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A Year in Comics - March 6th

Ellen Dolan, Commissioner Dolan, and The Spirit* - The Spirit

William Erwin 'Will' Eisner was born a century ago, on March 6th 1917, in Brooklyn, New York City. He was the son of a Jewish father, an immigrant of Austria-Hungary with only limited English skills, and a mother born from Romanian-Jewish parents, who had been orphaned at a young age, and who had grown up illiterate. Eisner grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood and was proud of his Jewish roots, but despite this he was not an orthodox follower of Judaism himself, having turned his back on the faith after his family was refused access to the Synagogue for not being able to pay admission. Despite this, a young Eisner was frequently subjected to antisemitism by his schoolmates, which often led him to get involved in fights.

Eisner grew up poor, and things became even worse during the Great Depression, when he was forced at the age of thirteen to sell newspapers to help his family in their income. Despite this, Eisner managed to attend the DeWitt Clinton High School, where he drew for the school newspaper, the literature magazine and the yearbook as well as doing stage design. After graduating, Eisner studied for a year at the Art Students League of New York, through which he became an advertising writer-cartoonist for the New York American newspaper.

Thanks to a high-school friend by the name of Bob Kane, Eisner came into contact with Jerry Iger, then-editor of a brand-new comic book magazine named Wow, what a magazine!, which republished collected comics from newspapers, but also included new material on its pages. Iger bought a number of new comics penned by Eisner, namely Captain Scott Dalton, an adventure strip; The Flame, a pirate strip; and Harry Karry, a secret agent strip. After only four editions the magazine folded, however, the pair continued in a joint venture named Eisner & Iger, which saw Iger sell original material to publications, including a number of Eisner comics.

In 1939, Eisner was embroiled in controversy, when he was commissioned by former National Allied Publications (later DC-Comics) accountant and comic publisher Victor Fox to create Wonder Man, a straight rip-off of Superman, which led to a court case with DC suing Fox. In later years, Eisner always maintained that he opposed and even contradicted Fox' claims in court that Wonder Man was an original character, however court documents found in 2010 seem to contradict this version of events.

As things were, Eisner soon managed to shake off this controversy. By late 1939, Quality Comics publisher Everett M. Arnold contacted Eisner, asking him for a pitch which would allow the Sunday newspapers to compete with comic books. Following negociations, Eisner reached an agreement with Arnold that allowed him to keep the rights on his comic characters, and subsequently he sold his shares in his joint venture with Iger, who continued Eisner & Iger as the S.M. Iger Studios, which would remain in business until 1955.

On June 2nd 1940, Eisner debuted his famous creation: The Spirit. Much like his high-school friend Bob Kane's Batman, The Spirit was a masked vigilante crimefighter - however, this is where all comparisons end. Where Batman was a masked and uniformed superhero without powers, making use of all kinds of gadgets to fight outlandish criminals, The Spirit was a former detective by the name of Denny Colt, who was presumed killed after an encounter with criminals. Operating with the knowledge of police commissioner Dolan, and with the help of his sidekick, the uneducated black street kid Ebony White, the Spirit was not the best of crime fighters, and not the smartest either - in fact, his failings and shortcomings made him more human than... other comic strip crime fighters of the time. At the same time, Eisner's depiction of the city life in Central City (based on his own native New York) played as large a role, if not a larger one than The Spirit himself.

One year into The Spirit's run, Eisner was drafted into the US Army, leaving his comic in the hands of a team of ghost writers and ghost artists who he fully trusted and allowed a free reign. During his army service, Eisner served as an illustrator, creating comics for educational purposes, which included the army comic strip Joe Dope for Army Motor, which gave simple depictions in the form of a comic strip of maintenance issues and preventative maintenance.

After his return to civilian life in 1945, Eisner resumed his work on The Spirit, but also attempted to launch a number of new comics - most of which were not succesful, but stories of which, mostly from Eisner's John Law were later 'recycled' in Spirit series. However, Eisner's involvement in The Spirit gradually diminished, until he only held a supervisionary role. Eventually, in 1952, the original run of The Spirit ended, as Eisner turned to commercial illustrations.

Following his involvement in educational comics for the Army during World War II, Eisner had continued making such material, even while he was working on The Spirit. In 1948, he founded the American Visuals Corporation, which produced instructional material for the US government and government agencies, as well as for businesses. This culminated in 1951 with the establishment of PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, which was a direct successor of Army Motor which he had drawn during the War, and with which Eisner would remain involved for 20 years.

(For an example of his government work: here is his famous 1968 M16A1 rifle maintenance issue: www.ep.tc/problems/25/ )

At the end of the 1970s, Eisner returned to comics, practically founding the medium of the graphic novel with his groundbreaking A Contract with God. From there, he continued with a string of graphic novels that told stories about the immigrant communities of New York, as well as graphic adaptations of literary novels, such as Moby Dick, or retellings of novels and myths, such as Fagin the Jew, which retold Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist from Fagin's point of view. In his later years, Eisner was also a frequent lecturer about the craft and uses of sequential art, and taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Continuing to draw well into his eighties (completing his last graphic novel in 2004 at the age of 87), Will Eisner passed away as a result of complications following a quadruple heart bypass on January 3rd 2005.

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*Artist's note: Originally this drawing should also have depicted The Spirit's sidekick Ebony White, but I did not manage to draw him despite numerous attempts. My apologies for this.

----------

81st entry of ?

