Despite having no formal art training, Samuel Maxwell “Jerry” Iger went on to become one half of the Eisner & Iger company with the legendary Will Eisner. This comic book packager produced comics on demand for new publishers during the Golden Age and firmly cemented Iger’s status as a comics superstar.
Born on August 22, 1903, Iger was raised in Idabel, Oklahoma as the youngest of four children. In his early 20s, Iger moved to New York where although he had no conventional training in the art field, he became a news cartoonist for the New York American. At this time, Iger was involved in the creation of The Flamingo and Inspector Dayton for Editors Press Service. Ten years later, Iger went on to join the fledgling comic book field on one-page strips as “Bobby,” “Peewee,” and “Happy Daze” for the seminal comic book Famous Funnies. He went on to become the founding editor of another early comic book, Wow, What a Magazine!
Although Wow was short-lived, lasting only four issues, the series brought Iger together a then 19-year-old Eisner. Following the conclusion of Wow, Eisner and Iger formed one of the first comics “packagers” in 1936. The company, known as Eisner & Iger, produced outsourced comic book material for publishers entering the new medium. An immediate success, Eisner & Iger very quickly had a roster of creators supplying work to Fox Comics, Fiction House, and Quality Comics, among others. When Eisner left the firm in 1940, Iger continued packaging comics as the S.M. Iger Studio.
He later started the small Phoenix Features newspaper syndicate, which distributed a comic strip adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer. In 1955, Iger closed his comic studio and began serving as an art director for Farrell Publications. Eventually, Iger left the comic industry to pursue work in commercial advertising. Over time, Blackthorne Publishing has released three compilations of Iger-related comics: The Iger Comics Kingdom, Jerry Iger’s Classic Jumbo Comics, Jerry Iger's Classic National Comics, as well as the six-issue series Jerry Iger’s Golden Features.
In 2009, Iger was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in recognition of his pioneering efforts in the comic industry. While he passed away in 1990, Iger is well remembered for his work on one of the most successful and influential comics packagers of its time.
