In the fall of 1939, Quality publisher “Busy” Arnold approached Eisner about the prospect of producing a 16-page comic section that would be distributed in newspapers. But he didn’t want a studio churning it out, he wanted one specific artist as the touchstone. So Eisner ended his partnership with Iger, sold his share of the studio to him, and started work on The Spirit. The Eisner-Iger Studio was loaded with talent, some of whom left with Eisner, including Lou Fine and Bob Powell. These artists, along with a few others who were brought in—Nicholas Viscardi (Nick Cardy), for one—filled out the roster for the rest of the 16-page section. Below is the “cover” of that first section.
They also produced comic book material for Quality, including the newly launched Military Comics (Aug. 1941), featuring the strip that would prove to be Quality’s most popular, “Blackhawk.” Eisner provided the first cover himself:
In 1942, Eisner was drafted and performed his service behind the drawing board. He was able to do some work for his studio, but for the most part, it carried on without him. After the war he tried expanding and publishing his own comics, including Baseball Comics #1 (Spring 1949), but none of the projects proved successful.
In the late ’40s, Eisner created a new company, American Visuals Corporation, for the purpose of handling commercial work. The company created numerous educational cartoons, illustrations, and giveaway comics, but is most noted for its involvement with PS Magazine, an instructional magazine published by and for the US Army. Eisner and his staff—which at times included the likes of Murphy Anderson (who from 1973-78 would on his own win the contract), Mike Ploog, Dan Spiegle, and Don Perlin—handled the art duties for the magazine through the ’50s and ’60s until finally the contract was awarded to another firm in 1972.
While not strictly a comic book, PS did contain an 8-page section of continuity comic-book storytelling, along with the various cartoons and illustrations, and featured several recurring characters—most notably Private Joe Dope and the voluptuous Connie Rodd.
Eisner’s cover for the first issue, and a few highlights:
The Spirit made a resurgence in the mid-’60s when an article about it appeared in the New York Herald Tribune, and in 1966 and ’67, Harvey published two giant-sized Spirit comics that reprinted several of the strips. In 1972, Kitchen Sink began a magazine-sized reprint series. If not for Harvey and particularly Kitchen Sink, I don’t know if Eisner would be nearly as celebrated today as he is. Those reprints influenced a new generation of comic book creators and fans and brought to light Eisner’s contributions to the language of the medium.
This was about the time I first discovered the Spirit, here and in Jules Feiffer's book. I had no idea at the time what the appeal was for a guy who just wore a mask all the time, but one or two of the stories in these Harvey books did strike me as being something special. But I didn't get into them at that time; too young, I guess. It would be a few more years before I really saw what was so brilliant about Eisner's work.
Besides Harvey and Kitchen Sink, The Spirit has a long history of comic book series with a variety of publishers, though not always written and drawn by Eisner himself. His first solo series was published by Quality, and began while Eisner was in the Service during the war. All the Spirit stories that appeared in the series were reprints of the newspaper strip, but there were a few original stories featuring other characters, such as Flatfoot Burns. Here are a few highlights:
The Spirit #1 (1944), pencils and inks by Lou Fine. Fine drew the first eight covers, followed by Reed Crandall for the next three issues.
The Spirit #12 (Summer 1948), pencils and inks by Will Eisner. This issue marked the return of Will Eisner to the series.
The Spirit #15 (Spring 1949), pencils and inks by Will Eisner.
The Spirit #20 (April 1950), pencils and inks by Will Eisner.
From 1952-54, Fiction House published five issues of The Spirit, all featuring reprints of the strips, only some of which were written and drawn by Eisner himself. The artist of issue #1 (Spring 1952) looks very familiar—it’s definitely not Eisner. Perhaps Jerry Grandenetti, who assisted Eisner on The Spirit the last few years of the strip, had a hand in it. It’s possible he drew this cover as one of his last jobs for Eisner before moving over to DC in 1951. But it could well have been someone else in Eisner’s studio, or possibly (though doubtful) someone at Fiction House.
Issues #4 and 5 look much more like Eisner, particularly #5, but I can’t be certain, as the inking doesn’t quite look like Eisner’s. It’s quite possible Klaus Nordling, who assisted and often ghosted Eisner on The Spirit from 1948-51, and stayed on with Eisner’s American Visuals Corporation through the ’70s, assisted or even fully illustrated one or both of these covers.
Next up was I.W. Publishing, named after Israel Waldman of later Skywald fame. Waldman had secured the rights from Joe Simon to reprint much of the Mainline Comics work of the Simon & Kirby studio. For most of his output, though, including the two issues of The Spirit he published—one in 1963, the second in 1964—he didn’t bother with copyright permissions. If a publisher was out of business, such as Quality, one of his primary sources, he considered them fair game.
And so we have two Joe Simon penciled and inked covers for an unauthorized reprinting of Spirit material previously published through Quality. That’s right, Joe Simon.
After I. W.’s sketchy publishing of The Spirit came Harvey and Kitchen Sink’s fully legit comics and magazines. Now, with Kitchen Sink, only two issues were published initially in 1973. Either it was a test run or Dennis Kitchen didn’t have the funds to go further at the time. So Warren Publishing (of Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella fame) stepped in and kept the ball rolling, publishing 16 magazine-sized issues and one special from 1974 to 1976. No new stories were done for the series; they were merely repackaging the old strips yet again, though many of them for the first time. But it was enough to keep Eisner’s name out there for the next generation of fans, and it was during this time that he became a household name with comic fans. Eisner penciled new covers for the magazines, with coloring (usually painting) by Bill Dubay or more often Ken Kelley—plus one by Richard Corben (!).
