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(Paul Fitzgerald, a great guy and longtime former editor of PS Magazine, sent a note to alert us to the magazine’s 60th anniversary.)
The U.S. Army’s internationally acclaimed PS Magazine is widely considered to be the longest running, most successful communications program utilizing sequential art to convey technical and motivational information.
This month (June 2010), “PS” has entered its sixtieth year of publication, and Paul E. Fitzgerald’s Will Eisner and PS Magazine, the first history and illustrated commentary to tell the story, recently was nominated (along with four other works) for the 2010 Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for Best Comics Related Book. Availability information and the story behind Fitzgerald’s book can be found at www.willeisnerandpsmagazine.com
Joe Kubert, head of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, is the current creative artist and pre-press services contractor for PS, a role that he has filled since February of 2001 with production of PS Issue No. 579.
In a recent email exchange, Kubert commented extensively to Fitzgerald about the latter’s work regarding PS…
Hi, Paul:
I just finished reading your book (“Will Eisner and PS Magazine”), and I had to write to tell you what an eye-opener it was for me. I’d been reading it for the past week or so—almost every night before bedtime. I couldn’t put it down. Kept me up some nights til one or two in the morning.
I never fully realized what Will went through (and Murphy) to accomplish what he did. But I was abysmally ignorant of the editorial staff’s inter-relationships and the hell you guys went through with government and Army sticky red tape. [The] dedication [of “PS”] is evident on every page of the interviews in your book. An effort to be of help to every Soldier in the Armed Forces is obvious.
Your book also gave me the opportunity to learn (in detail) how and why Will was able to inject a deeply emotional sense into the humor and humanity of his illustrations. And he knew his audience.
It’s given me a different perspective of the work we ‘contract players’ are doing. A much deeper understanding of what Will was trying to do — and what we here in New Jersey are going to continue trying to do.
Thanks for a great read and a needed education.
Joe
