During its nearly six decades of publication, PS Magazine has survived numerous close-calls in confrontations involving art style, characterization, and reflections of military life that were considered by some authorities to be "to the prejudice of good order and discipline." Most of these dustups occurred in the magazine's first 21 years, the period when Will Eisner held the contract for providing creative art and pre-press production services. Some were resolved with abject capitulation, compromises were reached in others, and in many the solutions came from Eisner's artistic nimbleness and fancy footwork. The most effective and on-going solution was a strategic retreat into a time-warp or the worlds of literature, entertainment, and folk-lore. This Civil War front-back cover-spread for PS 78 (April 1959) is an early example. Will Eisner and PS Magazine devotes a chapter, "Safe-Haven in Never-Never-Land," to a discussion of this concept that continues today as a staple element of PS creative approaches.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Will Eisner Self-Caricatures
In the 227 issues of PS Magazine for which Will Eisner provided creative art and pre-press production services, there was only one instance in which he inserted himself as a character in a continuity. That was in PS 117 (August 1962). Eisner appears there five times in the role of a TV interviewer. This montage reflects three of the five self-images that Eisner chose to share with his military audience. The complete continuity is reproduced in Will Eisner and PS Magazine.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Joe Kubert's '09 'PS' Yuletide Cover . . .
Monday, December 21, 2009
. . . and Will Eisner's 1956 Christmas front-back cover-spread for 'PS Magazine'
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