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!"

'PS' Time-Warp Refuge

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.

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.

Joe Kubert's '09 'PS' Yuletide Cover . . .

This is Joe Kubert's front cover for the current issue (No. 685) of the U.S. Army's PS Magazine, the 107th issue for which he has created art and provided pre-press production services since first being awarded the PS contract in February of 2001. The monthly publication is now in its 58th year of utilizing sequential art for conveying technical and motivational information.