Will Eisner
Will Eisner, 1982
Birth name	William Erwin Eisner
Born	March 6, 1917(1917-03-06) Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Died	January 3, 2005 (aged 87) Lauderdale Lakes, Florida
Nationality	American
Area(s)	writer, penciller, inker
Notable works	The Spirit A Contract with God
Awards	full list

William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an acclaimed American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. Events 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar. 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. The City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Events 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Lauderdale Lakes is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. This article is about A Contract with God the graphic novel There is also an article on the form of covenant a Contract With God. Events 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar. 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Comics (via Latin from the Greek "" kōmikos, of or pertaining to "comedy" from kōmos "revel" A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of Activities to do with creating Art, practicing the Arts and/or demonstrating An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company enterprise, or Venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an instructional medium; for his leading role in establishing the graphic novel as a form of literature with his book A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories; and for his educational work about the medium as exemplified by his book Comics and Sequential Art. A This article is about A Contract with God the graphic novel There is also an article on the form of covenant a Contract With God. Comics & Sequential Art is a 1985 Book by Will Eisner that provides an academic overview of the principles of Sequential art, focusing

In 1988, the comics community paid tribute to Eisner by creating the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, more commonly known as "the Eisners", to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award is a prize given for creative achievement in American Comic books It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner Eisner enthusiastically participated in the awards ceremony, congratulating each recipient.

Biography

Early life and career

Eisner was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants — his father was a former painter, marginally successful entrepreneur, and one-time manufacturer in Manhattan's Seventh Avenue garment district. Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. The City of New York PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Immigration refers to the movement of people among countries While the movement of people has existed throughout human history at various levels modern immigration implies long-term Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York Seventh Avenue / Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Eisner attended DeWitt Clinton High School. DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the New York City borough of the Bronx. With influences that included the early 20th-century commercial artist J. C. Leyendecker,^[1] he drew for the school newspaper (The Clintonian), the literary magazine (The Magpie) and the yearbook, and did stage design, leading him to consider doing that kind of work for theater. Joseph Christian Leyendecker ( 23 March 1874 – 25 July 1951) was an American Illustrator. A student newspaper is a Newspaper run by Students of a University, High school, Middle school, or other school A yearbook, also known as an annual is a book to record highlight and commemorate the past year of a School or a book published annually Scenic design (also known as stage design, set design or production design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as Film or Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one Upon graduation, he studied under Canadian artist George Brandt Bridgman (1864-1943) for a year at the Art Students League of New York. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page George Brandt Bridgman (born in 1865 in Canada - died in 1943 was a painter, Writer, and Teacher in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing The Art Students League of New York is an Art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. Contacts made there led to a position as an advertising writer-cartoonist for the New York American newspaper. Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing Cartoons Traditionally much of this work was and still is humorous and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes The New York Journal American was a Newspaper published from 1937 to 1966 Eisner also drew $10-a-page illustrations for pulp magazines, including Western Sheriffs and Outlaws. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines

Wow, What a Magazine! #3 (Sept. 1936): Cover art by a teenaged Eisner.

In 1936, high-school friend and fellow cartoonist Bob Kane, of future Batman fame, suggested that the 19-year-old Eisner try selling cartoons to the new comic book Wow, What A Magazine!. Bob Kane (born Robert Kahn, October 24, 1915 &ndash November 3, 1998) was an American Comic book artist Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a fictional Comic book Superhero co-created "Comic books" at the time were tabloid-sized collections of comic strip reprints in color. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist In 1935, they began to include occasional new comic strip-like material. Editor Jerry Iger bought an Eisner adventure strip called "Captain Scott Dalton", an H. Rider Haggard-styled hero who traveled the world after rare artifacts. Samuel Maxwell "Jerry" Iger ( August 22, 1903 &ndash September 5, 1990) is an American Cartoonist. Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE ( 22 June 1856 &ndash 14 May 1925) was a prolific writer of Adventure novels set Eisner subsequently wrote and drew the pirate strip "The Flame" and the secret agent strip "Harry Karry" for Wow as well. Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering

