I don't blog a lot about work-related stuff, but the real reason I am in New York City, just a day or so before the Alternative Press Expo (on the other side of the country this weekend), is for a special memorial for the late, great Will Eisner. It was held today at an old synagogue (in fact, one of the first in the city), on the Lower East Side. It was an incredible building inside, and more than one of the speakers commented on how it looked like something Will would have drawn. Will's widow, Ann Eisner was there, as was a veritable who's who of comics notables. I was sitting in a room today with a large portion of comics history beside me, and I felt incredibly honored to be there. Needless to say, it was a very emotional afternoon, with both sad and glad feelings present and accounted for. I learned some unknown things today...Eisner's personal preference to play The Spirit in a movie to be written by Harlan Ellison and directed by William Friedkin: James Garner (he was right...he would have been perfect). A number of speakers brought up Eisner's legendary "thriftiness" (to be polite). It seems he even went to the extent of using pencil extenders in order to get every last piece of lead out of his purchases. His staff at one time presented him with a belt made of pencil stubs. Former DC art director Amy Brockway Metcalf told of the "Eisner Squint Test," Will's surefire way of making sure a cover was successful: Hang it up, walk away from it, turn and look at it, squinting. If you could read it at a distance with a squint, it was a successful cover.
The tribute was put on by DC Comics, but publishers from all over the world were there, including some of Will's European publishers. In addition to DC's Paul Levitz, who acted as host for the event, Mike Richardson of Dark Horse, Terry Nantier of NBM, Byron Preiss of iBooks, Denis Kitchen of the gone but never forgotten Kitchen Sink Press (who was Eisner's publisher for almost 35 years and his agent up until the end of his life), and Jim Warren were all in attendance. An incredibly diverse roster of artists and writers were there including Frank Miller, Jerry Robinson, Joe Kubert, John Byrne, Jules Feiffer (for only a moment), Scott McCloud, Harlan Ellison, Peter David, and more that I would probably be shocked to learn included "that guy over there?...he's so-and-so." Comics journalists such as Maggie Thompson, Heidi MacDonald and Jon B. Cooke (who, along with brother Andrew, showed a long clip from their upcoming Eisner documentary, which looks incredible) were in attendance, too. I got to see friends Charlie Kochman and Adam Philips, if only for a moment. I got to talk to Paul Levitz on a long walk to an after memorial event, held at the Second Avenue Deli (again, through the generosity of DC Comics). I had a nice talk with Jerry Robinson and Peter David and also, separately, with Scott McCloud, while having some great New York deli food.
No one can overestimate the incredible impact and appeal of Eisner's work. The memorial, which started with some comments from Paul Levitz, who then introduced Ann Eisner, was free-form with anyone in the audience allowed to come up to the podium and speak. In addition to Paul and Mrs. Eisner, 21 people took the stage with various anecdotes, personal feelings and experiences relating to their time with Will. Those speaking were: Denis Kitchen, Michael Uslan, Jackie Estrada, Scott McCloud, Byron Preiss, Harlan Ellison, Jerry Robinson, Karen Berger, Jim Warren, Bob Wilde (Eisner's editor at Norton---I apologize if I have this name wrong), Bob Andelman, Peter David, Nick Bertucci, David Scroggy, John Holmstrom, Jon B. Cooke, Charles Brownstein, Katie Garnier, Amy Brockway Metcalf and Tom Inge. And while no one was grading the speakers, I felt, personally, by far the best speaker was Jim Warren, who gave an honest, gutsy, eloquent testament to Will, whose Spirit he published for 17 issues in magazine format.
It's moments like today that make me appreciate my job more and also remind me of the incredible tapestry of comics. I was sitting in a room today with a group of people celebrating a part of comics history. And those same people are living, breathing examples of that history themselves. I talked with Jerry Robinson at length, who, as a kid of all of about 18 years of age, joined Bob Kane's studio 3 issues into Batman, and helped create Robin (designing his costume and naming him) and came up with the Joker, the ultimate Bat-villain. He's one of the few men left who were present at the creation of American comics. Eisner was a giant among the industry because he realized early on that this was not a throwaway piece of junk, it was a legitimate art form. Yet he never lost sight of the need to make a living. These guys (and they were almost ALL guys, sadly) made up the medium as they went along. There were no rules. There were no guidelines. They invented, whole and vibrant, as vivid as it could be in four colors, the American comic book industry. And we're still here today celebrating it; that and the life of Will Eisner, who was present at the birth, and more than likely spanked it's bottom and got it to start breathing.
Hi Gary:
Great re-cap of Eisner's Memorial. It was nice seeing you there.
In the "that guy over there was..." category, you can add artists Mike Mignola, Bill Sienkiewicz and Arthur Suydam and also cartoonist/graphic designer/comics historian Craig Yoe.
Will's Spanish publisher, Rafa Martinez of Norma Editorial, publishes hellboy, Sin City, Vertigo books and much more in Spain.
Thanks, DS
Posted by: David Scroggy | 04/15/2005 at 03:07 PM
Good story, but shouldn't it read "No one can OVERestimate the incredible impact and appeal of Eisner's work." A lot of people are able to (and regularly do) underestimate it.
Posted by: Pat Kelly | 04/08/2005 at 01:25 PM
Wish I was there. Nice write up, Gary. I want to make a correction, though- the correct spelling of one of the speakers is John Holmstrom (not Halstrom), creator and cartoonist of the ground-breaking PUNK magazine and my pal in Eisner's initial cartooning class in SVA.
Here's to Will!
Posted by: Batton Lash | 04/07/2005 at 10:47 PM