As readers of WoM may be aware, normally I remain somewhat restrained when effusing about my favorite artists. But today, I can't contain myself. There is just something that resonates within my comic-lovin' soul whenever I gaze upon the work of Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT. The man had some sort of . . . well, spirit guidance, if you ask me. I think maybe James Warren was tuned into this as well, when he brought aboard Mr. Eisner to oversee the reprints of his masterworks that he later quite rightly dubbed "sequential art".
His command of the pencil and brush, his vertiginous perspectives, moody chiaroscuro and so much more are just the few of the hallmarks that will forever be his creative imprint on the comic and graphics industry.
Eisner often relinquished the control of his pencil and brush to various assistants,including Jack Cole, Lou Fine, Jerry Grandenetti, Wallace Wood, Murphy Anderson and Joe Kubert, but he relied most on the recently-passed Jules Feiffer. In an interview he commented on his work with him:
"You should hear me and Jules Feiffer going at it in a room. 'No, you designed the splash page for this one, then you wrote the ending – I came up with the idea for the story, and you did it up to this point, then I did the next page and this sequence here and...' And I'll be swearing up and down that 'he' wrote the ending on that one. We never agree."
Except when he was in the (non-combat) military during World War II, he always maintained creative control to ensure the end product met his artistic standards.
Will Eisner is truly one of the great -- if not the greatest -- creator and artist in the comics industry. Through his efforts, we have him to thank for making comics "respectable". And that, my friends, is a very big deal.
THE SPIRIT
Vol. 1 No. 3
June 1974
Warren Publishing Co.
Editor-in-Chief: Will Eisner
Editor: Bill DuBay
Writer: Will Eisner
Art: Will Eisner
Cover: Will Eisner
Colors: Richard Corben
Pages: 76
Cover price: $1.00
I completely agree with you. Eisner, Barks, and Adams have long bene my faves. I was lucky to see Eisner speak at the NY Comic Con in '74 (I think that was the year) and he showed slide after slide of his pages.
ReplyDeleteYou were a lucky man to see him speak, Jack. Being on the West Coast, I don't recall him making it to any of the San Diego Comic Cons that I went to back then.
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