CREEM ONLINE: Off Register

March 2005

Consider yourself warmly welcomed to the seventh installment of OFF REGISTER, America’s only rock ‘n’ roll comic book column!

IN THIS ISH: THE EISNER SECTION: Will Eisner is the Carl Sandburg of comics—A Brief History—The Spirit Archives—The Will Eisner Companion—The Will Eisner Sketchbook—“The Spirit As A Human Being”—The big question

WILL EISNER IS THE CARL SANDBURG OF COMICS: Weep not at his passing. Rather, rejoice that we are all fortunate to have lived in his time. Because when he died on January 3rd 2005 at the venerable age of 87, Will Eisner left us with a vibrant legacy of innovation and excellence which will never be equaled in the history of sequential art.

Forget the past tense. This time there is no final demarcation between a man who once “is” and a man who now “was.” Such distinctions do not apply here. For as long as his work is read and admired and studied, he will always be a current viable force to be reckoned with. So may it forever be said that Will Eisner is the greatest writer and artist in the history of comics.

And make no mistake: his work will endure the test of time. Indeed, it already has. No one has come along to take the title away from him in the last 65 years and no one will in the next 65 years. Don’t believe me? Then stick around and see for yourself. Because in 2070 Will Eisner will still be the greatest writer and artist in the history of comics. It’s a title that was retired in Will’s honor long ago because it’s his to keep. No one else will ever come along to fill his shoes; his mighty imprint dwarfs all others who tread humbly in his wake.

Had F. Scott Fitzgerald known Will Eisner, he would have known that some great American lives do have second acts.

For half a century, everyone has been perfecting their craft in Eisner’s long shadow. But did any shadow ever give off such encouraging, illuminating light as his? Because without that ample abundant light, Eisner’s stories would be little more than a series of clever technical exercises in style, hollow and devoid of substance. Such pure illumination can have but only one source: Eisner’s heart.

The greatest humanitarian in the history of comics, Eisner’s enduring sense of fellowship with all mankind is forever exemplified by his compassionate work on The Spirit (1940-1952) and then during his renaissance period as the medium’s premiere graphic novelist (1978-2005).

In other words, Will Eisner is the Carl Sandburg of comics.

And although Eisner would be the first to humbly dismiss such a comparison, it’s nevertheless an apt one. For just like his esteemed white-haired contemporary, Will Eisner also has an unquenchable curiosity about mankind, and an innate unwavering optimism in its inherent decency. Eisner wrote hundreds of moral stories over the past 65 years which are every bit as poetic as Sandburg’s hundreds of poems. And just like the city in Sandburg’s Chicago, Eisner’s life work also has big shoulders; big enough to bear the weight of humanity which his stories invariably explore and celebrate.

A BRIEF HISTORY: Like many, I first discovered the work of Will Eisner back in October 1966 when Harvey Comics—the home of Casper The Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich—published the first issue of a 35¢ “Giant Size Harvey Thriller” comic book called The Spirit. Sporting a unique logo and slogan (“Can The World’s Most Out-Numbered Crime Fighter Come Back?”), the cover alone was different enough to make me flip through the book. But for someone whose monthly comic book purchases rounded up the usual suspects at DC, Marvel, Gold Key, Dell, Charlton and Tower, what I saw inside was nothing short of revelatory.

Compared to what was being produced every month at all the other companies, Eisner’s artwork was more than different. Quite simply, I had never seen anything like it before in my life. It had a look to it that appeared to be the product of a more highly evolved futuristic civilization.

Did I say futuristic? That’s a laugh because, as I found out years later, these stories which I’d assumed to be contemporary were actually reprints of Eisner’s post-war Spirit stories from the late 1940s—stories which first appeared in a disposable pulp ‘comic book’ supplement which was inserted into a select number of Sunday newspapers.

Of course, the inescapable irony in all this was that I was looking at two decades old artwork which blew away anything that was being created some 20 years later. But as I said, the artwork is only part of the story. For as much as I knew I was seeing something very special, it was the actual stories themselves which were instantly captivating and had such a profoundly deep impact on me.

Even at such a young age I instinctively knew that both “Gerhard Shnobble” (an allegory about a nebbish who could fly) and “Ten Minutes” (a morality tale counting down the last ten minutes in a petty criminal’s life—told in the real life time span of only ten minutes; as long as it actually took to read the story) successfully transcended the conventions of mere melodrama to become enduring art.

(And speaking of enduring, if you’d like to own a piece of comic art history, you can purchase the original seven pages of 1949 art for “Ten Minutes” from Eisner art agent Denis Kitchen for a mere $19,500.00.)

Still, questions abounded. How could Eisner accomplish all this in a span of only eight pages per story? And if The Spirit was really Denny Colt, a crime fighter thought to be dead, how come he wrote a suit instead of a costume? And how come The Spirit sometimes only made a cursory cameo appearance in his own stories? That alone was innovative.

Soon after, a second issue of Harvey’s The Spirit appeared to raise even more questions—and then…nothing. Thus began my lifelong Quixotic quest to seek out as many reprinted Spirit sections (as they were originally called) as I possibly could.

Comics historian Captain George Henderson provided an invaluable service to fans around the world when he reprinted a Spirit story from Harvey Kurtzman’s Help! in Captain’s George’s Comic World but, aside form that one benevolent bone, the pickings were slim. Then jaunty Jim Steranko added more fuel to the fire in 1972 with his definitive Spirit essay “Sunday Matinee Idol” in Volume Two of his unfortunately prematurely aborted Steranko History Of The Comics.

