Editing Will Eisner (section)

===''The Spirit''===
{{Main|Spirit (comics character){{!}}The Spirit}}
[[File:TheSpirit21Cover.jpg|260px|thumb|Eisner's cover for ''[[Spirit (comics character)|The Spirit]]'' ([[Quality Comics]]) #21, June 1950.]]
In "late '39, just before Christmas time," Eisner recalled in 1979,<ref>"Art & Commerce: An Oral Reminiscence by Will Eisner." ''Panels'' #1 (Summer 1979), pp. 5–21, quoted in {{cite web|last=Quattro|first= Ken|url= http://www.comicartville.com/rareeisner.htm |title=Rare Eisner: Making of a Genius| publisher=Comicartville Library |year= 2003| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20031218092230/http://www.comicartville.com/rareeisner.htm |archive-date=December 18, 2003|url-status=live}}</ref> Quality Comics publisher [[Everett M. "Busy" Arnold]] "came to me and said that the Sunday newspapers were looking for a way of getting into this comic book boom," In a 2004 interview,<ref name="ae48">Will Eisner interview, ''Alter Ego'' No. 48 (May 2005), p. 10</ref> he elaborated on that meeting:

{{blockquote|"Busy" invited me up for lunch one day and introduced me to Henry Martin [sales manager of [[The Des Moines Register|The Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate]], who] said, "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." ... Martin asked if I could do it. ... It meant that I'd have to leave Eisner & Iger [which] was making money; we were very profitable at that time and things were going very well. A hard decision. Anyway, I agreed to do the Sunday comic book and we started discussing the deal [which] was that we'd be partners in the 'Comic Book Section,' as they called it at that time. And also, I would produce two other magazines in partnership with Arnold.}}

Eisner negotiated an agreement with the syndicate in which Arnold would copyright ''The Spirit,'' but "[w]ritten down in the contract I had with 'Busy' Arnold&nbsp;&mdash;and this contract exists today as the basis for my copyright ownership&mdash;Arnold agreed that it was my property. They agreed that if we had a split-up in any way, the property would revert to me on that day that happened. My attorney went to 'Busy' Arnold and his family, and they all signed a release agreeing that they would not pursue the question of ownership".<ref name="ae48" /> This would include the eventual backup features "[[Mr. Mystic]]" and "[[Lady Luck (comics)|Lady Luck]]".

Selling his share of their firm to Iger, who would continue to package comics as the S.M. Iger Studio and as Phoenix Features through 1955, for $20,000,<ref>[[Denis Kitchen|Kitchen, Denis]]. "Annotations to ''The Dreamer'', in Eisner, Will, ''The Dreamer'' ([[W.W. Norton & Company]], New York, 2008), p. 52. {{ISBN|978-0-393-32808-0}}</ref> Eisner left to create ''The Spirit.'' "They gave me an adult audience", Eisner said in 1997, "and I wanted to write better things than superheroes. Comic books were a ghetto. I sold my part of the enterprise to my associate and then began The Spirit. They wanted an heroic character, a costumed character. They asked me if he'd have a costume. And I put a mask on him and said, 'Yes, he has a costume!'"<ref>Will Eisner interview, [http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/16eisner.html ''Jack Kirby Collector'' #16 (June 1997)]</ref>

''The Spirit'', an initially eight- and later seven-page urban-crimefighter series, ran with the initial backup features "Mr. Mystic" and "Lady Luck" in a 16-page Sunday supplement (colloquially called "The Spirit Section") that was eventually distributed in 20 newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million copies.<ref>Eisner, ''The Dreamer'', "About the Author", p. 55</ref> It premiered June 2, 1940, and continued through 1952.<ref name=gcd1940series>{{cite web|url=http://www.comics.org/series/10295/|title=GCD :: Series :: The Spirit}}</ref> Eisner has cited the Spirit story "Gerhard Shnobble" as a particular favorite, as it was one of his first attempts at injecting his personal point of view into the series.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cartoonician.com/eisner-wide-open/|title=Eisner Wide Open|work=Hogan's Alley|access-date=January 15, 2013|archive-date=June 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620092240/http://cartoonician.com/eisner-wide-open/|url-status=dead}}</ref>