Will Eisner - PS Magazine: The Best of the Preventive Maintenance Monthly

no. 40, 1956

no. 40, 1956

PS Magazine

The Best of The Preventive
Maintenance Monthly

for Will & Ann

no. 28, 1955

The entire run of Eisners PS magazine is available online. Thanks to Virginia Commonwealth University ( www.library.vcu.edu ) and the VCU Libraries Digital Collections ( http://dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm4/index_psm.php?CISOROOT=/psm ).

At Abrams ComicArts: Charles Kochman (editorial), Neil Egan (design), Scott Auerbach (managing editorial), and Alison Gervais (production). Thanks also to Jennifer Redding (design assistance).

Special thanks to Eddie Campbell (for taking 227 issues and twenty years and distilling them down to a best of 270 images), General Peter J. Schoomaker, and Ann Eisner for providing context for this material. The book would not be the same without your insights.

Thanks to Paul E. Fitzgerald, author of Will Eisner and PS Magazine, which he self-published in 2009 (FitzWorld.US).

The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation: Carl and Nancy Gropper, and Ann Eisner. Thank you for giving your blessing and support. We could not (would not) have done this book without you.

And last but certainly not least: Thanks to agents Judy Hansen and Denis Kitchen from the Kitchen and Hansen Agency, LLC (for permissions, guidance, and friendship).

All of the images were scanned from original printed copies of PS. Issues 1 through 30 are from Will Eisners personal bound volumes, which were generously lent for this project by Ann Eisner and Denis Kitchen (thanks again, Denis!). The balance of the Eisner file copies were provided by Denis Kitchen from his personal collection. Additional issues were purchased from Bud Plant at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2010. All pages are presented at 100% (the trim size of PS varied over the years, but averaged 5 7). Page numbers from the comics were removed at the printer to avoid confusion with the page numbers of this book. All of the articles are in as close to chronological order as possible; allowing for pages that needed to start on either a left- or right-hand page necessitated some shifting.

EDITOR: Charles Kochman
DESIGNER: Neil Egan
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Alison Gervais

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eisner, Will.

PS magazine : the best of the preventive maintenance monthly / by Will Eisner ; selected and with an overview by Eddie Campbell ; preface by Ann Eisner ; introduction by Peter J. Schoomaker.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8109-9748-6
1. Eisner, WillThemes, motives. I. Campbell, Eddie, 1955 II. PS (United States. Dept. of the Army) III. Title. IV. Title: Best of the Preventive maintenance monthly.

NC1429.E46A4 2011

741.5973dc22

2011012342

Compilation copyright 2011 Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

The logo and signature of Will Eisner is a registered trademark of Will Eisner Studios, Inc. Used by permission.

Introduction copyright 2011 General Peter J. Schoomaker
Preface copyright 2011 Ann Eisner
A PS Briefing copyright 2011 Eddie Campbell

Endpaper photograph by Geoff Spear
Photographs and captions on pages 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 18
courtesy of the Denis Kitchen Art Agency.

Published in 2011 by Abrams ComicArts, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Abrams ComicArts is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Abrams ComicArts books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

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Created as a postscript to the standard technical manuals issued by the U.S. Army, PS was conceived as a simple means of communicating to soldiersin easy-to-comprehend and often humorous cartoonshow to take better care of their equipment. Paul E. Fitzgerald, a former army second lieutenant who was PS magazines managing editor from 1953 to 1963, succinctly boils down the concept of PS in his book Will Eisner and PS Magazine: In essence, the premise is that it is easier and quicker and cheaper to check an engines oil-level daily than it is to replace the engine.

PS tries to catch the attention of its readers with a mixture of comic book characters, vivid graphics and color, gags, talking equipment, and informal, no-nonsense writing. The emphasis is on pictures over words, but the combination has proven to be a successful tool in providing soldiers with the best, most up-to-date information available. Throughout my own career, dog-eared copies of PS could to be found in the hands of all ranksfrom private to generalin the motor pools, workshops, supply rooms, and offices of literally every organization in the army, at home and abroad. Many copies, I am sure, were carried onto the battlefield and experienced combat.

In the first issue of PS, in 1951, General J. Lawton Collins introduced the magazine with the following note:

The modern Army of today must possess mobilityand mobility depends to a large degree upon prompt, efficient, and continuing maintenance. Therefore, it is imperative that the men and women who operate and maintain our cars and trucks and tanks and other equipment are kept well informed on better maintenance.

If PS magazine will help to accomplish this mission, it will perform a most valuable service in helping the Army achieve the high degree of ready mobility so essential to victory in modern war.

During my tenure as army chief of staff, my charge was to make the army a force that was better organized, better led, better trained, better equipped, and more strategically agile. And thats the goal of PS magazine: to assist soldiers in adapting to ever-changing environments and conditions, and to help them be knowledgeable of all aspects of their tasks and the tools and equipment around them.

In the pages that follow, readers will find out How to Load a Truck (pages 2431), How to Start a Stalled Engine (pages 3441), and How to Keep Your Hydra-Matic Happy (pages 13537). Soldiers are asked to Know Your Tools (pages 12833) and Are You Guilty of Overstock? (page 75). And they will encounter regular features like Joes Dope Sheet and Question and Answer Department, as well as a cast of recurring characters such as Sgt. Half-Mast McCanick, Sgt. Bull Dozer, Private Fosgnoff, Private Joe Dope, and Connie Rodd. Some of these are quaint lessons by todays standards, but looking back I am taken with their earnestness, intent, and value.