Will Eisner - Michael Schumacher [179]
29 Formation of Eisner & Iger: Eisner, The Dreamer, pp. 11–12; Harvey, “The Shop System”; Jon B. Cooke, “Will Eisner: The Creative Life of a Master,” Comic Book Artist 2, no. 6 (November 2005); Jean Depelley, “Will Eisner Speaks!,” Jack Kirby Collector #16; Will Eisner, “Art and Commerce: An Oral Reminiscence by Will Eisner,” interview conducted and edited by John Benson, Panels #1 (summer 1979). Not surprisingly, Jerry Iger had his own account of his business relationship with Eisner. In a 1985 interview with Cubic Zirconia Reader, Iger claimed: “I had gone into a brief partnership with Will Eisner in mid-1938, only to buy him out in 1940 when Will was drafted [sic] into the Army to do military posters. Will had become so accomplished—and so expensive!—as a freelance artist that the only way I could afford his services was to make him a partner.” As we’ll see, Iger’s account of the creation of Sheena was equally creative.
29 “my name was first”: Harvey, “The Shop System.”
29 “Y’know, Billy”: Eisner, The Dreamer, p. 12.
30 Chesler and the shop systems: Interviews with Joe Kurbert, Irwin Hasen, and Carmine Infantino. Ron Goulart, “Golden Age Sweatshops,” Comics Journal #249; Harvey, “The Shop System.” Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague, pp. 32–33.
31 “Chesler never did manage”: Goulart, “Golden Age Sweatshops.”
31 “Harry was extremely kind”: Interview with Joe Kubert.
31 “I loved Harry”: Interview with Carmine Infantino.
32 “Just don’t work”: Interview with Irwin Hasen.
32 “You needed a guy”: Ibid.
32 “pretty much the way”: Goulart, “Golden Age Sweatshops.”
33 “ten-year-old cretins”: David Hajdu, “Good Will,” Comic Book Artist 2, no. 6 (November 2005).
33 “It was the bottom”: Interview with Bob Fujitani.
33 “Comic book writing”: Interview with Stan Lee.
33 “He said”: Interview with Nick Cardy.
33 “It doesn’t seem possible”: Waugh, The Comics, pp. 333–334.
34 “comic book ghetto”: Arie Kaplan, “Looking Back,” Comics Journal #267.
34 “We were living”: Will Eisner, “Keynote Address from 2002 ‘Will Eisner Symposium.’”
34 “There were a lot”: Ibid. All other quotations in this passage are from this source.
34 “One was Willis R. Rensie”: Mike Barson, Ted White, and Mitch Berger, “… and I Threw In a Hat … ,” Heavy Metal, November 1983.
35 “The trouble with you”: Harvey, “The Shop System.”
36 “There was a great deal”: Dave Schreiner, “Afterword” to Will Eisner, Hawks of the Seas (Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1986), p. 125.
CHAPTER THREE: SUPERMEN IN A WORLD OF MORTALS
38 Epigraph: John Benson, “Will Eisner: Having Something to Say,” Comics Journal #267.
39 Sheena: See “Sheena: Queen of the Iger Comics Kingdom” issue of Alter Ego 21 (February 2005) for extensive coverage of the Eisner & Iger shop and the creation of Sheena, including the reprinting of the Jerry Iger biography, The Iger Comics Kingdom, written by Jay Edward Disbrow and published in 1985 by Blackhorne Publications. Based largely on Disbrow’s interviews with Iger, the biography is marred by historical inaccuracies, the result of Iger’s revisionist history and insistence on taking credit for just about everything that happened in early comics history. Roy Thomas, Alter Ego’s editor and a comic book artist and historian, interjects with sidebars and commentary whenever necessary, and his “A Footnote on the Eisner and Iger Shops,” listing all the shops’ personnel, along with their dates of employment, is an indispensable resource.
40 Artists at Eisner & Iger shop: It’s noteworthy that, with the exception of Baily, the artists at the Eisner & Iger shop were very young and, at best, minimally experienced in comics when they hooked up with Eisner & Iger. Most would do their breakthrough work after the breakup of Eisner & Iger, when Eisner was running a studio on his own and supplying a steady stream of material to Quality Comics. Powell