been out of comic books for twenty years. Comic book credit. The movie credited the character’s creation to Stan Lee and conventions were still a relatively new phenomenon, and the direct artist . sale comic book market was still a few years off. Eisner, recently “Stan wasn’t terribly popular among other artists, either,” Eisner separated from PS, was not yet a “revered legend”—more like an said later. “He was regarded by and large as an exploiter, which is old-timer with a portfolio. the fate of all publishers. Creators will always regard publishers “I hear you are at liberty,” Lee said. as exploiters. I guess it is something that psychiatrists can discuss Eisner laughed. They chatted for a minute or two. Eisner still better, but I have always regarded it as a child/parent relationship. didn’t know what was coming. Artists need somebody to hate. In the comic field, the publishers “Why don’t you come down to my office at Marvel,” Lee said. “I are close at hand.” would like to talk with you about something.” After more idle chat between Lee and Eisner, it became clear that So Eisner went. When he arrived, Lee didn’t mince any more Marvel was unprepared for Eisner’s independent-artist approach words. “To tell you the truth,” he said, “I need somebody to to corporate policy. It’s understandable that the company was star- replace me here. I want to go to Hollywood. I love the Hollywood tled by Eisner’s ideas; there wasn’t yet a large comic book indus- scene. This isn’t for me any more. But they won’t let me go unless try press, so his views were still pretty revolutionary. In any event, I can find a suitable replacement.” Eisner could see where the conversation was going. Finally he said, Eisner was pretty stunned that that was why Lee wanted to see “Gentlemen, I don’t think this is for me.” him, thinking originally that perhaps Lee wanted him to do a book Lee walked Eisner out to the elevator. He tried one more time. for Marvel. Many artists from the Golden Age of Comics were turn- “C’mon, Will,” he said, “Why not?” ing up for a last hurrah at Marvel, DC, or Charlton, and Eisner “Stan,” Eisner said, “this is a suicide mission.” figured that Stan opened his Rolodex and his wandering finger “The pay is good,” Lee said in desperation. landed on “E.” Eisner remembered Lee being surprised to learn “I understand that,” Eisner said. “But money is not what I am when they met years earlier that Eisner wrote all the Spirit stories. interested in right now. I have money.” Lee said he had been impressed that Eisner could write and draw. The idea of working for Marvel was not attractive to Eisner, “You have business experience,” Lee said. “You’d be ideal for but not because it was Marvel. The idea of working for any large this job.” corporation again after the Koster-Dana fiasco was unattractive.

116 “I never had the outlook necessary for the mainstream comic book market,” Eisner said. “I could never do superheroes well. My heroes always looked like they were made of styrene foam. The Spirit evinced psychological problems. Spider-Man did, too, of course. Stan once told me that he ‘liked the idea that the Spirit was human and not quite -ish.’” Lee’s memory of meeting with Eisner was hazy at best, but he didn’t doubt Eisner’s account. “Will certainly would have been a good choice for me to want to run the place if I were not there any more,” he said. When Eisner laid out his conditions, Lee knew they would never be accepted by the corporate bosses. “At that time, that wasn’t the way it was done in comics,” Lee said. “I am sure that whoever was the publisher then wouldn’t have been willing to go along with that. But it would have been fine with me. I just wanted Will to be part of Marvel. I wanted in some way to have an association with him, because I certainly would have thought that he would be a great asset to us. You can quote me on that. Unfortu- nately, I had nothing to do with the business arrangements. I would have said to whoever the hell handled the business, ‘I want to hire this guy,’ or ‘I would love this guy to work with us,’ but then he would have had to talk to the busi- ness department and make the deal, because I was never part of that. “I wasn’t a big reader of The Spirit,” Lee added, “because it was never in a newspaper that I read. I was in New York, and as far as I know, it wasn’t in New York, but I had heard about it and I had A Spirit watercolor commission. seen bits and pieces of it here and there, and I was always incred- Courtesy Heritage Auctions ibly impressed with the artwork, with the layouts, mainly with the first page, with the opening page. Each title was done differently on , longtime Marvel Comics writer and editor in chief each weekly episode where the title ‘The Spirit’ was really part of from 1971 to 1980, also knew that Lee reached out to Eisner. “I the artwork. And that impressed the hell out of me. I thought that have a memory of it,” he said. “I suspect it was between 1972 and Will was a really fine designer. 1974.” “He is really one of the only creative people in the business who If Eisner took the job, it would have caused many more changes. was also a businessman who was able to make money at it and was “It would have hastened my departure to DC by about ten smart enough to own everything he did. And I have always admired years,” Thomas said. “I don’t think I could have worked for Will.” him for that.” As for Marvel Comics publishing The Spirit, Thomas doesn’t Writer and former Marvel Editor in Chief , who think that would have worked for anyone. joined Marvel Comics in 1972, clearly remembered Lee’s interest “The things Will Eisner did had a lot in common with Stan,” in hiring Eisner. Thomas said. “But if Stan were to do The Spirit, it would have been “Stan was a huge fan of Eisner’s work,” Wolfman said. “I more like a Marvel Comic, and then it wouldn’t be The Spirit.” remember him talking about getting in touch with Eisner to head When Eisner said no, Lee made a run at Harvey Kurtzman. He up something.” turned the job down, too.