Things improved immeasurably in October of that year when Eisner himself authorized the first in a series of chronological Spirit reprints, beginning with 1940’s first pre-war Spirit section. Printed in black and white, the back of each section contained an annotation by Eisner himself. Known as the Spirit Bag, this series was aided by a grass-roots publicity campaign which included an incongruously luminous bright orange bumper sticker that proudly proclaimed THE SPIRIT IS BACK! But a mere four bags later, The Spirit was gone again.

Then in 1974, Vampirella publisher Jim Warren stepped up to the plate and launched a new magazine which randomly reprinted Eisner’s post-war Spirit stories in both halftone and colorized versions. “A hundred years from now when they publish a collection of the cartoon masters of the 20th Century, Will Eisner’s name will be at the summit” proclaimed an advance two page spread in Eerie 54.

When this noble experiment folded after several years, a legendary underground publisher—the aforementioned Denis Kitchen—heroically took up the mantle of benefactor and picked up where Warren left off. Kitchen’s new Spirit publications admirably increased the output but were also scattershot in their presentation. And although it was definitely better than nothing, it still wasn’t the comprehensive chronological collection that fans and historians alike were looking for and never had. That is, until now.

THE SPIRIT ARCHIVES: In 2000 DC Comics began publishing the first volume in a series of several dozen deluxe slipcased hardcovers which would finally reprint, in strict chronological order, every Eisner Spirit story originally published between 1940 and 1952. These stories are generally divided into three sections: the pre-war stories; the stories that were farmed out and done by others while Eisner was in the army; and the post-war stories which appeared after Eisner returned to take charge of the franchise. Volume 15, which just came out, continues to reprint these ‘classic’ post-war tales).

Now let’s be honest about this. Had The Spirit folded when Eisner went into the army, we wouldn’t be talking about him in nearly as glowing terms as we do now because The Spirit didn’t kick into high gear until Eisner got out of the war. It would be like discussing The Beatles, if they’d broken up before they recorded Revolver. Because without any post-Rubber Soul albums to their credit, they’d only be remembered as merely a great pop band—but not the stuff of enduring legend. So would it be with the pre-war Spirit.

Each volume of The Spirit Archives comes in an identical blue and black binding, with all spine lettering and cover logos rendered as a suitably ghostly uncolored impressions—unlike the bright Day-Glo colors which grace the interior pages. And while these radioactive hues may initially put off a few people, a comparison with half a dozen original Spirit sections shows that these ‘new’ hues are, in fact, an exact copy of the original colors, right down to the meticulous uncorrected duplication of any inadvertent coloring mistakes which first appeared over 65 years ago.

But what’s that you say? With some 20 to 25 volumes planned containing literally hundreds of Spirit stories, how can you possibly begin to sort out all the different characters contained therein? I’m glad you asked.

THE WILL EISNER COMPANION: Published by DC as a companion piece to their Spirit Archive volumes, this comprehensive hardcover compendium by Eisner authorities Stephen Weiner and N.C. Christopher Couch is a vital research tool for anyone who literally needs to know the ABCs about either The Spirit or every Eisner graphic novel from 1978’s A Contract With God to this year’s The Plot: The Secret Story Of The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion. So if you’re looking for a listing of every army illo Eisner did for P*S, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, you’re plumb out of luck. But until someone compiles The Will Eisner Encyclopedia, this’ll have to do.

THE WILL EISNER SKETCHBOOK: And speaking of Eisner’s latter-day work, this mammoth 200 page volume published by Dark Horse Books provides an invaluable glimpse into Eisner’s art, as told from the vantage point of his preliminary pencil roughs and character studies. Sure, a few Eisner sketches have been published before—most notably in The Art Of Will Eisner and Eisner’s own large format Tabloid Press Spirit story “The Invader”—but nothing like this has even been seen before.

Printed on heavy stock paper, the quality of reproduction is second to none, and reveals a wealth of detail that’s akin to looking at the original art boards and sketchbooks. And while Eisner’s final Spirit story, which Dark Horse publishes this May, isn’t represented here, the wealth of material is so overwhelming that you won’t even notice its absence. The sketchbook is divided into 11 different sections, each featuring a specific graphic novel, with Eisner providing an insightful introduction to each section.

THE SPIRIT AS A HUMAN BEING: And penultimately, here is a cogent comment on the craft of comic book creation, as written by Will Eisner 33 years ago for the Spirit Bag collection:

This, the fifth story (June 30 1940’s “Johnny Marsten”), was an attempt to introduce something new, the dimension of “real” emotion, into the feature. Aside from physical pain—due to torture or righteous anger—no hero I had ever drawn, or any of those I had ever seen (except for Krazy Kat) really felt a subtle human emption and displayed it.

So, to create an “emotional” situation which would extract emotion from the hero required believing and feeling on the part of the author…an uninhibited willingness to expose himself. In that context it means taking a gamble on the tolerance level of the audience.

For a young, ambitious cartoonist this wasn’t so hard. Particularly if he saw this as his media, and was determined to fulfill an ambition to produce “good” stories—literature if you will. And if, secretly, he saw comics as a valid but yet unrecognized art form—if he dreamed that maybe this art form might some day achieve the status of, say, movies and books like the world of Charles Dickens? Then it wouldn’t be hard to risk ridicule or an embarrassing put-down.

For this particular author it was not hard.

THE BIG QUESTION: I once asked Will Eisner if he’d ever wanted to make movies. Of course, in retrospect, I now realize that it wasn’t the greatest question I’d ever asked an artist—and Eisner probably knew that. Nevertheless, ever the gracious gentleman, he just good-naturedly shook his head no and patiently explained—once again, to yet another comic book fan—why he didn’t.

Needless to say, no explanation was necessary. Of course he didn’t want to make movies. Why would he when he was spending his entire life doing something that was infinitely better?

Rest in peace, Will. And thanks.