Los Angeles Times Posting by Charles Solomon

Will Eisner marched to different beat

with PS magazine

Dec. 27, 2010 | 11:41 a.m.

REVIEW—Although Will Eisner is best known for “The Spirit” and the graphic novels he wrote and drew in later life, a substantial portion of his career was devoted to creating comic-book-like pages for the U.S. Army magazine PS, the Preventive Maintenance Monthly.The magazine was established by the Department of Defense in 1951 to help American troops in Korea deal with aging equipment from World War II and new weapons that hadn’t been adequately tested.

Paul E. Fitzgerald, who enjoyed a long friendship with Eisner, documents the history of the publication, especially Eisner’s contributions from 1951 to 1971, in “Will Eisner and PS Magazine” (Fitzworld.US, $59.95; 224 pp. illustrated). The didactic panels recall the “Private Snafu” cartoons that Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel and the Warner Bros. animators created for the short-film program the Army-Navy Screen Magazine.Eisner’s well-intentioned but dim Pvt. Joe Dope recalls Snafu; the shapely Connie Rodd may remind some readers of Milt Caniff’s Miss Lace. Eisner fans will enjoy this introduction to a little-known segment of his output, and PS was obviously a success: After 60 years and many artists and editors, the magazine is still going.

– Charles Solomon

Joe Kubert's Tenth PS Christmas Cover

This front cover for PS 697 (December 2010) is the tenth Christmas cover done by Joe Kubert since he began providing creative art and production services for PS Magazine in February 2001.

The Rest of the Story!

My good friend Stuart Henderson, the current Production Manager of PS Magazine, commented recently about my post on December 21, 2009, that displayed Will Eisner's wraparound Christmas cover for PS 50 (December 1956) and my post that followed on December 22 with the PS 685 (December 2009) Christmas front cover by Joe Kubert.

"The Kubert Christmas cover is ALSO a wrap-around. You might want to think about showing it like you did the Eisner wraparound. It would make for a nice comparison," Stuart said.

Soooooo, with apologies to Paul Harvey, "Here's the rest of the story."

Two Recent Comments

These two comments regarding Will Eisner and PS Magazine were received recently:

Carole Sargent, Director of Scholarly and Literary Publications at Georgetown University, said: "It's gorgeous! You did an absolutely amazing job."

"Wow!" Sarah Birdsong emailed. "What an impressive piece of work!"