Will Eisner (47 page)
Authors: Michael Schumacher
“He did a rough dummy that ran about 112 pages. He had a lot of false starts. It was my job to sift through all this stuff and kind of structure it. I started the book based on Will’s notes and what I thought it should be. I made a list of what I thought should be changed, because he already used material in previous books when he was discussing this basic idea. He was repeating stuff from the other two sequential art volumes, and you don’t want to repeat yourself. I had to go through everything he ever did and find more appropriate examples.”
Expressive Anatomy
, although not as strong as
Comics and Sequential Art
, was a worthy addition to the Eisner instructional canon, expanding upon what he had written in the earlier book and underscoring his value as a teacher. In the classroom and his two previously published instructional books, he’d taken a practical approach to sharing a wealth of experience with a strongly diverse group of students and readers. In
Expressive Anatomy
, he was teaching from beyond the grave.
Neil Gaiman once asked Will Eisner why he continued to work well into an age when so many of his contemporaries had retired. Eisner considered the question and responded by mentioning a movie he’d once seen about a jazz musician who kept playing because he was in search of “The Note”—the elusive symbol of perfection, the indication that he had achieved all he could ever hope to achieve. This search was what kept Eisner in the game.
“I never felt, in talking to Will, that there was a list of things that he had to do before he died,” Gaiman said in 2009, “that he had this book and that book, and that book and that book, all lined up in his head like planes coming in, all in a holding pattern, and they had to be landed before the night comes. What I felt was he was pursuing The Note, and it’s as if there was somebody just beyond the horizon, just out of sight, playing something on a flute, and Will wanted to try to reach that person before the night came. But in order to reach that person, he was going to have to keep walking down that street, and he was going to have to head into the forest or wherever you went next.”
“The wonder of Eisner is he never stopped questioning,” Frank Miller observed, agreeing with Gaiman’s assessment of Eisner’s life and art as a continual quest. “Had he lived another thirty years, we still would have been asking that question: Where else was he going to go?”
*
There were three published anthologies of graphic novels, including
The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue
, which included
A Contract with God
,
A Life Force
, and
Dropsie Avenue
;
Will Eisner’s New York: Life in the Big City
, which gathered
New York
,
The Building
,
City People Notebook
, and
Invisible People
; and
Life
,
in Pictures: Autobiographical Stories
, with three graphic novels and two stories (“A Sunset in Sunshine City,”
The Dreamer
,
To the Heart of the Storm
,
The Name of the Game
, “The Day I Became a Professional”).
NOTE: In its long history,
The Spirit
was printed and reprinted in newspapers, magazines, and books. The feature had its own magazine with two different publishers and its own standard-sized comic book. In these chapter notes, when I quote directly from one of the specific
Spirit
entries, I cite the specific date on which the episode appeared in the Sunday newspaper supplement. When citing interviews and columns appearing in the magazine or comic book, I draw a distinction by citing
The Spirit Magazine
when I’m citing an entry in the Warren or Kitchen Sink magazines or
The Spirit
, followed by the number of the comic book and the parenthetical CB, indicating that it is from the Kitchen Sink Press reissue.
CHAPTER ONE: THE DEPRESSION’S LESSONS
1 Epigraph: Will Eisner, preface to
The Contract with God Trilogy
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), p. xiii.
1 Eisner family background and Will Eisner’s childhood: Will Eisner, “Art and Commerce: An Oral Reminiscence by Will Eisner, interview conducted and edited by John Benson,
Panels #1
(summer 1979). Jon B. Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005). Interviews with Ann Eisner, Carl Gropper, Allan Gropper, and Eliot Gordon. See also Will Eisner,
To the Heart of the Storm
(Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1991).
1 “The city, to me”: Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master.”
2 “a kerosene miner”: Eisner, “Art and Commerce.”
4 “Julian”: Eisner,
Heart of the Storm
, p. 9. The other citations in this passage are from this source.
9 “From those pulps”: Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master.”
9 “I grew up”: John Benson, “Will Eisner: Having Something to Say,”
Comics Journal #267
.
11 “As always”: Eisner, “Art and Commerce.”
11 “Seeing people”: Ibid.
11 “He had been a dress-cutter”: Interview with Stan Lee.
12 “Your father isn’t”: Bob Andelman,
Will Eisner: A Spirited Life
(Milwaukie, OR: M Press, 2005), p. 114.
12 “I got there”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: Drawing from Experience,”
The Spirit #24
(CB).
14 “We couldn’t afford”: Interview with Nick Cardy.
15 Eisner at DeWitt Clinton High School: Eisner’s earliest published work, including cartoon strips, single-panel illustrations, paintings, and sketches, many published in the
Clintonian
, Eisner’s high school paper, were reprinted in Will Eisner’s
The Art of Will Eisner
, edited by Cat Yronwode (Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1982), and Will Eisner,
Edge of Genius
(New York: Pure Imagination Pubishing, 2007).