117 Cat’s Tale 14at Yronwode, born Catherine Manfredi, was a single mother Not Cat Yronwode. and comic book fan who lived in an isolated rural cabin near She went to New York City in the company of her friend, Denis Cthe town of Cabool, in the Missouri Ozarks in the 1970s. McFarling, and stayed at the home of another comics fan, Ken Gale. Visually impaired and unable to drive, she tried freelancing maga- In preparation for actually meeting Eisner, she haunted the stacks zine articles on crafts, gardening, antiques, and comics history as of the , looking for old Spirit sections in the a way of earning a living. But it wasn’t until she landed a weekly newspaper morgue. Many already were knifed out by collectors. column for Alan Light’s influential and widely read comics When she finally met Eisner at the School of Visual Arts— The Buyer’s Guide—and a job as comic strip editor for Ken Pierce Yronwode arrived barefoot just as he began teaching a class—he Publications—that her comic book hobby began to pay off. handed her a book to read and promised they’d talk when class When she was home, comics helped Yronwode pass the time. was over. The book was hot off the press— The daughter of a special collections librarian at University of Cali- by Will Eisner. fornia , her particular inter- “I was laughing, crying,” Yronwode est was putting credits to old comics that said. “I was blown away.” often carried inaccurate or incomplete When they finally talked, she got right to creator credits. the point. “All the Spirit sections are gone Her first interest was in cataloging and from the Public Library,” she said. “Can I identifying the work of Steve Ditko, the come to your place and index yours?” co-creator and original artist of Spider- It tells a lot about both these charac- Man and “.” From Ditko, ters that she invited herself to the home of she moved on to an immense challenge, a perfect stranger—and that he said yes. Will Eisner’s Spirit sections. A fellow “I went to his house and met Ann,” collector she met shared her interest Yronwode said. “We had a lot of things in in The Spirit. But he didn’t have all the common, among them that we both had a issues; Yronwode thought maybe Will daughter who died. We’re both Tauruses. Eisner himself might. We really hit it off.” Looking for an excuse to contact Eisner She arrived—still barefoot—but directly, she called , publisher packing an already encyclopedic knowl- of the comic book industry criticism and edge about Eisner’s body of work and review magazine , career, “more than even he could and asked if she could interview Eisner The Comics Journal #46 including Cat Yronwode’s remember,” Ann said. on assignment for the Journal. Her secret first interview with Will Eisner. Meanwhile, the interview—which goal was discovering whom the started after that initial encounter at were that worked on The Spirit. Not exactly something the world SVA—went on for some time. They met again at the Princeton Club. was crying out to know, frankly, but Yronwode was not your typical It was there that Yronwode told Eisner that she was a single mother comics fan, either. living in the Ozarks on a $200 monthly welfare check. “If you can get to him, go ahead,” Groth said. “We’re going to have to work on making a capitalist out of you,” Yronwode wrote a letter to Denis Kitchen requesting an interview Eisner told her as they left the club and he paid for her cab fare. with Eisner, giving Groth’s name as a reference. Kitchen called Groth. The interview appeared in the May and June 1979 issues of “Who is this guy ‘Cat Yer-Ron-Woodie’?” he asked. The Comics Journal. It dealt with three main topics: A Contract “First,” Groth replied, “Cat’s not a guy. Second, it’s ‘Iron-wood.’ with God, Eisner’s lost history as an artist, and the previously She’s okay.” uncredited identities of inkers who worked on The Spirit. In the Reassured, Kitchen arranged a first meeting. process of producing the interview, Yronwode—with the help of Most writers working without pay for a small publication—and Eisner fans , Jerry Sinkovec, Mark Hanerfeld, and John who literally lived a thousand miles away from the subject—would Benson—also began her now legendary “The Spirit Checklist.” make an appointment for a telephone interview. She and Benson shared an interest in the work of Wally Wood,

120 but change things. There were 1940s pages with 1970s art pasted I don’t think he realized how much he was wearing his heart on on top. She also noticed the way characters in his early comic his sleeve. That was something that really made me love him. I saw books recurred from one Eisner project to another. something about his naiveté and his innocent immersion in his art. “Everyone said he drew Lauren Bacall a lot,” she said. “But When I asked him who that woman was, what her real name had it was actually a girl he once dated who looked a lot like Bacall. been, he told me right away, and then, really puzzled, he said, ‘How ‘Skinny Bones’ was the name he gave the Bacall character.” would I know somebody would put all these stories together and One time when Yronwode asked Eisner about a female char- figure it out?’ acter’s origins, Ann chastised her husband. “I don’t want to hear “My thrill about working there was I got the answers to all the about your love life before you met me!” questions I asked,” she said. Intimately familiar with Eisner’s early comics as Yronwode quickly took charge, using the library skills she well as The Spirit and his recent graphic novel, A Contract with learned from the years she spent at her mother’s side at UCLA. It God, Yronwode recognized something else about the women—or became a life any comics fan would envy; full days spent sorting a woman—portrayed in several stories. through the originals, personal letters, and other miscellany of a “He has this woman he loves/hates. She always gets killed. She life in graphic art, plus breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a legend. always has another boyfriend. In a way, it’s so transparent, it’s sad. To the Eisners, Cat was more than just an employee. “Cat was one of the people we would have adopted as a daughter,” Ann said. “She was bright, always full of anecdotes and stories.” Yronwode filled a gaping void in their lives, providing a view into what their lives might have been like if their daughter Alice had survived. One day, for example, Will and Ann were asleep in bed and Yronwode came barreling in—in much the way Alice once did—but instead of asking about clothes or shoes, she wanted to ask some arcane about The Spirit. “I was still suffering from recent tragedies,” Eisner said. “She became a real professional after a while. To me, well, there was something very deep there. I think—in the back of my mind— that she was replacing my lost daughter, and she seemed to be the age of what Alice would have been, and I couldn’t help it. Ann accused me one day of talking to Cat like she was our daughter.” A typical day in the Eisner household began early. Will and Ann got up together, ate break- fast together, and read The New York Times together. Yronwode became integrated in the household routine. “To me, it was like being home at my mom’s,” Yronwode said. “Nice Jewish food—smoked cheeses, salmon, grapefruit. Will had a grape- fruit every morning and half a bagel. We’d talk about the news. It was inspirational to see what a loving couple they were. They teased, but they were very in love and happy together.” Ann went off to work each morning as direc- tor of volunteers at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Westchester Division. Eisner Eisner’s original art for Harvey’s The Spirit #2, complete with paste-ups. either played tennis or headed off to his studio. Courtesy Heritage Auctions He would call up to Yronwode at midday and

