Will Eisner - Michael Schumacher [140]
These thoughts were brought into fine focus when Groth read The Dreamer and The Building, both of which he judged to be subpar efforts but which were nevertheless getting strong notices in the comics fanzines. Groth reasoned that it was time somebody took Eisner to task, and his review of The Dreamer and The Building did just that.
“The review was harsh,” Groth admitted in a reflective overview of Eisner’s career published in the Comics Journal after Eisner’s death, “but it was honest, accurate, and, of course, utterly politically suicidal.”
Eisner was hurt and angry when he saw Groth’s review, which he felt was unfair and unnecessarily mean-spirited. Groth had the reputation of being esoteric in his tastes and of mincing no words when stating his opinions or his likes and dislikes, but in Eisner’s view, the review was nasty even by Groth’s standards. Worse yet, on a personal level, Eisner felt as if a professional friendship had been betrayed. He’d given the magazine numerous interviews over the years, supplied it with art, and, in his mind, done his part to see that the publication maintained high visibility on the market. In his heart, if he stepped back from the work and looked at it objectively, applying the same standards he used in judging the work of others, Eisner might have admitted that The Dreamer and The Building were substantially inferior to A Contract with God or A Life Force and that the two books might never have seen the light of day if not for his relationship with Dave Schreiner and Denis Kitchen and their efforts on his behalf.
Still, the review was too much. Eisner stewed over it for months and decided that he was finished with the magazine. In the years ahead, the Comics Journal tried to line up interviews with Eisner, but he rejected all requests. Eisner and Groth would eventually exchange pleasantries at the 2000 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund cruise, but as far as Eisner was concerned, his professional relationship with that magazine had ended.
chapter fourteen
W I N N E R S A N D L O S E R S
The big joke in my shop was that I always had one foot under the front office desk and one foot under the drawing board.
At the end of 1986, Eisner became involved, in a very limited way, with the creation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an organization founded by Denis Kitchen and dedicated to assisting artists and writers in a variety of legal issues, from copyright matters to freedom of speech court cases. As a rule, Eisner preferred to keep his life away from comics, including his political views, as private as possible. If asked in interviews, he would provide frank answers to questions regarding his opinions about censorship and the long abused rights of comics creators, but he was guarded about allowing his name to be attached to organizations that might eventually cause him grief at the marketplace.
Kitchen called to request a sheet of art to be included in a portfolio he was assembling to raise funds for Michael Correa, a Champaign, Illinois, comic book store employee who found himself in a storm of trouble when six police officers walked into the establishment, confiscated seven titles, and arrested him for having obscene books on display. One of the seized books had been “Omaha” the Cat Dancer, a Kitchen Sink title written by Kate Worley and illustrated by Reed Waller. Kitchen readily admitted that Omaha was sexually explicit, but he also pointed out that it was critically acclaimed internationally and that “it was also one of the very few comics in 1986 that could boast a high female readership.”
Kitchen might never have heard of the arrest had it not been for a call from Frank Mangiaracina, a comic book distributor who also owned a small chain of Illinois and Indiana comic book stores called