Review: Will Eisner - P.S.: The Best of the Preventive Maintenance Monthly

After helping to revolutionize the visual narrative of comics via his long-running Spirit comic strip, and before helping to establish the "graphic novel" format, Will Eisner spent much of his time running P.S. Magazine.

P.S. was published (in fact, still is published) by the U.S. Army and stands for "post script," because it's an add-on to the Army's conventional technical manuals. It's meant for use by soldiers in the field, providing quick tips with easy-to-follow visuals on how to keep vehicles and machinery running so it doesn't go belly up when you most need it. The information is put across in one-pagers, pin-ups and short stories featuring characters such as G.I. Joe Dope and sexy mechanic Connie Rood, who look like they might have stepped out of The Spirit. Eisner fans will recognize the artist's use of humorous verse and parodies of popular movies and TV shows -- features of the Spirit -- in these educational snippets.

Eisner had the contract to produce and oversee P.S. from 1951 to 1971, at which time he diverted his focus to creating long-form comic novels, such as the acclaimed "A Contract with God."

This book collects highlights from P.S. and does a good job showing how Eisner and the other artists in his stable used comic book storytelling to convey technical information. Not being the slightest bit mechanical myself, I'm not sure how successful it all is, or how useful P.S. might be to the troops. But Eisner's approach to using comics as an educational platform does come across as imaginative and innovative. And the fact that P.S. is still published today (comics great Joe Kubert illustrates much of it) is an indication that Eisner was onto something when he started exploring the educational possibilities of his art form.

As a civilian, I found the book more an interesting curiosity than an entertaining read. But it's something to add to my Eisner library and I'm glad to have it. Comics artist Eddie Campbell, who selected the included strips, does a nice job in his introduction providing historical context and artistic commentary. If you're interested in Eisner and the potential of comics art, you'll want to check it out.