"The Work As Just Work"
"My father
would bring home the Sunday Funnies,” says Ann, “and we would read them avidly - the Katzenjammer Kids, The Timid Soul, Tillie the Toiler, Little Orphan Annie, Maggie and Jiggs, and that ilk. I didn't care for most of the toys that girls of my age played with, such as dolls. I always wanted books.
“I couldn't then, and still can't now, draw a straight line. What Will did wasn’t important to me. I liked him as a person. I never read comic books. I still don’t.”
Married in 1950, at the age of twenty-six, Ann was a working woman, unconcerned about her father’s initial resistance to Will’s career choice. Her first exposure to her husband’s work came via the New York City afternoon newspaper, P.M., which published The Spirit strip.
Ann treated the work as one would treat any husband who leaves for work at nine in the morning and returns home at five in the afternoon. “I never read anything about him until years afterwards. The Spirit, and his earlier work, were not factors in the early part of our marriage. We moved to Westchester County, White Plains, shortly after we were married. He went to work on a commuter train like everybody else’s husband I knew. I liked the person, rather than what he did, or what he was involved in, as long as it was legitimate. I didn’t want to go visit someone in jail!”
The newspaper industry began to put the squeeze on comic strips in the early 1950s, and Will abandoned the Spirit strip in the fall of 1952. The Comics Code Authority - the industry’s attempt to self-censor - helped to crush any innovative spirit left in comic-books, so is it little wonder an artist who had dedicated his career to innovation decided to vanish from the industry? What would have prompted a man with Eisner’s business sense to remain?
Eisner began to use his creative talents for commercial ventures, setting up American Visuals Corporation that created comics and cartoons for educational and commercial purposes. For the U.S. Army, he produced P*S Magazine. His list of clientele was wide ranging, from record (R.C.A.), oil, and phone companies to pro sports teams (the Baltimore Colts).
Discontinuing The Spirit strip was a relief to Will. He wanted to go out on a creative high, but Ann speaks of the personal relief. “He wanted a stable environment and he wanted a steady income. If you’ve seen his P*S Magazine, you’ll know he liked, and was still doing, creative work. He was always, always being creative - always drawing, always writing.”
Their lives didn’t revolve around work or comic books. Says Ann: “We had never been socially friendly with other cartoonists. Our social life was with our friends - a very eclectic group of doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs, and peddlers - anybody. It had nothing to do with what they did. There was always someone you’d meet in between who were comic fans, who would then recognize his name, but that was in passing.”
Ann’s lack of familiarity with Will’s earlier work also stemmed from Will, unlike most artists, having little interest in working at home. “He went back and forth to New York City until about 1975, when he went back into the creative end. When he sold his business in New York, we moved to a house, again in White Plains, that had a detached studio. An architect had been built it for himself. Will liked to go out of the door, close it and go to his studio, which was about a mile away from our home.”
Will’s success allowed the couple to have their own completely separate lives. The wives of struggling freelance comic-book artists from the Golden and Silver Age of comics had a different level of stress. The instability of the industry forced many wives to devote a great deal of time managing their husband’s careers, egos and finances.
Part 3: "Re-Entering The Field"
Joe Dope on the cover to Army Motors, March 1945.
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