PS: Preventive Maintenance Monthly Collection, MMP 3

[Item name or title], [Box Number], PS: Preventive Maintenance Monthly Collection, MMP 3, Miscellaneous Military Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.

The collection is composed of 107 issues of the U.S. Army technical bulletin PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, ranging currently from 1953 to 1996 with gaps. The bulletin uses cartoon characters and graphics in a comic-book style to add humor to maintenance challenges and equipment repair processes for Army soldiers, Army civilians, and contractors that own, operate and maintain Army's equipment-particularly vehicles and tanks. PS is filled with cartoons detailing technical, safety, and policy information. The bulletin is filled with artwork from leading cartoons and comic-book artists, starting with Will Eisner in 1951.

The collection is arranged by issue number in yearly series.

As the U.S. Army ramped up for its involvement in the Korean War between 1950 and 1951, it realized that its soldiers were encountering problems with their Army equipment-particular vehicles and tanks. The Army had experienced some degree of acceptance and success during World War II in utilizing cartoons for education in the instructional publication Army Motors. Army Motors utilized the cartoon drawings of then Corporal Will Eisner, who was already famous for his work on the comic book The Spirit when he was drafted for duty during WWII. An established comic-book writer, artist, and editor, Eisner had been appropriated to draw such characters for WWII publications (including Army Motors) as Private Joe Dope, Connie Rodd, and Master Sergeant Half-Mast McCanick. In 1951, the U.S. Army hired Eisner to create similar instructional material for its new publication to address equipment issues, called PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly. PS is an official Army technical bulletin.

Eisner founded the American Visuals Corporation in the late 1940s to produce commercial work.
The company produced educational cartoons and illustrations and giveaway comics for a variety of clients and industries. Eisner took on a number of roles within the company. As part of AVC's contracts, PS was created by Eisner and his contract artists, with him serving as the publication's artistic director from its inception in 1951 through the end of 1971. In the case of PS, Eisner created the continuity section and the art of each issue, based upon the technical manuscripts provided to him by the Army's PS staff. As part of his contract with the magazine, Eisner was sent on location to places like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, in order to meet soldiers and better understand the situations they and their equipment experienced.

Each issue of the PS magazine consisted of a color comic book-style cover, often designed and drawn by Eisner; eight full pages of a four-color comic continuity story in the middle; and the rest of the publication filled with technical, safety, and policy information printed in two color to save money. The continuity story starred Eisner's earlier character, and was called "Joe's Dope Sheet." Each episode offers the same cautionary tale: a soldier who ignores preventive maintenance learns of its importance in the end. Eisner commanded a prominent level of freedom to create the continuity section, and he used his colorful comic style to draw the reader in to otherwise mundane information.

Artists who contributed work in PS include famous comic-book artists known for other characters, such as: Murphy Anderson (Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space, Adam Strange, The Flash, Green Lantern); Mike Ploog (Creepy, Planet of the Apes, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing); Don Perlin (Werewolf by Night, Ghost Riders, The Defenders); Dan Spiegle (Space Family Robinson, Mangus, Robot Fighter, Korak); and comic strip artist/writer Andre LeBlanc (The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Rex Gordon, MD). As of 2010, Joe Kubert was the art contractor for the magazine, having worked as an artist for PS since 2001.

The magazine from its inception has been, written, researched, and edited by Department of the Army civilians. The home office of PS was located at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland from April 1951 through January 1955, when it was moved to the Raritan Arsenal in New Jersey. The publication office was moved again in October 1962 to Fort Knox, Kentucky. It remained there until July 1973, when it moved to the Lexington-Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. In June 1993, it moved to the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. In March 2011, the magazine published its 700th issue.

PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly transitioned to an all-digital format in June 2017, publishing its last print version as the 775th issue. It is currently published by the U.S. Army Materiel Command's Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA).

[Information for this historical note was largely taken directly from the following sources: PS Magazine, the Preventive Maintenance Monthly, VCU Libraries Digital Collection webpage, viewed at http://dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/psm; "PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly Magazine," U.S. Army Materiel Command, viewed at https://www.army.mil/standto/2017-06-27; and the PS Magazine Archive, RadioNerds, viewed at http://psmag.radionerds.com/index.php/Main_Page].

The collection has been received by the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina in multiple donations from various donors, beginning in January 2018 from a private donor.