Monday, May 18, 2009

Eisner 'Spirit'

Also from the Harvey Spirit #2, 1967, this was a new story (at the time), bridging continuity from the 40's to the 60's. Eisner's style had morphed a bit, but still had the Eisner 'spirit'.






7 comments:

Johnny Bacardi said...

I've heard from a couple of sources just recently that these new stories were drawn by George Tuska, who does a nice job of approximating the Eisner style. I'm not sure if Tuska was an Eisner assistant at some point years previous...

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

If Tuska did this one, then it's an exact approximation, cuz this is exactly Eisner's style at this time (unless Eisner wasn't doing ANY of his own work in the 60s?).
Eisner certainly had a staff producing the Eisner look on the army magazine called P.S. and other army publications. Murphy Anderson was one, but his style was immediately recognizable.

These guys (like Wally Wood) with their assistants that came and went, make it really hard to write a definitive history of their output.

Johnny Bacardi said...

Again, this was just something I was told by a pro comics writer who is generally knowledgeable about such things. I'd like to know for sure, because I went 43 years thinking it was Eisner!

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Well, yeah, likewise. If you ever get it confirmed, would ya let me know? Thanks.

Hey I tried some of your Bacardi, I like it, look forward to more.

Unknown said...

Every credit I've seen runs with Will Eisner story and pencils, and Eisner and Chuck Kramer on the inks.
Kramer also assisted Eisner on the 1966 Herald Tribune strip.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Chuck Kramer! That's who I was trying to think of. Kramer, I believe, did a lot of work on Eisner's army manuals and tech magazines. He has a recognizable style on miscellaneous characters, but It looks like Eisner on some of the Spirit faces. But what do I know?

Booksteve said...

I love all that '66 new SPIRIT stuff! Yeah, by all conventional wisdom, it's Kramer assisting but you're so right about these guys and their assistants. As I noted elsewhere the other day, the Warren reprint of the Harvey SPIRIT origin is extensively redrawn and, I believe, even better but I have no idea who did it. Eisner?

Eisner's final SPIRIT story--the ESCAPIST one--looks to me like the purest Will! It is acknowledged, however, that it was largely drawn by Alex Saviuk, himself a former Eisner student and/or assistant whose own work bears little resemblance to that of the Master and yet...