Will Eisner (49 page)

 100   “I can’t keep”: Maggie Thompson, “Will Eisner,”
Golden Age of Comics #2
(1982).

 100   “It made for”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: A doubly heralded new year,”
The Spirit #65
(CB).

 100   “Maybe I had”: “A Listing of Jules Feiffer Scripts,”
Panels #1
(summer 1974).

 100   “Our fights were always”: Interview with Jules Feiffer.

 101   “the left intellectual”: Jules Feiffer,
Backing into Forward
(New York: Doubleday, 2010), p. 53.

 102   “Kanegson was brilliant”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: Looking in memory’s closet,”
The Spirit #33
(CB).

 102   “To me, lettering”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: The Spirit at work and play,”
The Spirit #61
(CB).

 102   “There’s always been”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: Summer in the studio,”
The Spirit #34
(CB).

 102   “the first visible hippie”: Maggie Thompson and Cat Yronwode, “Will Eisner, Part II,”
Golden Age of Comics #2
.

 102   “I said”: Ibid.

 103   “I was always faced”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: Summer in the studio.”

 103   “I don’t think”: Interview with Jerry Grandenetti.

 104   “It will take you”: Will Eisner, “Ten Minutes,”
The Spirit
, September 11, 1949.

 104   “That was mine”: “Jules Feiffer Talks About The Spirit,”
Panels
#1
(summer 1979).

 105   “The philosophy”: Maggie Thompson, “Will Eisner,”
Golden Age of Comics #2
.

 105   “really a Spirit story”: Feiffer,
Backing into Forward
, p. 68.

 106   “It goes like this”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Toys, time, love and death,”
The Spirit #48
(CB).

 106   “baptism of reality”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: The beginnings of a roll,”
The Spirit #20
(CB).

 106   “We’ll have a little”: Ibid.

 106   “I
caught
your
stuff
”: Ibid.

 107   “I always harbored”: Ibid.

 107   Fredric Wertham and comics censorship: Bart Beaty,
Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture
(Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), pp. 155–164; Goulart,
Great History of Comic Books
, pp. 268–274; Hajdu,
The Ten-Cent Plague
, pp. 250–295; Jones,
Men of Tomorrow
, pp. 270–277; Amy Kiste Nyberg,
Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code
(Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1998), pp. 53–128.

 108   “We found”: Judith Crist, “Horror in the Nursery,”
Collier’s
, March 29, 1948.

 109   “Wertham was a nest”: Hajdu,
The Ten-Cent Plague
, p. 99.

 110   “the greatest intellectual”: Marya Mannes, “Junior as a Craving,”
New Republic
, February 17, 1947.

 110   “the marijuana of the nursery”: John Mason Brown, “The Case Against Comics,”
Saturday Review of Literature
, March 20, 1948.

 111   “This is a public service”: Will Eisner, “The Spirit’s Favorite Fairy Tales for Juvenile Delinquents: Hänzel und Gretel,”
The Spirit
, July 13, 1947.

 111   “This was before”: Schreiner, “Stage Settings: The beginnings of a roll.”

 114   “I walked a tightrope”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: The Spirit that almost wasn’t,”
The Spirit #52
(CB).

 116   “The stories with her”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: The guarding of the change,”
The Spirit #69
(CB).

 116   “The thing about women”: Will Eisner, “Thorne Strand and … The Spirit,”
The Spirit
, January 23, 1949.

 116   “When I did”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Back in the U.S.A.,”
The Spirit #58
(CB).

 117   “It was the first time”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: Some of the great ones,”
The Spirit #35
(CB).

 117   “Do not weep”: Will Eisner, “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,”
The Spirit
, September 5, 1948.

 119   “I had been wanting”: Dave Schreiner, “Stage Settings: Looking in memory’s closet,”
The Spirit #33
(CB).

 119   “You didn’t need”: Will Eisner, “Reminiscences and Hortations,” transcribed by Steve Freitag, edited by Gary Groth,
Comics Journal #89
.

 119   “I guess I could be”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: On the road again …”
The Spirit #54
(CB).

 120   “
Baseball Comics
was”: Dave Schreiner, “Rube Rooky triumphant,”
Baseball Comics #1
(Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1991).