15 “Garry is so proud”: Interview with Stan Lee.
17 “[it] represented”: Eisner,
Art of Will Eisner
, p. 7.
17 “She had an aunt”: Eisner,
Edge of Genius
.
17 “My mother stepped in”: Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master.”
18 “She was extremely shocked”: Ibid.
18 Ham Fisher meeting: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Harried holidays,”
The Spirit #64
(CB); R. C. Harvey, “Untitled Homage to Will Eisner,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).
19 “I almost fainted”: Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Harried holidays.”
19 “What kind of pen”: Harvey, “Untitled Homage.”
20 “One of the difficulties”: Danny Fingeroth, “The Will Eisner Interview,”
Write Now! #5
.
21 “They buy from everybody”: Andelman,
Will Eisner: A Spirited Life
, p. 36.
CHAPTER TWO: A BUSINESS FOR THIRTY BUCKS
22 Epigraph: Maggie Thompson, “Will Eisner,”
Golden Age of Comics #2
.
22 Eisner/Iger meeting: Will Eisner,
The Dreamer
(Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1986), pp. 9–10.
23 “I went up”: Interview with Nick Cardy.
23 “I don’t have time”: R. C. Harvey, “The Shop System: Interview with Will Eisner,”
Comics Journal #249
.
23 “Excuse me”: Ibid.
24 Early comics history: Ron Goulart,
Ron Goulart’s Great History of Comic Books
(Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1986); Davd Hajdu,
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
(New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2008); Gerald Jones,
Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book
(New York: Basic Books, 2004); Coulton Waugh,
The Comics
(New York: Macmillan, 1947), Will Eisner, “Getting the Last Laugh,”
New York Times Book Review
, January 14, 1990.
24 “counter-cultural, lowbrow”: Jones,
Men of Tomorrow
, p. 62.
26 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson:
Alter Ego
3, no. 88 (August 2009) devoted most of its issue to Wheeler-Nicholson, with interviews with Christina Blakeney (his granddaughter), Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson (his son), Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown (his granddaughter), and Antoinette Wheeler-Nicholson (his daughter). Not only did the interviews supply readers with information about this unusual character in comics’ history, they also dealt with some of the myths and misconceptions, repeated in books and interviews (including Eisner’s
The Dreamer
) for more than a half century. Dennis O’Neil, a writer and editor at DC, admitted that his thinking about Wheeler-Nicholson had been shaped by the standard, long accepted characterization of the major, but that thinking changed after he saw the Wheeler-Nicholson issue of
Alter Ego
. “All these years, Wheeler-Nicholson was kind of a clown in my mind,” O’Neil said in an interview for this book. “Well, that’s because that was the way he was portrayed by the guys who cheated him out of his company.”
29 Formation of Eisner & Iger: Eisner,
The Dreamer
, pp. 11–12; Harvey, “The Shop System”; Jon B. Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005); Jean Depelley, “Will Eisner Speaks!,”
Jack Kirby Collector #16
; Will Eisner, “Art and Commerce: An Oral Reminiscence by Will Eisner,” interview conducted and edited by John Benson,
Panels #1
(summer 1979). Not surprisingly, Jerry Iger had his own account of his business relationship with Eisner. In a 1985 interview with
Cubic Zirconia Reader
, Iger claimed: “I had gone into a brief partnership with Will Eisner in mid-1938, only to buy him out in 1940 when Will was drafted [
sic
] into the Army to do military posters. Will had become so accomplished—and so expensive!—as a freelance artist that the only way I could afford his services was to make him a partner.” As we’ll see, Iger’s account of the creation of
Sheena
was equally creative.
29 “my name was first”: Harvey, “The Shop System.”
29 “Y’know, Billy”: Eisner,
The Dreamer
, p. 12.
30 Chesler and the shop systems: Interviews with Joe Kurbert, Irwin Hasen, and Carmine Infantino. Ron Goulart, “Golden Age Sweatshops,”
Comics Journal #249
; Harvey, “The Shop System.” Hajdu,
The Ten-Cent Plague
, pp. 32–33.
31 “Chesler never did manage”: Goulart, “Golden Age Sweatshops.”
31 “Harry was extremely kind”: Interview with Joe Kubert.
31 “I loved Harry”: Interview with Carmine Infantino.
32 “Just don’t work”: Interview with Irwin Hasen.
32 “You needed a guy”: Ibid.
32 “pretty much the way”: Goulart, “Golden Age Sweatshops.”
33 “ten-year-old cretins”: David Hajdu, “Good Will,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).
33 “It was the bottom”: Interview with Bob Fujitani.
33 “Comic book writing”: Interview with Stan Lee.
33 “He said”: Interview with Nick Cardy.
33 “It doesn’t seem possible”: Waugh,
The Comics
, pp. 333–334.
34 “comic book ghetto”: Arie Kaplan, “Looking Back,”
Comics Journal #267
.
34 “We were living”: Will Eisner, “Keynote Address from 2002 ‘Will Eisner Symposium.’”
