CBA Interview
A Spirit ed Relationship Will Eisner discusses his experiences with Warren Conducted by Jon B. Cooke As the supreme master of sequential storytelling, Will Eisner really needs no introduction (but we’ll attempt a suitable blurb anyway!). Best known as the creator of The Spirit and writer/artist on a number of graphic novels, Will is also a passionate voice for the educational use of comics and the advancement of sequential art (the academic name he gave our art form) as a practical form of communication, universally recognized and clearly understood. He is also, as Jim Warren succinctly described, a “regular guy.” This interview was conducted by phone on February 1, 1999, and was copyedited by Will.
Above: Rarely-seen “Joe Dope” comic page as published in Army Motors, Vol 5, #4, July 1944 (cover below). This work led to Will’s 20+ year run producing P.S. magazine for the U.S. Army. ©1999 Will Eisner.
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Comic Book Artist: You’re one of the truly rare, early examples of an artist who retained copyright to his work, correct? Will Eisner: For the “Golden Age” period, yes. Nobody in comic books at that time owned his own work—that goes for Siegel & Shuster and even Bob Kane (he just got a very good deal). None of them had the “muscle” to retain their copyright. CBA: You’re also recognized as a pragmatic, sensible businessman. If someone had come up with a good enough price, would you have sold the rights to do The Spirit? Will: It depends on the price. [laughs] After 1952 until 1964, The Spirit had no value as far as I was concerned. I kept the artwork for some reason and it was just lying in storage. (I am one who just doesn’t like to sell his original artwork.) As a matter of fact, I kept it in a vault and held onto every one of those stories—I had 250-odd stories. In subsequent years, I’ve been selling off bits and pieces (as my wife keeps pointing out, she doesn’t want to get stuck with them as a widow… but she doesn’t know that I have no plans to go before she does!) [laughter] Actually comic book pages had no value back then though, I suppose, I would have sold the character and the art if I had a substantial offer. I doubt that I would have sold it because, now that you make me think about it, Columbia Pictures came to me between 1952 and ’55 and offered to do a TV series on The Spirit—but they stipulated conditions which I felt were absolutely humiliating so I just walked out of the meeting. So, it depends on the time and the conditions. CBA: Is this the chronology: You were in the service from 194145 and then you stopped doing government work? And, with the creation of your educational comics company, American Visuals Corporation, you started the P.S. magazine work? Will: When I got out of the Army in ’45 or ’46, I went back to doing “The Spirit,” and I didn’t start American Visuals until 1950,
right after the Korean War started. I started the company because the Army came to me and asked if I’d be interested in reviving Army Motors, which I did, as P.S. magazine. By then, I had become interested in selling the use of comics and the medium as a teaching tool, particularly to industry. It all formed together. CBA: The first revival of The Spirit occurred in a Warren magazine, Help! #13 (Feb. 1962), when editor Harvey Kurtzman reprinted a seven-page section. Do you recall how you were approached? Kurtzman, I assume, was a fan of your work? Will: Harvey called me. He said he was interested in reprinting some Spirit material. We knew each other. Harvey was a dear friend and one of the “giants” who added a level of quality to comics that influenced many of the cartoonists who followed him. CBA: Do you recall the public reception of the strip reprint? Will: No, I don’t think it was significant. Certainly Harvey never wanted to print any more. I don’t recall getting any fan mail. CBA: Then, in 1965, Jules Feiffer came out with his book The Great Comic Book Heroes, which featured a Spirit reprint. Did that really reintroduce your character to a new generation? Will: It probably did because in 1971 or ’72, when Phil Seuling held his July 4th Comic Convention, I visited it and, to my surprise, there were a lot of people walking around with the old Spirit comic sections. They were talking about The Spirit, and I remember saying to Phil, “How the hell do people know about The Spirit? I thought it was dead!” And Phil said, “No, there are a lot of guys around who remember it.” I must credit Feiffer’s book with calling attention to The Spirit. CBA: And the New York Herald Tribune came out at around the same time? Will: Yes. Around 1964, the Herald Tribune asked me to do a fivepage Spirit story for their comics revival article. I received mail on it but nothing really happened beyond that. I was, at that time, very much involved with American Visuals. CBA: But since you had such an inventory of material you still owned the copyright to, were you looking to repackage The Spirit? Will: By then I had realized that The Spirit had some life left in it. Actually, I never believed that a comic strip, once it had suspended publication, would ever come alive again. So, in 1966, Al Harvey [of Harvey Comics] decided to reprint The Spirit stories which only lasted two issues. That was one of the first reprintings of The Spirit since the Fiction House newsstand comic books in the ’50s. I included a new origin story for them—but it didn’t go anywhere. The Spirit was never terribly successful on the newsstands in competition with the super-heroes. It always did best as a newspaper insert. The Spirit was not designed for comic book readers but for adults—that’s what attracted me to the feature in the first place, because it gave me an opportunity to do what I always dreamed of doing: Using the medium for literary purposes. CBA: So in the children’s medium of Harvey Comics, The Spirit just didn’t click. Will: Well, they also did Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American revival and that didn’t go for them either. Perhaps the time was not right for revivals. CBA: Then, in the early ’70s, there were some reprints of “Spirit” sections. Was Denis Kitchen behind that? Will: Not as “sections.” But as a comic book project it began with Jim Warren’s books. At that Phil Seuling convention, I ran into Denis (who at that time was starting an underground comic called Snarf) and he asked me if he could reprint The Spirit. At that time, I was astonished that it had any value, so I said, “Sure. You can reprint it.” COMIC BOOK ARTIST
Spring 1999