Eisner & Iger

Main article: Eisner & Iger

Wow lasted four issues (cover-dated July-Sept. Eisner & Iger was a prominent Comic book " packager " that produced comics on demand for Publishers entering the new medium during its late-1930s & Nov. 1936). After it ended, Eisner and Iger worked together producing and selling original comics material, anticipating that the well of available reprints would soon run dry, though their accounts of how their partnership was founded differ. One of the first such comic-book "packagers", their partnership was an immediate success, and the two soon had a stable of comics creators supplying work to Fox Comics, Fiction House, Quality Comics (for whom Eisner co-created such characters as Doll Man and Blackhawk), and others. Fox Feature Syndicate (also known as Fox Comics and Fox Publications) was a Comic book Publisher from early in the period known to fans and historians Fiction House is an American Publisher of Pulp magazines and Comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s Quality Comics was an American comic book Publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call Doll Man is a fictional Superhero from the Golden Age of Comics, originally published by Quality Comics and currently part of the DC Comics Blackhawk, a long-running Comic book series was also a Film serial, a radio series and a Novel. Turning a profit of $1. 50 a page, Eisner claimed that he "got very rich before I was 22",^[2] later detailing that in Depression-era 1939 alone, he and Iger "had split $25,000 between us",^[3] a considerable amount for the time. Eisner's original work even crossed the Atlantic, with Eisner drawing the new cover of the Oct. 16, 1937 issue of Boardman Books' comic-strip reprint tabloid Okay Comics Weekly. Founded by Thomas Volney Boardman in the 1930s TV Boardman Ltd.

In 1939, Eisner created Wonder Man for Victor Fox, an accountant who previously worked at DC Comics and wanted to get into the comic book business. Fox Feature Syndicate (also known as Fox Comics and Fox Publications) was a Comic book Publisher from early in the period known to fans and historians DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company Following Fox's instructions to create a Superman-type character, and using the pen name Willis, Eisner wrote and drew the first issue of Wonder Comics. Superman is a fictional Comic book Superhero widely considered to be one of the most recognized of such characters and an American Cultural icon Eisner protested the derivative nature of the character and story and eventually testified in the court case, admitting that the character was a thinly veiled version of Superman.

This period of Eisner's career is depicted in his semi-autobiographical graphic novel, The Dreamer. An autobiography, from the Greek αὐτός autos "self" βίος bios "life" and γράφειν graphein "to write"

The Spirit

Main article: The Spirit

In "late '39, just before Christmas time," Eisner recalled in 1979,^[4] Quality Comics publisher Everett M. "Busy" Arnold "came to me and said that the Sunday newspapers were looking for a way of getting into this comic book boom". Everett M Arnold ( May 20 1899, Providence Rhode Island &ndash December 1974 also known as Busy Arnold, was an early Comic books In a 2004 interview,^[5] he elaborated on that meeting:

Eisner negotiated an agreement with the syndicate in which Arnold would copyright The Spirit, but, "Written down in the contract I had with 'Busy' Arnold — and this contract exists today as the basis for my copyright ownership — Arnold agreed that it was my property. They agreed that if we had a split-up in any way, the property would revert to me on that day that happened. My attorney went to 'Busy' Arnold and his family, and they all signed a release agreeing that they would not pursue the question of ownership"^[5] This would include the eventual backup features, "Mr. Mystic" and "Lady Luck". Mr Mystic is comics series featuring a magician crime-fighter created by Will Eisner and initially drawn by Bob Powell. Lady Luck is a fictional, American Comic-strip crime fighter and adventuress created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner (who wrote the first

A classic Eisner cover for The Spirit, Oct. 6, 1946. Note the innovative use of title design, the mix of color and black-and-white, and the shadowing and texturing that combine for exotic noir effect. Other Spirit stories could be whimsical, gritty, folklorish, sentimental, horrific, or mystical, yet always humanistic.

Selling his share of their firm to Iger, who would continue to package comics as the S. M. Iger Studio and as Phoenix Features through 1955, Eisner left to create The Spirit. "They gave me an adult audience," Eisner said in 1997, "and I wanted to write better things than superheroes. Comic books were a ghetto. I sold my part of the enterprise to my associate and then began The Spirit. They wanted an heroic character, a costumed character. They asked me if he'd have a costume. And I put a mask on him and said, 'Yes, he has a costume!'"^[6]

The Spirit, a seven-page, urban-crimefighter series, ran with such backup features as "Mr. Mystic" and "Lady Luck" in a 16-page Sunday supplement (colloquially called "The Spirit Section") eventually distributed in 20 newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million copies, premiering June 2, 1940, and continuing through 1952.