122 The Kitchen Sink Experience, Part 2 15he Warren newsstand Spirit magazine looked great and sold Kitchen Sink eventually reprinted every episode of The Spirit well initially, but its circulation tapered off and Eisner’s busi- from the post-World War II period—when Eisner returned from Tness relationship with Jim Warren diminished. the Army and took back creative control—through the strip’s After sixteen issues, Eisner decided not to renew his contract conclusion in 1952. with Warren and called Kitchen. “There are still a lot of stories that By then, the Eisner projects replaced underground comix as the are unpublished,” Eisner said, “but I wonder if there is any life left cornerstone of Kitchen Sink Press’ business. Other living legends, in them. What do you think?” such as Harvey Kurtzman, Milton Caniff, and Robert Crumb, joined “Are you kidding, Will?” he said. “I would love to continue it.” Eisner on Kitchen’s growing list. Whereas Kitchen opened the door a crack for The Spirit, • • • Warren kicked the door in like the Incredible Hulk, establishing that the market could easily support publication of fifty thousand Despite having Denis Kitchen as a common link, frequent publisher, or more monthly copies of a Spirit comic book. and number-one fan, Eisner met Robert Crumb only once. They Figuring there were enough collectors who wanted to continue went for dinner to a restaurant in Greenwich Village with Harvey getting the magazine as Warren had Kurtzman. Crumb, who was a great printed it, Kitchen followed the Warren admirer of Kurtzman, wore his familiar numbering system. Where Warren ended porkpie hat. with issue number sixteen, Kitchen Sink When Kurtzman got up to use the men’s Press began again with issue number room, Eisner tried making conversation seventeen. with the reluctant Crumb. It wasn’t easy. That publication continued until Then Crumb asked Eisner a question. issue forty-one, at which point Kitchen “Do you know any girls with big legs?” split the publication in half. For the first • • • time, The Spirit sections were reprinted in comic book format, in chronological Over the years, the relationship between order, and as full-color reproductions. Eisner and Kitchen grew from business Meanwhile, Kitchen Sink Press created into the personal realm. They visited a new magazine called Will Eisner’s each other often, and became part of the Quarterly that featured newly created fabric of one another’s lives. non-Spirit material as well as articles The link between Will Eisner and the about his career. comic book underground was Denis “My sense of the marketplace,” Kitchen. Kitchen said, “was that there were Spirit Kitchen bridged the generation gap fans and fans of Will’s new work that we’ve come to know as graphic between the comic greats like Eisner, Caniff, and Kurtzman, and novels. It tended to be a polarized audience. When Will ran his new the underground comix stars like Robert Crumb, , stuff in the Spirit magazine, I’d get lots of complaints: ‘We want more and . Unlike other underground publishers, Kitchen did Spirit.’ Finally we decided, let’s give them both. Let’s do just The not feel the need to discard mainstream cartooning in order to Spirit for people who want it and the Quarterly for new work and appreciate underground cartooning. historical articles about Busy Arnold, Quality Comics, and PS.” “I felt more at home at Kitchen Sink because I didn’t feel Eisner, who enjoyed having his own name on the magazine, also required to turn up my nose at people like ,” artist Howard continued the popular “Shop Talk” interview series in the quarterly. Cruse said. “There was a certain appreciation for the 1930s tradi- These were in-depth, revealing, and sometimes raucous interviews tion among people like the . But most of them felt that Eisner conducted with comic book and comic strip greats, includ- nothing happened from the ’50s until they were the great revo- ing Milton Caniff, C. C. Beck, Jack Kirby, and Neal Adams. Eisner lutionaries. I felt there was a great arrogance in this. The under- enjoyed the professional give-and-take of “Shop Talk” and spoke ground broke into a new threshold of cartooning possibility and I often of restarting the series. think Eisner recognized that.”

129 BLACK WH&ITE

134 An Artist Rediscovered 16ules Feiffer wanted credit where credit was due. Feiffer’s cause was certainly aided by the fact that becoming a “Dare I say that it was The Great Comic Book Heroes that publishing entrepreneur did not work out as well as Eisner once Jreinvented Will Eisner?” said the author of the 1965 book hoped. that launched the modern age of comic book fandom and made “Had Will become the Henry Luce of ordnance publications,” the field respectable for the next generation of creators. “He was Feiffer said, “we might never have seen the rebirth of Will Eisner forgotten. I thought the two most important creators in the strip as a cartoonist. Like so many of us, I suspect he backed into this world were Milton Caniff and Will Eisner. Caniff had plenty of acco- latter day career.” lades. Will’s name was unknown.” • • • Feiffer is correct, of course; just as one generation of future comic book creators was first introduced toThe Spirit in the 1970s , editor of the Comics Buyer’s Guide, had by Jim Warren’s black-and-white reprints, an earlier generation in been a friend of Eisner’s since the 1960s, when she and her late the 1960s discovered Eisner through Feiffer’s book and an excerpt husband, Don, edited one of the first mimeographed comic book from it in magazine. , Comic Art. They tracked Eisner Feiffer wrote: down and proudly put him on their mail- ing list, starting a relationship that lasted the The Quality books bore his look, his rest of Eisner’s life. layout, his way of telling a story. For It was Don who introduced Maggie to Eisner did just about all of his own The Spirit sections. “They blew me away writing—a rarity in comic-book and we collected them devotedly,” she said. men. His stories carried the same In the 1973 book, The Comic-Book weight as his line, involving a reader, Book, Maggie Thompson contributed a setting the terms, making the most chapter on Eisner and the influence ofThe unlikely of plot twists credible. Spirit, introducing thousands more people His high point was The Spirit, a to the artist and his oeuvre. In the course of comic-book section created as a her own study, she elaborated upon a point Sunday supplement for newspa- of contention that was first raised by Jules pers. It began in 1939 [sic] and ran, Feiffer in The Great Comic Book Heroes: weekly, until 1942, when Eisner went into the army and had to surrender Sartorially, the Spirit was miles apart the strip to—the joke is unavoidable—a . from other masked heroes. He didn’t wear tights, just a baggy blue business suit, a wide-brimmed blue hat For all the grouchiness and teasing in their latter-day relationship, that needed blocking, and, for a disguise, a match- Feiffer couldn’t hide the pleasure it gave him to provide his former ing blue eye mask, drawn as if it were a skin graft. mentor a boost in recognition and respect. For some reason, he rarely wore socks—if he did they “One of the most compelling, most satisfying aspects of anyone’s were flesh-colored. I often wondered about that. career is collateral assists,” Feiffer said. “Just as when people tell me a book of mine or cartoon of mine helped their kid, these Thompson, in her chapter of The Comic-Book Book titled “Blue things are terribly important to me. The Great Comic Book Heroes Suit, Blue Mask, Blue Gloves—And No Socks,” couldn’t help but helped make comics a big thing again when they were dying out. bring it up again when describing the Spirit’s brief and unexpected I had not been a fan for a long time and never was a fan of the return to print in the New York Herald Tribune’s Sunday magazine ‘Marvel Age.’ The book was a hope it would do something for Will. January 9, 1966: I’m thrilled it went way beyond what I hoped for. What it did was make Will have second thoughts about his abandoned career as a The Spirit wore a single-breasted suit, a narrow tie, cartoonist. With fanzines and the underground, he was launched and button-down collar. Otherwise, he was the same back into the world.” old Spirit—except for the socks. People have pointed

