Court documents indicate Wil Eisner fibbed in 1940s Superman trial

Ken Quattro has turned up a fascinating bit of comic book history on his blog, The Comics Detective:

In interviews over the years, Spirit creator Will Eisner admitted that, back in the late 1930s, comic book publisher Victor Fox instructed him to copy Superman when creating the Fox-published hero Wonder Man.

But when DC later filed suit, the Fox people instructed Eisner to lie on the stand and say, no, he was not coached to copy Superman, or even influenced by Superman, in creating Wonder Man.

According to his own accounts, Eisner said he couldn't go along with the plan. He told the truth in court. But that's not that's not what the trial transcripts -- now available on Ken's blog -- say. Those documents show that Eisner fully went along with the Fox plan, disputing DC's claim that Wonder Man was nothing more than a cheap Superman rip-off.

While it's disappointing that Eisner couldn't cop to the truth of what he'd actually said in court, it's also not surprising to hear the true facts. No doubt there was tremendous pressure on Eisner -- then just  a young man thinking about his future livelihood -- to play along with Fox. This truth certainly doesn't diminish Eisner's artistic accomplishments. But it does tarnish things a bit in terms of Eisner's overall reputation.

Mainly, though, it's great to have this important bit of history publicly available. Kudos to Ken on his detective work.

1 comment:

  1. It is rather telling that he remembers himself telling the truth, though. His concience is clear. Not sure it tarnishes him at all. That was the way the game was played back then. Not saying it was right, but that is how it was done. Plagiarism in art is called inspiration. "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." (Pablo Picasso)

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