Eisner's rumpled, masked hero (with his headquarters under the tombstone of his supposedly deceased true identity, Denny Colt) and his gritty, detailed view of big-city life (based on Eisner's Jewish upbringing in New York City) both reflected and influenced the noir outlook of movies and fiction in the 1940s.

The strip is especially notable in other areas. First, it was the story of people, often the little people overlooked in the city's maelstrom. In some episodes of The Spirit, the nominal hero makes a brief, almost incidental appearance while the story focuses on a real-life drama played out in streets, dilapidated tenements, and smoke-filled back rooms. Second, along with violence and pathos, The Spirit lived on humor, both subtle and overt. Violence is the exertion of force so as to injure or abuse The word is used broadly to describe the destructive action of natural phenomena like Storms and Earthquakes Pathos (ˈpeɪːθɒs ( πάθος) is one of the three Modes of persuasion in Rhetoric (along with Ethos and Logos) Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke Laughter and provide Amusement He was machine-gunned, knocked silly, bruised, often amazed into near immobility and constantly confused by beautiful women. For other uses of the phrase see Machine Gun (disambiguation.

Set in the Manhattan manqué of Central City, the strip featured a big-hearted supporting cast that included the gruff Irish police commissioner, Dolan; his gorgeous blonde daughter, Ellen, whose waifish manner belied the occasional vicious uppercut or scathing remark she could throw; and Ebony White, an orphaned African American child who served as the Spirit's sidekick, surrogate son, and kid-appeal comic relief, whom the other characters treated with a casual, inherent respect not always seen in the pop culture of the time, but which also drew criticism for its racial caricature — one which, in the manner of that era's pop culture, extended to many others of the strip's people of color. Ebony White is a Fictional character from the 1940 Comics series The Spirit, created by Will Eisner. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work often to relieve tension Popular culture (or pop culture) is the Culture — patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance — Popular culture (or pop culture) is the Culture — patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance — One exception was Detective Grey, an African American police detective on the Central City force, who was rendered as ordinarily as the Caucasian characters.

While Eisner's later graphic novels were entirely his own work, he had a studio working under his supervision on The Spirit. In particular, letterer Abe Kanegson came up with the distinctive lettering style which Eisner himself would later imitate in his book-length works, and Kanegson would often rewrite Eisner's dialogue. A letterer is a member of a team of Comic book creators responsible for drawing the Comic book 's text ^[7]

Eisner's most trusted assistant on The Spirit, however, was Jules Feiffer, later a renowned cartoonist, playwright and screenwriter in his own right. Jules Ralph Feiffer (born) is an American syndicated comic-strip Cartoonist and Author. A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. Screenwriters or scenarists are Scriptwriters who write the Screenplays from which Films and Television programs are made Eisner later said of their working methods "You should hear me and Jules Feiffer going at it in a room. 'No, you designed the splash page for this one, then you wrote the ending — I came up with the idea for the story, and you did it up to this point, then I did the next page and this sequence here and. . . ' And I'll be swearing up and down that he wrote the ending on that one. We never agree". ^[7]

So trusted were Eisner's assistants that Eisner allowed them to "ghost" The Spirit from the time that he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942 until his return to civilian life in 1945. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The primary wartime artists were the uncredited Lou Fine and Jack Cole, with future Kid Colt, Outlaw artist Jack Keller drawing backgrounds. Louis Kenneth Fine ( November 26, 1914 - July 24, 1971) was an American Comic book Artist known for his work Jack Cole may refer to Jack Cole (choreographer (1911&ndash1974 Jack Cole (artist (1914&ndash1958 Jack Cole (businessman Kid Colt is the name of two Fictional characters in the Marvel Comics ' universe. Jack R Keller (born June 16, 1922, Reading, Pennsylvania, United States; died January 2, 2003, St Ghost writers included Manly Wade Wellman and William Woolfolk. Manly Wade Wellman ( May 21, 1903 - April 5, 1986) was an American writer The wartime ghosted stories have been reprinted in DC Comics' hardcover collections The Spirit Archives Vols. DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company 5 to 11 (2001-2003), spanning July 1942 - December 1944.

