By Mike Allen
When former Fincastle Herald publisher Paul Fitzgerald met Will Eisner in 1953, the two bonded almost immediately over their in-depth knowledge of printer’s lingo.
At the time, Fitzgerald was the new managing editor of PS Magazine, a U.S. Army publication dedicated to delivering instructions to mechanics in a new and entertaining way, using the language and visuals of comic books.
And Eisner was already on his way to becoming a comic book legend because of “The Spirit,” a film noir-style, multi-page comic he created in the 1940s. The strip, about a young detective killed and then returned from the dead to fight crime, was included as an insert in major newspapers in the manner of today’s Parade magazine.
