1. © Will Eisner, New York City, 1941
Will Eisner: the modern father of comics
Until the month of June, the CartoonMuseum Basel present an exhibition dedicated to the figure of Will Eisner (1917-2005). While Eisner was one of the founders of "modern comics", he was born in New York.
He already impressed everyone by publishing at the age of 22 "The Spirit", a series of books and comics about a masked gangster hunter. But how does this man, coming from Jewish origin did revolutionise the comics strips between the Two World Wars, and later, until he died in 2005 at the age of 88.
Thus, the exhibition at the CartoonMuseum tries to answer this question by showcasing every important period of the artist with important and original works coming from the estate of the artist, but also European and American private collections. The show is curated by Alexander Brau, which is the author of the exhibition catalog and one of the specialists of his oeuvre.
His beginning - Biography of the artist
2. © Will Eisner, New York City, 1941
Will Eisner or William Erwin Eisner was born on March 6, 1917, from Samuel Eisner (born in 1886) and Fannie Ingber (Born in 1891). On one side, his father is born in Kolomyia (nowadays Ukraine) and he was one of eleven childrens, but the only one who tries to pursue his passion for art because he painted murals for rich patrons and Catholic churches in Vienna. Just before the outbreak of the First World War, he decided to move to the United States. On the other hand, Eisner Mother was born from Jewish parents in Romania.
The two meet because they are distant relatives met through family members. Thus, Eisner was one of the three childrens of this American-European family, but he never saw Europe as a child because he was already born in Brooklyn.
Sadly he grew up in a poor environment, and he moved quite frequently due to his Jewish background and antisemitism from his schoolmates.
Due to this background, Eisner will stay at home and read magazines, watches films and looks at what's going on in New-York with the art scene, but the reality of the world will hit him. Due to the great depression of 1929-1930, Eisner was asked by his family to find a small job to contribute to the family's income at the age of thirteen. He decided to sell newspapers on street corners and saved money to attend the DeWitt Clinton High School.
In this school, Eisner drew for the school newspaper titled "The Clintonian", the literary magazine "The Magpie" and the yearbook of the school. Beside that, he also did some stage design.
After his graduation he studied under George Brandt Bridgman (a Canadian artist) at the Art Students League of New York. And afterwards he became an advertising writer-cartoonist for the New York American newspaper, while working in different newspapers such as the Pulp Magazines.
Between the Two World War the comic industry was at its pick, the industry was booming and Eisner and his friend Iger were one of the most prominent artists of the time. They were in "WOW", a four issue comic book and in the "Packagers", which will give them recognition to Fox Comics, Fiction House and Quality Comics. Due to this fame, they turn a profit of $1.50 a page, and during the depression in 1939 they had more then 25 000 dollars in their bank account, which was a lot of money at the time.
His first important comic: "The Spirit"
One of his most important work, which will start Eisner fames will be his collaboration between the Comic publisher Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, which stated that " the Sunday newspapers were looking for a way of getting into this comic book boom".
Thus, one day Eisner had a meeting with Henri Martin (the sales manager of The Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate), who will say: "The newspapers in this country, particularly the Sunday papers, are looking to compete with comics books, and they would like to get a comic-book insert into the newspapers.".
Then, Henri Martin asks Eisner if he was willing to do it, but to do so he had to stop his contract with his colleague Iger. Eisner made the decision to do the comics for the Sunday comic book, and Arnold will be in charge of the copyrighting of "The Spirit", which tell that Eisner has the full propriety of the work.
"The Spirit" will be made for an adult audience, which wanted better than superheroes, but someone who can be recognise in the streets of New York. Thus, he created a personage with an incredible office suit, that will be developed into eight pages (later seven pages), that would be distributed in 20 newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million copies.
World War II and Post-War comics
During the Second World War, Eisner had to stop his creation to serve his country between 1941 and 1942. But later, as the war was progressing, the US government assigned him to the AMP newspaper at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where "there was also a big training program there, so I got involved in the use of comics for training. ... I finally became a warrant officer, which involved taking a test – that way you didn't have to go through Officer Candidate School." (Will Eisner - 1979).
After the war, he developed a micro publication titled "Army Motors" at the Holabird Ordnance Depot in Baltimore. Together, "with the people there ... I helped develop its format. I began doing cartoons – and we began fashioning a magazine that had the ability to talk to the Soldier of the American army in their language. So I began to use comics as a teaching tool, and when I got to Washington, they assigned me to the business of teaching – or selling – preventive maintenance."
During his life, Eisner will create characters related to the army such as Joe Dope for "Army Motors", and for the successor of the Army Motors magazine: PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly until 1971.
During those time, "The Spirit" was still published and he had a studio working under his supervision. He had the letterer Abe Kanegson who helped him creating the distinctive lettering style, and Jules Feiffer, a renowned cartoonist, playwright and screenwriter in his own right.
Due to his studio, he was able to create others comic-strip/comic-book such as "Baseball", "John Law", "Kewpies", and "Nubbin the Shoeshine Boy". And he decided to stop "The Spirit" in 1952, to focus on his biggest job with the PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, a digest sized magazine with comic book elements that he started for the Army in 1951, and worked on it until the 70s and 80s.
At the end of his career, Eisner decided to focus his energy on longer storytelling forms, such as "A Contract with God: and Other Tenement Stories", an American graphic novel, combining thematic short stories. He also pays hommage to his personal story by telling the history of New York's immigrant communities, particularly Jews, including "The Building", "A Life Force", "Dropsie Avenue" and "To the Heart of the Storm".
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Cartoonmuseum Basel
Date: 11.3.2023 – 18.6.2023
Curators: Alexander Braun
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Cartoonmuseum Basel
Cartoonmuseum Basel
St. Alban-Vorstadt 28
CH-4052 Basel
Phone: +41 61 226 33 60
Fax: +41 61 226 33 61
Mail: info@cartoonmuseum.ch