On Eisner's return from service and resumption of his role in the studio, he created the bulk of the Spirit stories on which his reputation was solidified. The post-war years also saw him attempt to launch the comic-strip/comic-book series Baseball, John Law, Kewpies, and Nubbin the Shoeshine Boy; none succeeded, but some material was recycled into The Spirit.

American Visuals Corporation

Premiere issue of the U.S. Army publication PS (June 1951), designed to be a "postscript" to related publications. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. Art by Will Eisner.

During his World War II military service, Eisner had introduced the use of comics for training personnel, in the publication Army Motors, for which he created the cautionary bumbling soldier Joe Dope, who illustrated various methods of preventive maintenance of various military equipment and weapons. Preventive maintenance (PM has the following meanings,The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating In 1948, while continuing to do The Spirit and seeing television and other post-war trends eat at newspapers' readership base, he formed the American Visuals Corporation in order to produce instructional materials for the government, related agencies, and businesses. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic One of his longest-running jobs was PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, a digest-sized magazine with comic-book elements that he started for the Army in 1951 and continued to work on until the 1970s with Klaus Nordling, Mike Ploog and other artists. PS The Preventive Maintenance Monthly is a monthly United States Army magazine published since 1952 to illustrate proper Preventive maintenance methods Klaus Nordling ( May 29 1910 - November 1986 was a Finnish American writer-artist for American comic books. Michael G Ploog (born 1942, Minnesota, United States) is an American Storyboard and Comic book Artist, and a visual

Other clients of his Connecticut-based company included RCA Records, the Baltimore Colts NFL football team, and New York Telephone. RCA Records (originally The Victor Talking Machine Company, then RCA Victor is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis Indiana. The National Football League ( NFL) is the largest professional American football league. American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, is a competitive Team sport known for mixing strategy with The New York Telephone Company (NYTel was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.

Graphic novels

In the late 1970s, Eisner turned his attention to longer storytelling forms. A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories (Baronet Books, Oct. This article is about A Contract with God the graphic novel There is also an article on the form of covenant a Contract With God. 1978) is one of the first American graphic novels, combining thematically linked short stories into a single square-bound volume. Eisner continued with a string of graphic novels that tell the history of New York's immigrant communities, particularly Jews, including The Building, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue and To the Heart of the Storm. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ He continued producing new books into his seventies and eighties, at an average rate of nearly one a year. Remarkably, each of these books was done twice — once as a rough version to show editor Dave Schreiner, then as a second, finished version incorporating suggested changes. ^[8]

Some of his last work was the retelling in sequential art of novels and myths, including Moby-Dick. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Moby-Dick is an 1851 Novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship In 2002, at the age of 85, he published Sundiata, based on the part-historical, part-mythical stories of a West African king, "The Lion of Mali". Sundiata is a given name or surname and may refer to Sundiata Keita (circa 1217-1255 founder of the Mali Empire and subject of the epic known as "Sundiata" West Africa or Western Africa is the Westernmost Region of the African Continent. Mali, officially the Republic of Mali (République du Mali is a Landlocked nation in Western Africa. Fagin the Jew is an account of the life of Dickens's character Fagin, in which Eisner tries to get past the stereotyped portrait of Fagin in Oliver Twist. Fagin the Jew is the title of a Graphic novel by Will Eisner (ISBN 0-385-51009-8 Oliver Twist (1838 is Charles Dickens' second Novel. The book was originally published in Bentley's Miscellany as a serial His last graphic novel, The Plot, an account of the making of the anti-semitic hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was completed shortly before his death and published in 2005. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ( Protocols of the wise men of Zion, Library of Congress 's Uniform Title; "Протоколы

Academic work

In his later years especially, Eisner was a frequent lecturer about the craft and uses of sequential art. He taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and wrote two books based on these lectures, Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, which are widely used by students of cartooning. The School of Visual Arts ( SVA) is an Art school in Manhattan New York City and is one of the nation's leading independent Colleges of art and Comics & Sequential Art is a 1985 Book by Will Eisner that provides an academic overview of the principles of Sequential art, focusing In 2002, Eisner participated in the Will Eisner Symposium of the 2002 University of Florida Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels. ^[9]