135 The Gary Chaloner Interview ary Chaloner is an award-winning artist and writer who Chaloner also designed the official Will Eisner site at one created and published the new adventures of Will Eisner’s point. John Law. G • • • I interviewed Chaloner via email for the first edition ofA Spir- ited Life. But that was when John Law had yet to be published. BOB ANDELMAN: Tell us a little bit about John Law and how and Now that it’s been out and built an independent audience for one when Will Eisner created it. of Eisner’s lesser known characters, I thought it would be fun to GARY CHALONER: John Law was devised and created by Will talk to him again. back in the mid- to late ’40s. The Spirit was going very well, and Eisner fans will also be excited to learn how many more char- Will wanted to expand his range of publications on the newsstand. acters from Eisner’s early work returned to action in Chaloner’s He developed several titles, one of them being the John Law charac- John Law series. ter, but the first one that he released I think was Baseball Comics, First, let me tell you a little more about Chaloner. and it didn’t go as well as he would have liked, so the other ideas He’s an Australian-born creator who began his career as a that he had were put on the shelf for a while. publisher of his own work and the Will, being the frugal person work of other Australian creators that he was, converted it into through his own imprint Cyclone Spirit stories. So all those stories Comics. Cyclone published a didn’t see print as Spirit stories range of popular comic books in until about 1950. So the John the 1980s and 1990s with titles Law material was a fully formed as diverse as The Jackaroo, The concept that he had been thinking Southern Squadron, Dark Nebula, about quite a while, for several G.I. Joe Australia, Damingo, years, and so that whole idea was and CCQ (Cyclone Comics Quar- a bit stillborn, so when the oppor- terly). tunity came along when I talked Gary’s overseas work includes to Will and Denis Kitchen about U.S. editions of The Jackaroo and developing the series wasn’t just a The Southern Squadron; a very dead concept, it was a fully devel- Wallpaper for the John Law web comic. odd issue of The Badger with Mike oped, ready-to-go set of charac- Baron; the award-winning Planet of the Apes: Urchak’s Folly; The ters in the universe that Will had already worked on and estab- Olympians, a two-issue prestige series for Marvel/; lished, so that was irresistible. and editorial and creative duties on Dark Horse Down Under for —this series featured the first U.S. appearance ANDELMAN: Was John Law ever published in the ’50s or not? of Gary’s creation Morton Stone, Undertaker. CHALONER: No, it was not. All of the work was adapted and His more recent creator-owned projects include the black absorbed into the Spirit universe. John Law in his own environ- comedy of Morton Stone: Undertaker; Red Kelso, a pulp-inspired ment wasn’t published until the ’80s in the edition. adventure series; and new adventures of The Jackaroo. … They stripped back a lot of the pasteovers and art changes that Chaloner worked closely with Will Eisner in the development Will had made to the original art to reveal the original “John Law” and relaunch of Will Eisner’s John Law both online and in print art underneath. through IDW Publishing. In the 2005 Ledger Awards (Australian Comic Industry Awards), ANDELMAN: How did you first hear of John Law? Will Eisner’s John Law received several awards including Inter- CHALONER: Well, being an Eisner reader for many years and national Title of the Year and Single Issue or Story of the Year. bumping into a lot of the publications that Kitchen Sink first Chaloner was also awarded the Ledger of Honour (a Hall of Fame released and that other publications had written about Will Eisner, award) and received industry awards for Achievement of the Year, if you learn a bit about The Spirit, you also learn about these Cover Artist of the Year, and of the Year. aborted characters that Will tried to publish back in the ’40s. The

143 School of Visual Arts 17n 1974, Marvel Comics’ longtime secretary “Fabulous” Flo That July, Eisner did something that further impressed Lash and Steinberg recommended to that he attend Holmstrom. He sent personal letters to all his incoming students, Ieither the Rhode Island School of Design or the School of Visual inviting them to a meeting at his Park Avenue office. Arts in Manhattan, which was founded by and Silas “I remember going into this office where he had a huge desk Rhodes. SVA—a trade school with a reputation for training gener- and wood paneling,” Holmstrom said. “He was the nicest guy you ations of art directors and technically proficient graphic design- could imagine.” ers—won out when he learned that two of his heroes, Steve Ditko “We had no idea what to expect,” Lash said. “What shocked and Wally Wood, both went there. me and John was that only five or six people showed up. We were But once enrolled, Holmstrom discovered that the school didn’t expecting twenty-five to thirty, at least! It was exciting to have that actually teach the art and business of comic books. audience. We sat in his outer office, waiting. Then Eisner came out. “There were a couple guys there, including myself, who peti- He took a chair, spun it around, and sat like a coach talking to his tioned the school to start comic art classes. They weren’t doing team. He told us he wanted to duplicate a shop where he would it and a bunch of us weren’t happy,” overlook all of us working on stories, Holmstrom said. kibitz, and show us how it’s done. They approached Alumni Director “We were impressed that he reached Tom Gill, who had worked on a strip out to this extent,” Lash said. “When the himself and was only too happy to help. class started, it was friendly hellos, but “Who do you want?” he asked. we couldn’t trade on that orientation. It With no names beyond their reach in was, ‘I’m glad you showed up, but let’s the greater New York metropolitan area, get to work.’ There was a curtain. You Holmstrom and the others presented a never got too close to him.” dream list of teaching candidates. At Holmstrom sensed that some of the top of the list were Will Eisner and Eisner’s steeliness was caused by the Harvey Kurtzman. reality of facing a bunch of scruffy, “We were dumbfounded when the counterculture art types every week. school said yes. And they landed the two “I think Harvey and Will were both greatest cartoonists of all time!” Holm- nervous. Neither had done this before.” strom said. “We were thrilled.” The SVA building where Eisner taught Around that time, Holmstrom met was the school’s main building on East , a native of Brooklyn. They 23rd Street. His classroom was on the became fast friends. second floor, just atop the staircase, and “Batton was a charming guy. You Will Eisner reviewing portfolios and talking with a few feet away from the student lounge. couldn’t find a nicer guy,” Holmstrom students at the Ringling School of Art & Design in Graphic design legend Milton Glazer said. “He was one of the first people Sarasota, Florida, in February 2004. taught in the same classroom at night. I met when I came to New York from Photo by Bob Andelman Eisner’s first class began with thirty Cheshire, Connecticut. I didn’t know a soul in New York. We students. After the first week it was down to nineteen. “I had no became great friends because we were both nuts about comics academic background,” Eisner said. “Silas Rhodes said, ‘We don’t and Steve Ditko in particular.” want teachers. You’re known to run a shop and train guys.’ And And they both couldn’t believe their luck in being art students at that’s the way I ran my class. I never graded students. My operation a school where Eisner and Kurtzman would soon be among their was pass/fail. If you didn’t show up three or four times, you failed. teachers. As long as you showed up, no matter how good or bad, as long as “I knew the gravity of that,” Lash said. “I knew about Kurtz- you kept doing the work, you passed.” man and Mad; The Spirit wasn’t around at that time, but I knew Kurtzman’s class was the complete opposite of Eisner’s. Will’s influence. When I read bios of other cartoonists, they all “Harvey invited some students to his home,” Lash said. “Harvey mentioned him.” was a little more open to being manipulated than Will was. I say