CHAPTER SEVEN: ANN

 122   Epigraph: Will Eisner, in the documentary
Will Eisner: Profession: Cartoonist
, produced and directed by Marisa Furtado de Oliveira and Paulo Serran, Scriptorium, 1999.

 123   Will Eisner and Ann Weingarten: Interviews with Ann Eisner, Carl Gropper, and Allan Gropper; Blake Bell,
I Have to Live with This Guy
(Raleigh, NC: (TwoMorrows Books, 2002); Jon B. Cooke, “Just My Will,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).

 123   “Did you promise”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

 123   “Susan and I”: Ibid. All other direct quotations in this passage are from this interview.

 125   “I saw a different”: Ibid.

 126   “Sammy and Delilah”: Interview with Ann Eisner; Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: On the road again,”
The Spirit #54
(CB).

 126   “I was sitting”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

 126   “They claimed”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: On the road again.”

 129   “I felt there was”: Mike Barson, Ted White, and Mitch Berger, “… And I Threw in a Hat … ,”
Heavy Metal
, November 1983.

 129   
P
*
S
magazine: Paul E. Fitzgerald’s self-published book,
Will Eisner and PS Magazine
(Fincastle, WV: Fitzworld.US, 2009), is the most complete, comprehensive look at Eisner’s work on the magazine available, with copious illustrations, interviews with
P
*
S
staff editors and artists, extensive commentary from Eisner, and more. See also Cat Yronwode, “Eisner’s
P
*
S
Years,”
The Spirit Magazine #33
(February 1982).

 129   “It was a very”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Sam Spade and the Nature Boy,”
The Spirit #82
(CB).

 130   “Army personnel”: Fitzgerald,
Will Eisner and PS Magazine
, pp. 15–16.

 131   “he felt as if”: Ibid, p. 21.

 133   “it was a dilemma”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Stabilizing the Spirit,”
The Spirit #74
(CB).

 133   “The obvious was”: Will Eisner, “An Introduction to the Wally Wood Spirits,”
The Spirit Magazine #20
.

 133   “last gasp”: Will Eisner, “Reminiscences and Hortations,” transcribed by Steve Freitag, edited by Gary Groth,
Comics Journal #89.

 134   “Looking back”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Stabilizing the Spirit.”

CHAPTER EIGHT: OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM

 135   Epigraph: Eisner,
Will Eisner’s Shop Talk
, p. 23.

 135   Comic book hearings and Comics Code: Beaty,
Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture
, pp. 155–164; Goulart,
Great History of Comic Books
, pp. 268–274; Hajdu,
The Ten-Cent Plague
, pp. 250–295; Jones,
Men of Tomorrow
, pp. 270–277; Nyberg,
Seal of Approval
, pp. 53–128; Simon,
The Comic Book Makers
, pp. 118–130.

 137   “The comic-book format”: Fredric Wertham,
Seduction of the Innocent
(New York: Rinehart, 1954), p. 118.

 138   “I think Hitler”: Senate hearings, as quoted in Hajdu,
The Ten-Cent Plague
, p. 264.

 139   “I felt that”: Frank Jacobs,
The Mad World of William M. Gaines
(Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1972), p. 107.

 139   “my only limits”: Senate hearings, as quoted in Nyberg,
Seal of Approval
, p. 63.

 139   “Do you think”: Senate hearings, as quoted in Nyberg,
Seal of Approval
, p. 63.

 140   “We are constantly”: David Gallagher, “The Portrait of a Sequential Artist: Will Eisner,”
Comics Bulletin
(online), n.d.

 141   Shake-up at
P
*
S
magazine: Paul E. Fitzgerald,
Will Eisner and PS Magazine
(Fincastle, VA: Fitzworld.US, 2009); interview with Paul Fitzgerald.

 141   “I have never known”: Fitzgerald,
Will Eisner and PS Magazine
, p. 19.

 143   “I don’t think”: Ibid., p. 30.

 144   “If you moved”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

 144   “It would reach”: Interview with Paul Fitzgerald.

 145   “I was fighting”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: A new Spirit world,”
The Spirit #73
(CB).

 145   “When I learned”: Ibid.

 146   “1. Effective immediately”: “Memorandum of Record, June 28, 1955,” as reprinted in Fitzgerald,
Will Eisner and PS Magazine
, pp. 82–83.