Death

Eisner died in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, of complications from a quadruple bypass surgery performed December 22, 2004. Lauderdale Lakes is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. ^[10][11] DC Comics held a memorial service in Manhattan's Lower East Side, a neighborhood Eisner often visited in his work, on April 7, 2005, at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on Norfolk Street. The Lower East Side is a Neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. ^[12]

Eisner was survived by his wife, Ann Weingarten Eisner, and their son, John. In the introduction to the 2001 reissue of A Contract with God, Eisner revealed that the inspiration for the title story grew out of the 1969 death of his leukemia-stricken teenaged daughter, Alice, next to whom he is buried. Leukemia or leukaemia (Greek leukos λευκός, "white" aima αίμα, "blood" is a Cancer of the Blood Until then, only Eisner's closest friends had even been aware he had a daughter.

Awards and honors

Eisner has been recognized for his work with the National Cartoonist Society Comic Book Award for 1967, 1968, 1969, 1987, and 1988, as well as its Story Comic Book Award in 1979, and its highest accolade, the Reuben Award, for 1988. The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional Cartoonists It presents the Reuben Awards. The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional Cartoonists It presents the Reuben Awards.

He was inducted into the Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1987. The Academy of Comic Book Arts is an American professional organization of the 1970s that was designed to be the Comic book industry analog of such groups as the The Jack Kirby Award for achievement in Comic books was presented from 1985-1987 by Amazing Heroes magazine and managed by Dave Olbrich The following year, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were established in his honor. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award is a prize given for creative achievement in American Comic books It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner

He received in 1975 the second Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, the most important European comics award. Every year the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is awarded during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to an author for his body of work and/or for his achievement The only other American author to receive this award was Robert Crumb in 1999. Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943) often credited simply as R

With Jack Kirby, Robert Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Gary Panter and Chris Ware, Eisner was among the artists honored in the exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at the Jewish Museum in New York City, New York, from Sept. Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg, August 28, 1917 &ndash February 6, 1994) was an American Comic book Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943) often credited simply as R Harvey Kurtzman ( October 3, 1924, Brooklyn New York – February 21, 1993) was a U Gary Panter (born December 1 1950 in Durant Oklahoma) is an illustrator painter designer and part-time musician Franklin Christenson Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American Comic book artist and Cartoonist, best-known The Jewish Museum of New York was first established in 1904 when the Jewish Theological Seminary received a gift of 26 Jewish ceremonial art objects from Judge The City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous 16, 2006 to Jan. 28, 2007.

Books

Trade paperback edition of A Contract with God; the concurrent 1,500-copy hardcover release did not use the term "graphic novel" on its cover. In Comics, a trade paperback ( TPB or simply trade) refers to a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format