I didn’t go to the actual site, so I don’t know if it’s being updated or not. I found the cover through Google Image, so the site must still be running in some fashion.
Now this was the period where I really discovered Eisner! I bought those Warren issues and read them over and over again. I liked the package, and I liked the adding of mechanical grays (though, to be honest, the art didn't really need them), and you got several stories in one book. And, yeah, I loved those covers too.
In 1977, The Spirit returned to Kitchen Sink, which kept the numbering and format of the Warren series, including the painterly feel of the covers. This series ended in June 1983 with issue #41.
The wraparound cover for The Spirit #17, marking its return to Kitchen Sink, with color by Pete Poplaski.
The Spirit #23 cover color by Cat Yronwode.
Issue #30 is “The Jam” issue. Dozens of artists worked on this issue, which contained a new story with each page by a different creative team. Artists involved included Milt Caniff, Harvey Kurtzman, Richard Corben, Frank Miller, John Byrne, Terry Austin... well, you can read the cover. Cover pencils were by Pete Poplaski with inks by Eisner, Poplaski, Caniff, Corben, John Pound, Denis Kitchen, and Leslie Cabarga, and color by Poplaski. This issue was later reprinted as a magazine-sized trade paperback, which is the format I first saw and bought.
Eventually the series would also run essays by Eisner on various aspects of comic art, as well as interviews conducted by Eisner with other artists (which would later be collected in the book Shop Talk). These essays and interviews were doubly effective in securing Eisner’s influence on this and future generations of comic book artists.
In October of 1983, Kitchen Sink relaunched The Spirit in the standard comic book format, though printed on the whiter, brighter Baxter paper that fell into favor for “special projects” during this time. The series kicked off with the Dec. 23, 1945 strip titled “The Christmas Spirit,” and chronologically reprinted the series all the way through the Oct. 5, 1952 final strip in issue #87 (Jan. 1992).
In 1998 Kitchen Sink published an eight-issue anthology mini-series titled The Spirit: The New Adventures, which featured some amazing creative teams. I mean, when your first three stories are by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, you’re doing something right. If you’re any kind of fan of The Spirit, this series is well worth seeking out.
Comments
They also produced comic book material for Quality, including the newly launched Military Comics (Aug. 1941), featuring the strip that would prove to be Quality’s most popular, “Blackhawk.” Eisner provided the first cover himself:
In 1942, Eisner was drafted and performed his service behind the drawing board. He was able to do some work for his studio, but for the most part, it carried on without him. After the war he tried expanding and publishing his own comics, including Baseball Comics #1 (Spring 1949), but none of the projects proved successful.
'twas my father's squadron.
no problem. I try not to look at those buttons anyway.
While not strictly a comic book, PS did contain an 8-page section of continuity comic-book storytelling, along with the various cartoons and illustrations, and featured several recurring characters—most notably Private Joe Dope and the voluptuous Connie Rodd.
Eisner’s cover for the first issue, and a few highlights:
The Spirit #1 (1944), pencils and inks by Lou Fine. Fine drew the first eight covers, followed by Reed Crandall for the next three issues.
The Spirit #12 (Summer 1948), pencils and inks by Will Eisner. This issue marked the return of Will Eisner to the series.
The Spirit #15 (Spring 1949), pencils and inks by Will Eisner.
The Spirit #20 (April 1950), pencils and inks by Will Eisner.
Issues #4 and 5 look much more like Eisner, particularly #5, but I can’t be certain, as the inking doesn’t quite look like Eisner’s. It’s quite possible Klaus Nordling, who assisted and often ghosted Eisner on The Spirit from 1948-51, and stayed on with Eisner’s American Visuals Corporation through the ’70s, assisted or even fully illustrated one or both of these covers.
And so we have two Joe Simon penciled and inked covers for an unauthorized reprinting of Spirit material previously published through Quality. That’s right, Joe Simon.
Color by Bill Dubay.
Inks and color by Ken Kelley.
Inks and color by Ken Kelley.
Inks and color by Ken Kelley.
Inks and color by Ken Kelley.
I didn't know Angelfire still existed.
The wraparound cover for The Spirit #17, marking its return to Kitchen Sink, with color by Pete Poplaski.
The Spirit #23 cover color by Cat Yronwode.
Issue #30 is “The Jam” issue. Dozens of artists worked on this issue, which contained a new story with each page by a different creative team. Artists involved included Milt Caniff, Harvey Kurtzman, Richard Corben, Frank Miller, John Byrne, Terry Austin... well, you can read the cover. Cover pencils were by Pete Poplaski with inks by Eisner, Poplaski, Caniff, Corben, John Pound, Denis Kitchen, and Leslie Cabarga, and color by Poplaski. This issue was later reprinted as a magazine-sized trade paperback, which is the format I first saw and bought.
Eventually the series would also run essays by Eisner on various aspects of comic art, as well as interviews conducted by Eisner with other artists (which would later be collected in the book Shop Talk). These essays and interviews were doubly effective in securing Eisner’s influence on this and future generations of comic book artists.
Got this one today in great shape for $1. Was worth it for that cover alone.
Cover by Will Eisner and Mark Schultz.
Cover by Brian Bolland.
Cover by Will Eisner and Bill Stout.
Cover by Pete Poplaski.