146 Scholastic, drawing many of the illustrations himself but buying mustache, and goatee. In his own words, he looked like the mean- the jokes from his class. est member of the Jackson 5. “If he liked the joke, he paid $1 a joke,” Carlin said. “I sold him Billingsley started drawing professionally at eleven when he was three hundred jokes. I used to be funny.” spotted and hired by the editor of Kids magazine. “I was born in the Eisner’s books for Scholastic included titles such as Star Jaws, South and grew up in Harlem,” he explained. “I was considered an 101 Outer Space Jokes, Superhero Jokes, Spaced Out Jokes, and oddball because I wasn’t into anything anyone else was into.” He 300 Horrible Monster Jokes. They were not his most memorable went to SVA because of its cartooning program and even received works, but schoolchildren of that era ate them up. And, for his special permission to take Eisner’s class—normally reserved for students, they were golden opportunities for résumé entries. sophomores—in his freshman year. “It felt good to get something published,” Carlin said. “It was Eisner, however, briefly slowed him down. crummy stuff but Will paid in cash. I went to Blimpie right away “Is this all you can do?” the teacher asked his new student and bought a sandwich whenever I got paid. But I didn’t care about during a portfolio review. the money. I wanted a copy of the book. Billingsley didn’t know anything A ‘written by’ credit was very cool.” about Eisner at that point. After look- Years later, when Carlin won an ing up the man’s work and background , he thanked his former in the SVA library, he was impressed teacher and said, “My price is now $2 enough to set his ego aside and see a joke.” what he could learn. For his contribution to Will Eisner’s “He put me to task,” Billingsley said. Gallery of New Comics, Carlin collabo- “I started improving just to show him rated with fellow student Drew Fried- that I could do better. Starting as young man. as I did, it’s hard to show people you’re “Drew was great. He was definitely capable. Will really challenged me. I already there while the rest of us were knew people who dropped Will’s class figuring it out,” Carlin said. “He used to because he was too hard on them. A draw all these weird faces. There was lot of people fell to the wayside. It was a husband and wife gardening team on a hard act. And then Will went one step TV in New York back then, Stan and further: he published his graphic novel, Floss Dworkin. I did a weird drawing Will Eisner’s New York: The Big City. of them. Drew took it and did his own That inspired me. is set in the city. faces. He did, ‘Find Stan and Floss.’ My And I always liked doing street scenes. I drawing stood out because it was so looked to him for inspiration.” awful.” Billingsley said that most students Eisner recognized Carlin’s story- in his class were already at their desks telling quite early on. “I also know he and drawing by the time Eisner arrived, thought my draftsmanship needed a and they all continued to draw quietly shitload of work,” Carlin said, laughing when he lectured. at the memory. “He was cool about how he said things that were “Will looked at projects objectively and asked what market we critical. Harvey Kurtzman was more blunt. were interested in reaching. He was looking to create profession- “Will was literally publishing A Contract with God as he was als,” Billingsley said. “It didn’t matter if you were underground or teaching the class that year,” Carlin recalled. “It was an amazing drew with markers, just as long as you were successful conveying time.” an idea. He wanted us to create a good picture. And each should stand alone and push a picture forward. Will wanted us to know • • • what it would be like in the real world where they would have no While most of the artists who went through Eisner’s class were sympathy and we wouldn’t get a second try. ‘If a gag isn’t working, interested in comic books and superheroes, the 1975 class discard it.’ That’s hard for a lot of artists. His class was hard work.” contained two future daily cartoonists, , who created In 2000, Billingsley received the President’s Award from the Curtis, and Patrick McDonnell, creator of . American Lung Association for the way his comic strip character Even though only seventeen years old, by the time Billingsley Curtis kept pushing his father to quit smoking. He was surprised to entered Eisner’s class at SVA in 1975, he was already an established see Eisner and come onstage and present the award artist in New York City. He also had a cartoony look—giant afro, to him.

153 The Drew Friedman Interview knew Drew Friedman was going to be unhappy. during my days at SVA and I could never understand The minute Will Eisner started telling me about his former why he later came to resent me. I’ve heard over the I student from New York’s School of Visual Arts, I sensed a land- years, from mutual friends, that he continually (and mine lurking ahead of me. falsely) badmouthed me. Friedman is best known for his portraiture and, more To set the record straight, Eisner never contacted my predominantly, caricature style. I knew his work primarily from father at all. My father has never spoken to him. I saw National Lampoon, Spy, and the New York Observer, and was my father yesterday and he confirmed this. Secondly, surprised to learn he was yet another distinguished alumni of I never made Harvey Kurtzman cry. Harvey encour- both Eisner and SVA. aged chaos in his classroom as he thought such fooling But Eisner didn’t have anything nice to say about Friedman. around contributed to the creativity of his students. He That was odd, because in more than two years of interviewing him did, on one occasion, have to leave the room to compose and doing research for A Spirited Life, Eisner rarely said anything himself and continue the class, but I was not singled bad about anyone. Even when he talked about Gary Groth, editor out as the cause of his distress. In the three years I took in chief of The Comics Journal—who famously dissed the old Harvey’s classes, we were on the best of terms, even to comics master in print—he preferred not to say anything bad on the point of socializing outside the classroom. the record. I wish you the best of luck with your book, but if As soon as I heard his comments about Friedman, I knew I’d Eisner’s other accounts and reminiscences are as valid have to contact the artist and give him a chance to reply. as those referring to me, then it should be sold in the Friedman declined, via email: “fiction” department of bookstores, alongside James Frey’s book. Dear Bob, All the best, I appreciate your interest in talking to me about Drew Friedman being a student of Will Eisner’s, but I honestly don’t think I have much to contribute. The class was almost Friedman also passed along his own supporting document, an twenty-five years ago, and I have very little memory of email from his SVA classmate and respected artist in his own right, it. I don’t think an interview with me would be worth- Mark Newgarden (We All Die Alone, Cheap Laffs): while to you. Good luck with your book. Drew: Best regards, I just read that amusing Will Eisner-related letter Drew printout you sent. For the record everything you say is 100% true (I So I looked for fellow students from that era that could give me was always amazed you actually stuck with that hate- an independent view. None wanted to be quoted for attribution, ful class—I know I dropped it after a semester—if I but there was a confirmation that at least some of Eisner’s view of lasted that long). Friedman could be supported. My impression of Eisner was that he really liked In February 2006, a few months after the book was published, I you. He even said once you reminded of him in his heard from Friedman again. And my original instinct proved true: youth. (Of course everything reminded Will Eisner of he wasn’t happy. Will Eisner…). But he was probably secretly pissed that you didn’t ultimately fall in line with the Eisner- Dear Bob, grovellers he cultivated in his class. I didn’t know he I picked up your new book about Will Eisner the badmouthed you later on. other day, and was surprised to see my name in the And of course the real culprit in making Harvey index. I think it will benefit you to know that some “cry” (actually just get red in the face and leave the of what Will said regarding me in the book are out room as you mentioned) was one James Stroud who and out lies. He and I had always gotten along well latched onto the Stooge noises, etc., and then went way