34 “There were a lot”: Ibid. All other quotations in this passage are from this source.
34 “One was Willis R. Rensie”: Mike Barson, Ted White, and Mitch Berger, “… and I Threw In a Hat … ,”
Heavy Metal
, November 1983.
35 “The trouble with you”: Harvey, “The Shop System.”
36 “There was a great deal”: Dave Schreiner, “Afterword” to Will Eisner,
Hawks of the Seas
(Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1986), p. 125.
CHAPTER THREE: SUPERMEN IN A WORLD OF MORTALS
38 Epigraph: John Benson, “Will Eisner: Having Something to Say,”
Comics Journal #267
.
39
Sheena
: See “Sheena: Queen of the Iger Comics Kingdom” issue of
Alter Ego
21 (February 2005) for extensive coverage of the Eisner & Iger shop and the creation of
Sheena
, including the reprinting of the Jerry Iger biography,
The Iger Comics Kingdom
, written by Jay Edward Disbrow and published in 1985 by Blackhorne Publications. Based largely on Disbrow’s interviews with Iger, the biography is marred by historical inaccuracies, the result of Iger’s revisionist history and insistence on taking credit for just about everything that happened in early comics history. Roy Thomas,
Alter Ego
’s editor and a comic book artist and historian, interjects with sidebars and commentary whenever necessary, and his “A Footnote on the Eisner and Iger Shops,” listing all the shops’ personnel, along with their dates of employment, is an indispensable resource.
40 Artists at Eisner & Iger shop: It’s noteworthy that, with the exception of Baily, the artists at the Eisner & Iger shop were very young and, at best, minimally experienced in comics when they hooked up with Eisner & Iger. Most would do their breakthrough work after the breakup of Eisner & Iger, when Eisner was running a studio on his own and supplying a steady stream of material to Quality Comics. Powell (
Mr. Mystic
), Nordling (
Lady Luck
), and Mazoujian (
Lady Luck
) worked on various projects before becoming major contributors to
The Spirit
newspaper supplement, and Cardy, who in time would be known for his artistry with female characters, eventually took over
Lady Luck
after Mazoujian left the studio. Fine (
Black Condor
,
The Ray
), Meskin (
Sheena
), Crandall (
Doll Man
,
Blackhawk
), and Tuska (
Uncle Sam
) were invaluable contributors to other comics produced for Busy Arnold and Quality Comics. Kane produced short features for Eisner before deciding that the money was better elsewhere and making his name as the creator of
Batman
. Several (Tuska, Henkel, Crandall, Fox) wound up creating crime comics for such publications as
Police Comics
and
Crime Does Not Pay
. Kirby, who worked at Eisner’s shop long enough to warm a seat, turned out to be one of the greatest comics artists ever, from his collaborations with Joe Simon (
Captain America
) to his work with Stan Lee and Marvel (
Fantastic Four
,
Thor
). A few, most notably Fine and Fox, moved away from comics and into advertising, while Kirby and Cardy (
Teen Titans
,
Aquaman
) had lifelong careers in comics and did their most lasting work long after leaving Eisner.
41 “When his work came out”: Interview with Joe Kubert.
41 “Lou had never”: Mike Barson, Ted White, and Mitch Berger, “… and I Threw In a Hat … ,”
Heavy Metal
, November 1983.
42 “When Eisner would leave”: Interview with Bob Fujitani.
42 “He was a hell of a nice guy”: Interview with Nick Cardy.
42 Tuska/Powell dustup: Nick Cardy disputed this account, first in an interview with comics historian Michael T. Gilbert and later in my interview with him. According to Cardy, he approached Tuska at a convention and asked him about the fight, and Tuska told him he’d punched Rafael Astarita while he was working for Harry Chesler, not Bob Powell while he was working for Eisner & Iger. “The story I heard from George is that he was working at Chesler, and this other guy was picking on a young kid. George said, ‘Why don’t you lay off. Pick on somebody your own size.’ When the guy up and said something nasty, George cleaned his brush, rinsed it out and put it on his taboret, got up, and smacked the guy. The guy went through several tables. And that was the end of the story.” When reminded that Will Eisner had witnessed the altercation and immortalized it in his novella
The Dreamer
, Cardy admitted that something like that could have happened before he was employed at Eisner & Iger or when he was absent. “Maybe Tuska hit Powell, too, I don’t know. He could have, because Powell was the type who would get into trouble.”
43 Kirby confrontation: Ronin Ro,
Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2004), pp. 4–5; Will Eisner,
The Dreamer
, p. 26; Jean Depelley, “Will Eisner Speaks!,”
Jack Kirby Collector #16
.
43 “Look, we don’t want”: Ro,
Tales to Astonish
, p. 6. All other direct quotations in this passage are from this source.
44 “Jack was a little fellow”: Depelley, “Will Eisner Speaks!”
44 “I was kind of”: Interview with Stan Lee.