<- Back to March 5th ---------- Forward to March 7th ->

Description
A Year in Comics - March 6th

Ellen Dolan, Commissioner Dolan, and The Spirit* - The Spirit

William Erwin 'Will' Eisner was born a century ago, on March 6th 1917, in Brooklyn, New York City. He was the son of a Jewish father, an immigrant of Austria-Hungary with only limited English skills, and a mother born from Romanian-Jewish parents, who had been orphaned at a young age, and who had grown up illiterate. Eisner grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood and was proud of his Jewish roots, but despite this he was not an orthodox follower of Judaism himself, having turned his back on the faith after his family was refused access to the Synagogue for not being able to pay admission. Despite this, a young Eisner was frequently subjected to antisemitism by his schoolmates, which often led him to get involved in fights.

Eisner grew up poor, and things became even worse during the Great Depression, when he was forced at the age of thirteen to sell newspapers to help his family in their income. Despite this, Eisner managed to attend the DeWitt Clinton High School, where he drew for the school newspaper, the literature magazine and the yearbook as well as doing stage design. After graduating, Eisner studied for a year at the Art Students League of New York, through which he became an advertising writer-cartoonist for the New York American newspaper.

Thanks to a high-school friend by the name of Bob Kane, Eisner came into contact with Jerry Iger, then-editor of a brand-new comic book magazine named Wow, what a magazine!, which republished collected comics from newspapers, but also included new material on its pages. Iger bought a number of new comics penned by Eisner, namely Captain Scott Dalton, an adventure strip; The Flame, a pirate strip; and Harry Karry, a secret agent strip. After only four editions the magazine folded, however, the pair continued in a joint venture named Eisner & Iger, which saw Iger sell original material to publications, including a number of Eisner comics.

In 1939, Eisner was embroiled in controversy, when he was commissioned by former National Allied Publications (later DC-Comics) accountant and comic publisher Victor Fox to create Wonder Man, a straight rip-off of Superman, which led to a court case with DC suing Fox. In later years, Eisner always maintained that he opposed and even contradicted Fox' claims in court that Wonder Man was an original character, however court documents found in 2010 seem to contradict this version of events.

As things were, Eisner soon managed to shake off this controversy. By late 1939, Quality Comics publisher Everett M. Arnold contacted Eisner, asking him for a pitch which would allow the Sunday newspapers to compete with comic books. Following negociations, Eisner reached an agreement with Arnold that allowed him to keep the rights on his comic characters, and subsequently he sold his shares in his joint venture with Iger, who continued Eisner & Iger as the S.M. Iger Studios, which would remain in business until 1955.

On June 2nd 1940, Eisner debuted his famous creation: The Spirit. Much like his high-school friend Bob Kane's Batman, The Spirit was a masked vigilante crimefighter - however, this is where all comparisons end. Where Batman was a masked and uniformed superhero without powers, making use of all kinds of gadgets to fight outlandish criminals, The Spirit was a former detective by the name of Denny Colt, who was presumed killed after an encounter with criminals. Operating with the knowledge of police commissioner Dolan, and with the help of his sidekick, the uneducated black street kid Ebony White, the Spirit was not the best of crime fighters, and not the smartest either - in fact, his failings and shortcomings made him more human than... other comic strip crime fighters of the time. At the same time, Eisner's depiction of the city life in Central City (based on his own native New York) played as large a role, if not a larger one than The Spirit himself.

One year into The Spirit's run, Eisner was drafted into the US Army, leaving his comic in the hands of a team of ghost writers and ghost artists who he fully trusted and allowed a free reign. During his army service, Eisner served as an illustrator, creating comics for educational purposes, which included the army comic strip Joe Dope for Army Motor, which gave simple depictions in the form of a comic strip of maintenance issues and preventative maintenance.

After his return to civilian life in 1945, Eisner resumed his work on The Spirit, but also attempted to launch a number of new comics - most of which were not succesful, but stories of which, mostly from Eisner's John Law were later 'recycled' in Spirit series. However, Eisner's involvement in The Spirit gradually diminished, until he only held a supervisionary role. Eventually, in 1952, the original run of The Spirit ended, as Eisner turned to commercial illustrations.

Following his involvement in educational comics for the Army during World War II, Eisner had continued making such material, even while he was working on The Spirit. In 1948, he founded the American Visuals Corporation, which produced instructional material for the US government and government agencies, as well as for businesses. This culminated in 1951 with the establishment of PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, which was a direct successor of Army Motor which he had drawn during the War, and with which Eisner would remain involved for 20 years.

(For an example of his government work: here is his famous 1968 M16A1 rifle maintenance issue: www.ep.tc/problems/25/ )

At the end of the 1970s, Eisner returned to comics, practically founding the medium of the graphic novel with his groundbreaking A Contract with God. From there, he continued with a string of graphic novels that told stories about the immigrant communities of New York, as well as graphic adaptations of literary novels, such as Moby Dick, or retellings of novels and myths, such as Fagin the Jew, which retold Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist from Fagin's point of view. In his later years, Eisner was also a frequent lecturer about the craft and uses of sequential art, and taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Continuing to draw well into his eighties (completing his last graphic novel in 2004 at the age of 87), Will Eisner passed away as a result of complications following a quadruple heart bypass on January 3rd 2005.

----------

*Artist's note: Originally this drawing should also have depicted The Spirit's sidekick Ebony White, but I did not manage to draw him despite numerous attempts. My apologies for this.

----------

81st entry of ?

<- Back to March 5th ---------- Forward to March 7th ->