155 The Scott & Bo Hampton Interview here aren’t many successful brother acts in comics. One of the first was Stan Lee and ; one of the best known Ttoday would be Joe Kubert’s sons, Andy and Adam. The Hampton brothers, Scott and Bo, have been making two distinct impressions on the business as artists for more than twenty-five years. Bo, the older of the two native North Carolinians, studied under Will Eisner at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He later spent a year as Eisner’s production assistant at his home studio in White Plains, N.Y. That summer, he brought his younger brother, Scott, along to help and learn one day a week. That experi- ence had an enduring on both of their careers and contin- ues to influence them today. It also left them with some wonderful, never before published stories about Eisner. • • • BOB ANDELMAN: What was the first that you ever heard of Will Eisner? BO HAMPTON: I saw the Harvey reprints and loved them. I was about ten years old so it was around ’64. : I can recall that exactly. I was at a friend’s house, and he showed me the two Harvey reprints of The Spirit. I’d never seen his work before that. I’m not sure when Warren started to reprint the Spirit material, and so it’s conceivable that I had seen a little bit of it before I saw these Harveys, Eisner’s original cover art and the printed comic of but I hadn’t really taken it in. I wasn’t Harvey’s The Spirit #1. really thinking about what it was. When Courtesy Heritage Auctions I saw the reprints, I was just amazed and read them immediately and was just floored and became an imme- ANDELMAN: Oh, because they were in color. diate fan. I would say this was when I was fifteen. SCOTT: Right. Well, not just that. They were comic books. They were comic book size, and yes, the color was fabulous, I thought. ANDELMAN: How old are you now? Again, it’s been a long time since I saw them, but I just felt like this SCOTT: I’m forty-seven. I was born in 1959, so it was in 1974 or is a man who knows how to draw for that form of reproduction, 1975. using the limitations of a four-color process. There are certain BO: I’m as old as the wind… fifty-two. artists who know the limitations and then try to make their art work within that limitation. It’s one of the great challenges of doing ANDELMAN: So it must have been the Warren reprints that you stuff for reproduction. I think Will was an absolute master of it. saw, Scott. was a master of it. I think that the color work by Marie SCOTT: No, I may have seen some of them, but what I was seeing Severin on the ECs is a fabulous collaboration between her and the that knocked me out were the Harvey reprints from the ’60s…. entire clan of artists that Gaines had. They knew what they were dealing with, and they worked within those parameters. So those

160 God, Will Eisner, and the Birth of the Graphic Novel 18ill Eisner was born into a God-fearing family. His mother “My wife Ann is a firm believer,” he continued. “She believes referred to God constantly, promising that if Eisner did strongly in God or in the existence of God. I am not as sure. I can’t Wthe right things, God would reward him. attribute the pattern of my life to the hand of God, although I would Personally, though, Eisner had a dim view of religion as an insti- like to because it would seem that somewhere there is a hand that tution. This feeling grew during the Great Depression years. is guiding it. That would be of great comfort. But I can’t find any “One Rosh Hashanah Eve, my father wanted to hear Yizkor—the reason to it.” Jewish memorial service for the dead—but we didn’t have enough All of which set the table—as far as the public knew until money to pay for the holiday tickets to the shul,” Eisner said. “We now—for the creation of Eisner’s groundbreaking 1978 graphic went anyway and stood outside on the steps—the doors were novel, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories. Eisner open—and we listened from outside. was now sixty-one. “The humiliation of that experi- • • • ence—being too poor to participate inside with the rest of the Jewish commu- American Visuals was going broke by nity—stayed with me. In fact, I became the early 1970s—one of its divisions so angry that I never went into a shul was bleeding it dry—and Eisner got out again until I got married. in 1972. But there was the question of “I began thinking that the institu- what to do next. He had money in the tion—not the fundamentals of bank, and he took the bold step of giving itself—was what was wrong. It wasn’t up his Army contract on PS magazine. a philosophical or cultural problem. Over the next few years, inspired by the I was disillusioned by the institution, underground comix scene, he invested the realization that it is conducted like his time and money in a full-time return a business. Here is an institution that is to the drawing board. It was, in fact, a sustaining myths that may or may not be comment made by Ann that focused true, and in order to do that, the lead- him. She said, “Why don’t you finally do ership does the same things a dictato- what you always wanted to do?” rial country does. Look at the Catholic They talked about this quite often, Church’s problems. It is defending an actually, so Eisner finally sat down institution that operates on a concept and gave it some serious thought. Did that is essentially predicated on myths. he want to return to comic books? Church leaders conduct themselves in a The solid, rapidly growing base of fan way that retains for them absolute power. And, as you know and I market and the Kitchen Sink Press reprints of The Spirit generated know, absolute power breeds absolute corruption.” a growing interest in his old work. Eisner had already turned down When they met, Eisner’s wife Ann was a member of a Reform Stan Lee’s offer of the editorship at Marvel Comics. Would the aver- temple, Temple Emanuel in Manhattan. After they were married in age mainstream or underground comic book reader be interested 1950, they moved to White Plains and joined another Reform temple. in anything more challenging from Will Eisner than this month’s They didn’t attend temple regularly, but they remained members issue of Daredevil? because of their two children. When the Eisners moved to Florida in “I was struck by the obvious,” Eisner said, “that readership was 1978, they looked into joining a shul. They attended Shabbat services changing and a new approach to comics content was needed. Most one Friday evening, liked it, but never did anything more about it. obvious to me was that the time was now. The young preteen comic “I would like to believe that there is a supreme intelligence that book reader of the 1940s was now close to forty years old. He grew is concerned with our lives and who guides us,” Eisner said. “As a up on the medium but what was there for a mature person to read result, we have a contract with God that we ourselves created. The in this format? It was an enormous opportunity.” problem with the contract is that neither party has lived up to his Eisner reasoned that there might, in fact, be a new audience of obligation. So I don’t know. I’d like there to be a God, really. adult comic book readers that no one had yet addressed directly.

