Broken Frontier

M Press/Dark Horse Comics is pleased to announce an online extension of Bob Andelman’s critically acclaimed new biography Will Eisner: A Spirited Life. In the weblog “Interview Series,” debuting on June 12 at http://www.aspiritedlife.com/blog/, Andelman will publish a new Q&A interview with comics artists, writers and publishers with all-new stories to tell about legendary artist and writer Will Eisner.

The series begins this Monday, June 12, with a controversial uppercut from artist Howard Chaykin (American Flag, Blackhawk), who reveals himself as something less than a fan of Will Eisner the man. In fact, Chaykin says he nearly came to blows with Eisner at a comic book convention in Barcelona after Eisner implied that Chaykin was “fascistic.”

“I offered Joe Kubert $10 to kick his ass,” Chaykin said, “and Kubert said that for $20 he would think about it.”

Here is a look at the starting lineup for “Will Eisner: A Spirited Life Interview Series”:

 •  June 12    Howard Chaykin, artist, nearly comes to blows with Will Eisner
 •  June 19    Mike Richardson, president of Dark Horse Comics, recalls the influence Eisner had on him as a writer and businessman
 •  June 26    Drew Friedman, artist and former Eisner student, takes strong issue with Eisner’s stories about him and his father, novelist Bruce Jay Friedman, in A Spirited Life
 •  July 3       Abe Foxman, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, describes efforts to distribute Eisner’s final graphic novel, The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Arabic language newspapers in the Middle East
 •  July 10     Denis Kitchen, Eisner’s agent and friend, updates a host of new and in-process Eisner projects from print to film and radio
 •  July 17     Pete Poplaski, illustrator and former art director at Kitchen Sink Press, describes his work finishing Eisner’s final instructional book and recalls his earlier experiences with Eisner
 •  July 24     Ted Cabarga, former production director for Eisner’s American Visuals company, describes working for Eisner on PS magazine from 1959-73 and how Eisner changed after the death of his daughter
 •  July 31      Scott & Bo Hampton, brothers and artists, recall apprenticing for Eisner in the mid-1970s while Eisner completed his landmark graphic novel, A Contract With God

Additional interviews are in the works as well.

“A chance meeting with Howard Chaykin in February put the ‘Interview Series’ in motion,” biographer Bob Andelman explained. “Even after almost three years of conducting interviews and reporting for the biography, I keep finding more and more people with interesting stories to tell or conflicting points of view on Will Eisner. In print, the book is done, but on the Web, there’s no reason the man’s life story can’t continue to be told. And I think people who already read the book will be surprised that not everyone interviewed for this new series is a fan of Will’s, although many are.”

In recent months, Andelman has made well-received presentations about Eisner at the International Comic Arts Festival at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading, the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, the Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

“Will Eisner: A Spirited Life” features an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) and an appreciation by master comics artist Neal Adams. In its review of the book, the Miami Herald called it “... entertaining and enlightening, capturing Will's extraordinary character and dignified presence quite nicely.”And in his five-star review, Tony Isabella of the Comics Buyers Guide said A Spirited Life is “a must-have item for any serious devotee of the comics art form.” The book was a finalist for the 2005 British Eagle Awards.