Saturday I picked up a copy of PS Magazine - The Best of the Preventive Maintenance Monthly (at Books Kinokuniya, of all places), which the Skipper discussed here. I read through it Saturday night - it was interesting in an academic sense - seeing how comics could be used to convey useful information. There's no stories as such - there are recurring characters who get into various situations mostly so that Eisner could then offer an explanation of what should be done in the given situation. Since I have infinitesimal mechanical knowledge - and none at all for Korea/Vietnam era military equipment - I can't speak directly to the reliability of the information given. However, since it's Eisner, and he worked on it for many years, I'm willing to posit that there's nothing wrong with the instructions provided. To a non-military person such as myself, the book is a bit "inside baseball", with references to acronyms and equipment that are unfamiliar to us hapless civilians. Of course, guys like me were not the target audience, so one can hardly fault Eisner for that. This being Eisner, the art is good, and the characters - to the limited extent that he develops them - are entertaining. Overall, the book is a bit dry - I tended to get a bit lost in the technical parts. In a way, it reminds me of a collection I own of WWII-era Disney animation, which includes some technical shorts the Disney folks did - "Three Methods of Riveting Battleship Armor" , or some such. Interesting to watch in an "academic" way, but not exactly an evening's entertainment. Similarly, the PS stuff is interesting as an example of "comics as technical manual" (Something I'd seen Japanese examples of, but never before an American one), but not something you would pick up expecting to be "entertained", unless you're Montgomery Scott and read this kind of stuff for fun.
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As an addendum to the above, I'd like to add that one thing I did find interesting about PS was some of the insights it gave into military "culture" - for example, I'd no idea there were such things as "parts hoarders".
I gave this one a pass when it first shipped, but made note of it for potential purchase at a future time (the increasingly mythological "light week"). Is this the only thing by Eisner that you own, or only the first entry in a series?
It's one of four things by Eisner that I own - I plan to post on the other three as I get a chance.
I'm pretty sure that I read some Spirit stories as a kid and certainly read about the Spirit as I grew older but the first thing I consciously bought because it was Eisner was the Eclipse one-shot John Law-Detective in the late 80s. I learned about its very brief hisory and how the stories, including the first true appearance of Sand Saref, were converted into classic Spirit tales. It was reprinted by IDW with new stories in 2004.
For years the only thing I ever read by Eisner was the Spirit story reprinted in Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes.
It wasn't until the late 90's that I picked up a handful of the Kitchen Sink Spirit reprints from a back issue bin.
I bought that John Law comic a few years back at a comic book convention. I thought it was a pretty decent read. I have a few of Kitchen Sink's reprints, but mostly I've read his graphic novels. Even then I have barely scratched the surface of his output.
Philip Portelli said:
I was a johnny-come-lately to Will Eisner, and to me he's like Jack Kirby: I'm aware of and respect his reputation, but I am, at best, baffled as to his appeal, because I just don't feel it. I just don't.
The only thing of his I have is Last Day in Vietnam, which tells a half-dozen stories about soldiers over there. The leadoff tale is about some blowhard officer who spent his whole tour back of the lines; on his last day in-country, he gives a visiting journalist a quick tour but they get stranded when a mortar attack causes all flights out to be canceled. Another is about some schmoe who gets his hand blown off when he beds a hooker who gives him an unwanted gift -- a grenade under his pillow.
Probably the best one is about a dope who gets drunk each weekend and puts in a transfer request to the front lines, but, fortunately for him, has buddies who tear it up before the commanding officer sees it; the commander always grants such requests, and our dope always forgets he's made them when he sobers up. Unfortunately, one weekend, the guys who always tear up the requests are away ...
I've a few Kitchen Sink Spirit comics tucked away domewhere that I've yet to read. Likewise I have a few of his 'serious' late career stuff that I've only read a few of.
There was a lot to like in what I've read of his. There's a Spirit story about an artist going blind that was very powerful.
Perhaps you are saving it up to spring on us as and when, but if you wanted to post the names of the three other Eisner books, I might have them and be able to read them before you get to them, Baron?
I was fascinated that they'd collected Eisner's army maintenence pages in that little book when I saw it in my LCS, but I don't think I'll ever buy it. I'd imagine that it'll be hard to get a short time from now, as its such a niche, collector's book.
I own several volumes of The Spirit Archives. Otherwise, I've been able to read a great selection of Eisner graphic novels from my local libraries: The Dreamer, A Contract with God, The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
To answer Figserello's question - the other three are Dropsie Avenue - The Neighborhood, The Plot and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative.
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