creators

Will Eisner is responsible in a large way for establishing the medium of comic books the way that we know it today.  If you are a fan of comics and have not read anything by Eisner you owe it to yourself to check out his work.  His career spans the most important years in the medium starting in the 30's and continuing until his death in 2005.  He was active throughout, pausing perhaps for a brief stint in the military during WWII.  The work that he did explored the possibilities of the medium, pushed the boundaries of conventions and established the vocabulary that still helps define the art form to this day.

In the 30's Eisner was approached to create a weekly feature for a Sunday newspaper comic book insert, the only one of its kind ever in existence.  He left the comic book company that he had created in order to embark on this endeavor.  Comics were about to get a shot of creativity equal to the shot the Beatles gave rock and roll.  The strip he created was called The Spirit.  

This strip ran seven pages every Sunday from 1939 to 1952.  Eisner decided to use the strip to explore ideas that he had for expanding the possibilities of the medium.  Techniques that are now commonplace in sequential art storytelling such as the use of light and shadows, splash pages, use of lettering and innovative use of word and thought balloons and many other innovations were first experimented with by Eisner in The Spirit.  The stories are very readable even to this day.  They are all available in The Spirit Archives collections which I believe is now approaching 26 volumes published by DC Comics.  I have read volumes 1 and 17.  Reading them in this way shows just how far he got in his development of the art in just ten years.  The only criticism I have is the specter of the racist stereotypes of the era rearing its ugly head.  Eisner later in his life acknowledged that his strip was indeed racist and apologized.  He is as guilty as any film maker, radio show producer or writer of the era that resorted to such practices.  As adults we may be able to rationalize these things but always use caution when exposing these things to children lest we perpetuate hurtful and just plain wrong ideas about who we all are.

For some reason Beatles comparisons come to mind with me when I think of Eisner.  It is often said that the Beatles really jelled as a creative force in their time playing in Hamburg.  In that time of playing several shows a night several nights a week they came to know each other well as musicians, explored and expanded the boundaries of convention and established the foundation of the most important pop cultural event in the 20th Century.  The results of their efforts established rock as a viable and recognized art form.

The same can be said of Eisner and his work on The Spirit.  The grind of putting out seven pages of comics a week is intense.  Doing this with so much focus helped push the innovations for which he is responsible.  It also helped the medium gain respect from the artistic community and is now having a belated effect helping comics gain respect from the public at large.

If The Spirit was all that Eisner had done it would have been enough to secure him as the grand innovator of comics but he did not stop there.  He is also credited as the father of the graphic novel with the publication of A Contract with God.  This work is drawn from his experiences growing up as a Jewish immigrant in New York City.  He went on to craft two more stories drawn from the same influences collectively known as The Contract with God Trilogy.  This work is filled with the same masterful sequential art storytelling techniques of The Spirit and influenced a generation of artists anxious to create work outside to the limitations of the superhero confines imposed by comics super powers DC and Marvel.

Eisner went on to create many more stories and also wrote several volumes on the creation of comics.  He also did work in the interim between the Spirit and Contract for the US Army creating field instruction manuals in comic form... work continued today by the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning.   The works mentioned thus far are the musts for Eisner if you are a comics history buff. Other works I have read that I can personally vouch for are Life in Pictures, The Plot, Last Day in Vietnam, Life on Another Planet, and New York the Big City.  

If you have the comics bug check him out, this is where it all started.  If you are a casual fan his work is worth reading because he is a damn good storyteller!