• A Contract with God (1978, Baronet Books ISBN 0-89437-035-9; DC Comics' reissue ISBN 1-56389-674-5)
• Will Eisner Color Treasury (1981, Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-006-X)
• Spirit Color Album (1981, Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-002-7)
• Spirit Color Album, v2 (1983, Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-010-8)
• Spirit Color Album, v3 (1983, Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-011-6)
• Life on Another Planet (1983) (ISBN 0-87816-370-0)
• Comics and Sequential Art (1985) (ISBN 0-9614728-0-4)
• New York: The Big City (1986) (ISBN 0-87816-020-5 softcover and ISBN 0-87816-019-1 hardcover) (reprinted in 2000, ISBN 1-56389-682-6)
• The Dreamer (1986) (ISBN 1-56389-678-8)
• The Building (1987) (ISBN 0-87816-024-8)
• A Life Force (1988) (ISBN 0-87816-038-8)
• Art of Will Eisner (1989 2nd ed, Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-076-0)
• Outer Space Spirit (1989 Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-012-4)
• To the Heart of the Storm (1991) (ISBN 1-56389-679-6)
• The Will Eisner Reader (1991) (ISBN 0-87816-129-5)
• Invisible People (1993) (ISBN 0-87816-208-9)
• Dropsie Avenue (1995) (ISBN 0-87816-348-4)
• Will Eisner Sketchbook (1995, Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-399-9 softcover and ISBN 0-87816-400-6 hardcover)
• Christmas Spirit (1995 Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-309-3)
• Spirit Casebook (1990 Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-094-9)
• Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (1996) (ISBN 0-9614728-3-9)
• The Princess and the Frog (1996) (ISBN 1-56163-244-9)
• All About P'Gell: Spirit Casebook II (1998 Kitchen Sink) (ISBN 0-87816-492-8)
• A Family Matter (1998) (ISBN 0-87816-621-1)
• Last Day in Vietnam (2000) (ISBN 1-56971-500-9)
• The Last Knight (2000) (ISBN 1-56163-251-1)
• Minor Miracles (2000) (ISBN 1-56389-751-2)
• The Spirit Archives: [No Eisner work in vols. This article is about A Contract with God the graphic novel There is also an article on the form of covenant a Contract With God. Kitchen Sink Press was a Comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1969. 5–11]
  • Volume 1 (2000, Fall 1940) (ISBN 1-56389-673-7)
  • Volume 2 (2000, Spring 1941) (ISBN 1-56389-675-3)
  • Volume 3 (2001, Fall 1941) (ISBN 1-56389-676-1)
  • Volume 4 (2001, Spring 1942) (ISBN 1-56389-714-8)
  • Volume 12 (2003, Spring 1946) (ISBN 1-4012-0006-0)
  • Volume 13 (2004, Fall 1946) (ISBN 1-4012-0149-0)
  • Volume 14 (2004, Spring 1947) (ISBN 1-4012-0158-X)
  • Volume 15 (2005, Fall 1947) (ISBN 1-4012-0162-8)
  • Volume 16 (2005, Spring 1948) (ISBN 1-4012-0406-6)
  • Volume 17 (2006, Fall 1948) (ISBN 1-4012-0417-1)
  • Volume 18 (2006, Spring 1949) (ISBN 1-4012-0769-3)
  • Volume 19 (2006, Fall 1949) (ISBN 1-4012-0775-8)
  • Volume 20 (2006, Spring 1950) (ISBN 1-4012-0781-2)
• Will Eisner's Shop Talk (2001, Dark Horse Comics) (ISBN 1-56971-536-X)
• Fagin the Jew (2003) (ISBN 0-385-51009-8)
• Hawks of the Seas (2003, Dark Horse Comics) (ISBN 1-56971-427-4)
• The Name of the Game (2003) (ISBN 1-56389-869-1)
• Will Eisner's John Law: Dead Man Walking (2004, IDW) (Softcover ISBN 1-932382-27-5, Hardcover ISBN 1-932382-83-6)
• The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (2005, WW Norton) (ISBN 0-393-06045-4)
• The Contract With God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue (2005, WW Norton) (ISBN 0-393-06105-1) (anthology collecting A Contract With God, A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue)
• New York: Life In the Big City (2006, WW Norton) (ISBN 0-393-06106-X) (anthology collecting New York: the Big City, The Building, City People Notebook and Invisible People)

Notes

References

• Official site
• The New York Times (Jan. 5, 2005): "Will Eisner, a Pioneer of Comic Books, Dies at 87", by Sarah Boxer
• The Guardian (Jan. 5, 2005): "Obituary: Will Eisner", by Paul Gravett
• "Will Eisner's The Spirit: Setting Up Shop", by Tom Heintjes
• The Comics Journal #267: Excerpt, "Will Eisner: Having Something to Say" (interview)
• Steranko, Jim, The Steranko History of Comics 2 (Supergraphics, 1972)
• The New York Times Syndicate obituary, by Sarah Boxer
• Feiffer, Jules, The Great Comic-Book Heroes, ISBN 1-56097-501-6
• Jones, Gerard, Men Of Tomorrow ISBN 0-434-01402-8
• Andelman, Bob, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life ISBN 1-59582-011-6
• The Grand Comics Database
• The Miami Herald (no date): "The Amazing Adventures of Will Eisner" (empty link)
• Cubic Zirconia Reader: Interview with Jerry Iger (1985 first-person article by Iger, disputing Eisner version of Eisner & Iger origin)

External links

• Wildwood Cemetery: The Spirit Database
• The Washington Post, June 3, 2004: Interview
• The Onion, Sept. 27, 2000: Interview
• The Guardian (UK newspaper) obituary, Jan. 8, 2005
• The News Telegraph (UK newspaper) obituary, Jan. 6, 2005
• P*S (official site)
• P*S Digital Collection at Virginia Commonwealth University
• E-Mago: "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: The Truth Story", by Eli Eshed, translated by Gila Brand (background on Eisner graphic novel)