168 Eisner’s preliminary sketches for the cover and page 3 of , and his painted cover for the 1995 reprint of the book. Courtesy Heritage Auctions and Denis Kitchen respectively

• • • When Eisner wrote a new graphic novel, he treated it like a state secret. Even Denis Kitchen was out of the loop about the of new books until they were substantially plot- ted and dummied. Their typical conversation went like this: “I’m working on a new graphic novel,” Eisner would say. And Kitchen would ask, “What’s it about, Will?” “New York in the Depression; I don’t want to say any more.” “Uh, okay.” A month might pass and Eisner would casually mention to Kitchen that he was still working on the mysterious project. “Can you tell me anything more about it?” “Well, it’s about New York in the 1930s. I’d rather not talk about it.” I also get an early read from my wife Ann, who has the perspective Eisner believed it would interrupt his creative process if he of a new reader.” talked about a project too early. Asking for candid advice and receiving it are two different things. “I want to really think it through thoroughly and have the char- At least that was true in the beginning of his relationship with acters and plot well established,” he said. “Once I get to the point Kitchen. And that applied to both Kitchen and the man who edited where the story is in rough form with a beginning, middle, and an most of Eisner’s books, the late Dave Schreiner. Schreiner was end, then I eagerly send it to Denis and ask for his candid advice. Kitchen Sink Press editor in chief for years, and Eisner eventually

171 was a very interesting discussion about how to run two plot lines at comic book, I guess. I had been assigned to be an art designer, the same time. He also had me talk to the class about how under- because Will didn’t even have time to re-read the stories. He said, ground comic book publishing worked and how to create your “You know what sells, you know what excites people about The sample. At that point, I was also looking at samples of people who Spirit, so read the stories, and work out some ideas for what might be good draftsmen or might have a good comic that Kitchen would make good covers, and then I will draw them.” Sink Press might want to print. I would sometimes be part of the team that would go to comics conventions, and rather than have ANDELMAN: That’s trust. Denis be bothered by all kinds of people with portfolios, I would POPLASKI: And so I, of course, went through and found specific take them all aside and look at them from the point of view of fine poses that I liked. I would do a big mock-up, then we photocopied art and stuff like that or critique them in terms of comic strips. I it and sent it to him, and then he put velum over it and totally redid was really well read as far as what was happening in the comics it. And he gave me the vellum drawing, so I have the first cover to world, and I could discuss how people could improve their portfo- the Spirit comic, which is fun, because I have the photocopy as lios. There might have been one or two guys out of all those hours well of the drawing that I did that he then totally revamped. of looking at portfolios that ever finally came through and were I went through a few stories, and I think it was the issue that published by Kitchen Sink Press, but there were a few. had the “Stop the Plot” story, which went on exhibition with the I accompanied Will to an Upper West Side comic book store on touring Masters of Comic Art exhibition. I would say, “Will, here’s another occasion because he had to do a book signing. I met him this window that you drew, and we have the Spirit looking out. That up there, and he was signing some of the first issues ofThe Spirit will be a good cover; it actually has a dimensional quality, because the cover is a window, and the Spirit is stick- ing his head out the window.” And I was giving him all kinds of real specific things. Will wanted some basic ideas and stuff, but he didn’t want to copy anybody, and the phrase that he hit me with was that rather than just being an art director saying, “Will, I want you to draw this, and we need this by 5:00,” he said, “When you speak to me, speak in fundamentals.” So I had to stand back for a minute, and I said, “Okay, I need a rationale as to why this would be a good, excit- ing scene based on the number of stories that we are showing, that were in that particular issue, and how this would work as far as all the covers in a row would look.” And we never did do the window cover! But from that point of view, I gave him a choice of different images from differ- ent stories, or I tried to combine them a little bit, that maybe he would want to use that as a springboard. That was one of the key phrases of my work- ing relationship with Will, when speaking to him or working with him, I had to work from the point of view of fundamentals, and then he could build on that, or that might inspire him to take a totally different direction. I worked with him on his graphic novels as well, doing the cover for . I did thir- teen or fourteen cover designs for that just to show him what was possible, different styles, different city scenes. I had two or three that I Cover sketch for The Spirit #11 of the Kitchen Sink comic book reprint series. liked a lot, and then a lot of them were just simi- Courtesy Heritage Auctions lar ideas but not as developed. That one, we were

194 ever saw.” It looked like a log. He didn’t even think or bother all that much about anatomy and some of the form, and so Denis called him up and said, “Will, this cover doesn’t quite work. Pete thinks the legs are too stubby.” We gave him a very - ough critique on it, and he said thanks. We sent it back, and he re-drew it.

ANDELMAN: There is a story in the biogra- phy about how when Denis Kitchen and Dave Schreiner started working with Will, they were kind of hesitant to give him direct feedback, because, God, he’s Will Eisner. Did you ever go through any of that yourself, where you were kind of holding back a little bit? POPLASKI: No, because being an artist myself and talking to student artists all the time, work- ing with other people, I am very respectful of where they are coming from. I did the same thing with a cover. Mark Schultz did one of his early ; it’s an underwater scene, and I said, “The poor guy, he’s really a great draftsman, and he’s working hard, but he has this kneecap all screwed up. If anybody really knows anatomy and looks at this, they will think he is not doing his homework or he rushed it or something.” We pointed this out to Mark, and he said thanks, and he changed the whole leg around, and it looked a lot better, and that was that. I felt that part of my job as an art direc- tor working with Will or working with anybody is respect what they did, but if it really bothered me, I spoke up.

