Editing Will Eisner (section)

==1942–1970s: Military publications, ''The Spirit'', and new endeavors==

===World War II and ''Joe Dope''===

[[File:PSJune1951.jpg|thumb|Premiere issue of the [[U.S. Army]] publication ''[[PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly|PS]]'' (June 1951), designed to be a "postscript" to related publications. Art by Eisner.]]
Eisner was [[military conscription|drafted]] into the [[U.S. Army]] in "late '41, early '42"<ref name=tcj46p45>"Will Eisner Interview", ''[[The Comics Journal]]'' No. 46 (May 1979), p. 45. Interview conducted October 13 and 17, 1978</ref> and then "had about another half-year which the government gave me to clean up my affairs before going off" to fight in [[World War II]].<ref name=tcj46p37>Eisner interview, ''The Comics Journal'' No. 46, p. 37</ref> He was assigned to the camp 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 (United States)|warrant officer]], which involved taking a test – that way you didn't have to go through [[Officer Candidate School]]."<ref name=tcj46p45 />

En route to Washington, D.C., he stopped at the [[Fort Holabird|Holabird Ordnance Depot]] in [[Baltimore]], where a [[mimeograph]]ed publication titled ''Army Motors'' was put together. "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 [[G.I. (military)|G.I.]]s 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."<ref name=tcj46pp45-46>Eisner interview, ''The Comics Journal'' No. 46, pp. 45–46</ref>

Eisner then created the educational comic strip and titular character ''Joe Dope'' for ''Army Motors'', and spent four years working in [[The Pentagon]] editing the [[wikt:ordnance|ordnance]] magazine ''Firepower'' and doing "all the general illustrations – that is, cartoons" for ''Army Motors''. He continued to work on that and its 1950 successor magazine, ''[[PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly]]'', until 1971.<ref name=tcj46pp45-46 /> Eisner also illustrated an official Army pamphlet in 1968 and 1969 called ''The M16A1 Rifle'' specifically for troops in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] to help minimize the [[M16 rifle]]'s notorious early reliability problems with proper maintenance. Eisner's style helped to popularize these officially-distributed works in order to better educate soldiers on equipment maintenance.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyzonQEACAAJ |title=The M16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventive Maintenance |author1=United States Department of the Army |author2=Robert A. Sadowski |publisher=[[Skyhorse Publishing]] |date=2013 |access-date=2014-07-13 |isbn=9781616088644|author1-link=United States Department of the Army }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|newspaper=[[Lincoln Journal Star]]|url=http://journalstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/books/unl-professor-s-new-book-explores-the-weird-world-of/article_f153acdc-1aa3-50cd-a0e1-edf49148e8d3.html|title=UNL professor's new book explores the weird world of government comics|date=November 5, 2011|first=Micah|last=Mertes|quote=Will Eisner should be credited for using sequences of cartoon images to teach people how to do things, rather than merely as a way to dramatize a story or illustrate text. One of the last military projects he worked on dealt with the use and care of the problematic M16 rifle. The weapon was issued in the mid-'60s to great fanfare but soon developed a reputation for unreliability. Full of double entendres, ''Operation and Preventive Maintenance The M16A1 Rifle'' is a classic example of Eisner's incredible ability to combine effectively informational/instructional design with graphic design.}}</ref>

While Eisner's later graphic novels were entirely his own work, he had a studio working under his supervision on ''The Spirit''. In particular, [[letterer]] Abe Kanegson came up with the distinctive lettering style which Eisner himself would later imitate in his book-length works, and Kanegson would often rewrite Eisner's dialogue.<ref name="sim1">[[Dave Sim|Sim, Dave]], "My Dinner With Will & Other Stories," ''Following Cerebus'' No. 4 (May 2005)</ref>

Eisner's most trusted assistant on ''The Spirit,'' however, was [[Jules Feiffer]], later a renowned cartoonist, playwright and screenwriter in his own right. Eisner later said of their memories of their working methods on the feature, "You should hear me and Jules Feiffer going at it in a room. 'No, you designed the splash page for this one, then you wrote the ending&nbsp;– I came up with the idea for the story, and you did it up to this point, then I did the next page and this sequence here and...' And I'll be swearing up and down that 'he' wrote the ending on that one. We never agree."<ref name="sim1" />

So trusted were Eisner's assistants that Eisner allowed them to "ghost" ''The Spirit'' from the time that he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942 until his return to civilian life in 1945. The primary wartime artists were the uncredited [[Lou Fine]] and [[Jack Cole (artist)|Jack Cole]], with future ''[[Kid Colt, Outlaw]]'' artist [[Jack Keller (comics)|Jack Keller]] drawing backgrounds. Ghost writers included [[Manly Wade Wellman]] and [[William Woolfolk]]. The wartime ghosted stories have been reprinted in [[DC Comics]]' hardcover collections ''The Spirit Archives'' Vols. 5 to 11 (2001–2003), spanning July 1942 to December 1945.

===Post-war comics===

On Eisner's return from service and resumption of his role in the studio, he created the bulk of the ''Spirit'' stories on which his reputation was solidified. The post-war years also saw him attempt to launch the comic-strip/comic-book series ''Baseball,'' ''John Law,'' ''Kewpies,'' and ''Nubbin the Shoeshine Boy;'' none succeeded, but some material was recycled into ''The Spirit''.<ref>Andelman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oNeqDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 pp. 139-41].</ref>

''The Spirit'' ceased publishing in 1952. During the 1960s and 1970s, various publishers reprinted the adventures, often with covers by Eisner and with a few new stories from him.

===American Visuals Corporation===
During his World War II military service, Eisner had introduced the use of comics for training personnel in the publication ''Army Motors'', for which he created the cautionary bumbling soldier Joe Dope, who illustrated various methods of [[preventive maintenance]] of various military equipment and weapons. In 1948, while continuing to do ''The Spirit'' and seeing television and other post-war trends eat away at the readership base of newspapers, he formed the American Visuals Corporation in order to produce instructional materials for the government, related agencies, and businesses.{{sfn|Schumacher|2010}}

One of his longest-running jobs was ''[[PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly]],'' a [[digest size]]d magazine with comic book elements that he started for the Army in 1951 and continued to work on until the 1970s with [[Klaus Nordling]], [[Mike Ploog]], and other artists. In addition, Eisner produced other military publications such as the graphic manual in 1969, ''[http://www.ep.tc/problems/25/index.html The M-16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventative Maintenance]'', which was distributed along with cleaning kits to address serious reliability concerns with the [[M16 rifle]] during the [[Vietnam War]].{{sfn|Schumacher|2010}}

Other clients of his Connecticut-based company included [[RCA Records]], the [[History of the Indianapolis Colts|Baltimore Colts]] football team, and [[New York Telephone]].