 146   “Some bureaucrat”: Heintjes, “Stage Settings: A new Spirit world.”

 147   “When I went”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Stabilizing the Spirit,”
The Spirit #74
(CB).

 148   “I stayed with”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Refried fiends,”
The Spirit #81
(CB).

 149   “I became far more interested”: Will Eisner, “Reminiscences and Hortations,” transcribed by Steve Freitag, edited by Gary Groth,
Comics Journal #89
.

 149   “There were all kinds”: Dirk Deppey, “Mike Ploog on Will Eisner,”
Comics
Journal #267
.

 149   “We used to get”: Ibid.

 151   “Drawn as if”: Jules Feiffer,
The Great Comic Book Heroes
(New York: Dial Press, 1965; updated 1977), p. 35.

 151   “For some reason”: Ibid.

 151   “It was kind”: Maggie Thompson, “Blue Suit, Blue Mask, Blue Gloves—and No Socks,”
Golden Age of Comics #2
.

 151   “Eisner’s line had”: Feiffer,
The Great Comic Book Heroes
, pp. 34–35.

 151   “Alone among comic book men”: Ibid., p. 37.

 152   “I knew Will”: Interview with Jules Feiffer.

 152   “I wasn’t training”: Heintjes, “Stage Settings: A new Spirit world.”

 153   “One guy”: Ibid.

 153   “We had other”: Tom Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Few regrets,”
The Spirit #76
(CB).

 154   “The differences”: Heintjes, “Stage Settings: Refried fiends.”

 154   “He lied to me”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

 155   “Saigon was like”: Will Eisner, introduction to
Last Day in Vietnam
(Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 2000), p. 5.

 156   “He had a wife”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

 156   Eisner as father: Interviews with Ann Eisner and Denis Kitchen.

 156   “He did whatever”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

 157   “He said”: Jon B. Cooke, “Just My Will: An Interview with Ann Eisner,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).

 157   “He didn’t cry”: Interview with Ann Eisner.

CHAPTER NINE: BACK IN THE GAME

 159   Epigraph: Mike Jozic, “Will Eisner: The Godfather of Comics,”
Meanwhile
(online), interview conducted March 7, 2000.

 159   “I want to invite”: Interview with Denis Kitchen.

 159   “Mr. Eisner”: Ibid.

 160   “Come on down”: Jon B. Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).

 160   “Never let it be said”: Interview with Denis Kitchen.

 161   “straight as they come”: Ibid.

 161   “Had the pants”: Ibid.

 163   “what may have been” and “publisher by default”: Ibid.

 164   “In 1964”: Eisner,
Will Eisner’s Shop Talk
, p. 286.

 164   “In 1968”: Ibid.

 166   “Will Eisner wants to meet you”: Interview with Denis Kitchen.

 167   “I was impressed”: Denis Kitchen, “How I Met Will Eisner, Businessman,”
Comic Buyer’s Guide
, November 29, 1996; reprinted under the title “A Kindred Spirit” in
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).

 167   “To a buttoned-down type”: Will Eisner, as published in Dave Schreiner,
Kitchen Sink Press: The First 25 Years
(Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1994), p. 32.

 168   “Will saw it”: Interview with Denis Kitchen.

 169   “To be successful”: Interview with Stan Lee.

 169   Comix history: Interviews with Denis Kitchen, Paul Buhle, and Jay Lynch. Robert C. Harvey,
The Art of the Comic Book
; Matthew J. Pustz,
Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers
(Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1999).

 169   “All the old meanings”: Gary Groth, “The Straight Dope from R. Crumb,”
Comics Journal #121
.

 171   “That’s
exactly
”: Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005).

 171   “Enclosed is a sampling”: Letter from Denis Kitchen to Will Eisner, July 14, 1971.

 171   “You are quite right”: Letter from Will Eisner to Denis Kitchen, July 27, 1971.

 172   “He liked it”: Interview with Scott McCloud.

 173   “Maurice is at work”: Letter from Will Eisner to Denis Kitchen, July 27, 1971.

 173   “Send me a draft”: Denis Kitchen, “How I Met Will Eisner and Signed My First Contract,”
Comic Book Artist
2, no. 6 (November 2005). The rest of the dialogue from this exchange is from this source.