Sketch for the 1978 OrlandoCon, complete with Eisner’s impressionist take on an alligator. ANDELMAN: What was Will’s importance to Courtesy Heritage Auctions Kitchen Sink Press over the years? When he was I had a discussion with him about portraiture, and he said, “You not in the office, how was his work and his being a part of the know, I have never been good at portraiture. That really takes a organization viewed by the staff? whole different way of looking; I am more of an impressionist.” POPLASKI: I always thought of Will as “Uncle Will.” I worked As he said, “impressionist,” and he was drawing these figures so close with Caniff, I thought of Caniff as “Uncle Milt.” I think and blocking in the calligraphy of his brushwork, it was a perfect it comes back to watching too many “Mouseketeer” shows. Will demonstration of that. could be like Walt Disney walking in and being real friendly and chummy with the kids and telling them a story or showing them ANDELMAN: As close up as you got to see him work and got to how to do something, and we were always ready to learn some- see his work, could you find fault in any of his work? Were there thing, and we were always amazed at some of these stories. We things where you went, “You know, it might have been a little lazy were cut off from the world, in the middle of Wisconsin, and he there,” or…? was telling us about Jack Kirby throwing gangsters out of his studio POPLASKI: Will always met his deadlines, which meant sometimes in 1938. We thought that was great, geez. Everybody loved it when he probably didn’t have time to do his homework. There is a Spirit Will showed up. cover that he did with the Spirit wrestling an alligator, and he sent it When we had done the second Spirit comic, he and his brother in finished, and I looked at it and said, “This is the worst alligator I Pete came out, and I had all these figure paintings that I had done.

196 25 DC PUTS THE SPIRIT BACK IN COMICS t the center of the sustaining Will Eisner Universe there stands two memorable characters. A One, of course, is the Spirit, the masked detective who lRSTSURFACEDINSNEWSPAPERSUPPLEMENTSANDHASRETURNED in various formats to entertain every generation since. The other is Denis Kitchen, a character in his own right. Kitchen, at six foot, six inches, with long hair and distinctive mustache, literally caricatured himself in the funny pages back in THESWHENHEWASANUNDERGROUNDCOMIXARTISTANDPUBLISHER The soft-spoken Wisconsin native is known for many commercial enterprises over the last thirty-five years, including Krupp Comic Works, Steve Krupp’s Gallery & Curio Shoppe, Kitchen Sink Press, Denis Kitchen Art Agency, Denis Kitchen Publishing Co., and the Kitchen & Hansen Agency. And amidst all these varied enterprises, Kitchen became Will %ISNERSPUBLISHERIN ARELATIONSHIPTHATCONTINUEDWITHSCANT INTERRUPTIONTHROUGHTHELATES WHEN+ITCHEN3INK0RESSSHUT down and Kitchen—by then a great friend and favored confidante of Eisner’s—became Eisner’s art and literary agent (with his part- NER *UDY(ANSEN  3INCE %ISNERS DEATH IN *ANUARY  +ITCHEN HAS CONTINUED coordinating artistic issues for the artist’s estate. Today, the hair is shorter and grayer, but the mustache remains, asIF does YOU the ENJOYEDsardonic sense THIS of humor PREVIEW, and wonder. CLICK I got to knowTHE LINK Kitchen in 2002BELOW when he TOpre-screened ORDER me THIS for several BOOK! hours by telephone before endorsing my candidacy to write Eisner’s biogra- phy. AndWILL one of theEISNER: great pleasures A of that enduring relationship is that I periodicallySPIRITED get to engage LIFE in long conversations with Kitchen about(DELUXE all kinds of things, EDITION) from comics to politics to baseball. AnIn expanded, the following full-color deluxe conversation, edition of the out-of-print Kitchen talked about the revival biography that explores the fascinating life of WILL EISNER, &DWDORJGRQHLQVXSSRUWRIDH[KLELWRI(LVQHUZRUNDW0R&&$ ofdetailing The aSpirit more than in 70-year all-new career thatcomics, in which hewhich leads into back-to-back interviewsspearheaded comicswith for two adult readersof the and subsequent created the first creators of those series, In the literary world, let’s start at the top with W. W. Norton. The widely accepted graphic novel, A CONTRACT WITH GOD. DarwynEisner's influence Cooke has and been feltSergio by such Aragonés. diverse talents as Plot found some real success both in the U.S. and in Europe. It did Batman creator Bob Kane and Jack Kirby, as well as under- ground comics legend R. Crumb and Pulitzer Prize-winning phenomenally in Europe, especially France, where the publisher cartoonists Jules Feiffer and —allsss have hailed Eisner's cinematic approach to comics, and his endur- 'RASSETQUICKLYSOLDOVER HARDCOVERS4HEREAREALSOTWELVE BOBing character ANDELMAN: The Spirit. From As his childhoodyou look to famously back on the time since Will died, or thirteen language editions, including some countries where Will turning down a proposal for Superman, to educating Army howsoldiers do in you P.S. Magazine, assess Eisner'shis legacy, personal inand termsprofessional of business, and in any other was never translated into before, like Greece and Hungary. In the life is told in dramatic detail. Author BOB ANDELMAN WAYTHATYOUWOULDMEASUREIT spent almost three years interviewing Eisner prior to his U.S., The Plot sold over 20,000 in hardcover, which by far exceeds DENISpassing, researchingKITCHEN: his life andIt’s work amazing and interviewing how much is out there and still any other hardcover edition of Will’s work. It got generally very friends, family, and colleagues including , , , DENIS KITCHEN, beingJOE KUBERT, created. STAN LEE,I don’t JULES FEIFFER, know NEAL of ADAMS,any otherand PATRICK authors McDONNELL with .a In posthu-addition to hundredspositive review attention. of FULL-COLOR IMAGES from Will's archives and private collections (not found in the original edition), this mousEXPANDED schedule DELUXE EDITION quite includeslike athis. series ofAmong new interviews many with other DREW FRIEDMAN, things, HOWARDWill’s They have a whole program that is dynamic and first class. It’s CHAYKIN, , SERGIO ARAGONES, MICHAEL USLAN, and others, which clear the air on some worktopics leftwas unfinished part byof the the first edition,“Masters and add of depth American to the reader's Comics” knowledge ofexhibition Eisner’s body of work.a shame, because Will was alive when the deal with Norton was thatFeaturing toured an insightful the country. introduction Aby separateMICHAEL CHABON touring, and aretrospective Foreword by NEAL ADAMSwas also. made, and it’s the kind of respect he wanted his entire career; to (256-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 be, as he used to put it, with an uptown publisher. And now he is CONDUCTEDANDHISWORKWASEXHIBITEDIN0ARISAND.EW9ORK!TISBN: 978-1-60549-061-8 one point hishttp://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1197 art was simultaneously in four different venues. uptown. They had even planned an author tour. He was “fighting”

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