WILL EISNER A COMICS BIOGRAPHY

I really enjoyed this -- I did know Eisner, I co-published The Spirit Coloring Book in the early 1970s (with Phil Seuling) and later on I suggested the theme of his how-to book on storytelling/narrative. I’ve always collected  all his work: the original Spirit Sunday Sections, PS Magazine, all his graphic novels! This book focuses on his youth and early days in comics but in the end nicely covers his entire career AND personal life very well. -Bud Explore the life of Will Eisner, one of the most influential artists in the history of comics, through the most appropriate medium: a graphic novel. From his immigrant roots and childhood in New York, starting his own comics studio and business, and the creation and publication of his beloved comic, The Spirit, through convincing a general trade publisher to publish the groundbreaking A Contract with God, you’ll follow along in Eisner’ s life journey. The story of one of comics' most important innovators. With the most prestigious comics awards named after him, Will Eisner is forever celebrated not only in what he created but his unerring belief in comics’ capacity to be better, to reach higher, to be a full art form in its own right. This is the life of the man of vision who helped to put comics on the map. Although the art style is a bit simple, it gets the story across perfectly well and is a real page-turner, even knowing much of it as I do. It covers every detail of his earliest days: working for a newspaper in a boring illustration job; meeting Jerry Iger by chance and ending up partners; co-creating much of the line-up in the first days of Fiction House (Sheena, Hawk of the Seas) and then again with Quality (Blackhawk, Espionage X, Uncle Sam and The Spirit, now in partnership with Busy Arnold, the owner of Quality). Working on the Spirit while in the service in WWII, with the help of Lou Fine and Jack Cole…hiring Wally Wood for the last months  of the Sunday Sections, when the Spirit goes to the moon. Going to his first comic book convention in the 60s, finding out people loved The Spirit, first meeting underground comics publisher Denis Kitchen. Denis brought back The Spirit in a big way, had Eisner doing new work, which all lead to his second career doing graphic novels. I like how the author puts in examples of the actual comic book covers and characters that he was working on—golden age rarities for example, in full color. It's fun to see how amazingly creative he was and also how he got the best work out of the many artists he worked with. First with the Eisner/Iger shop, later putting together the Spirit Sunday Section, including backup stories with Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic, every single week from 1940 to 1952! He was virtually doing a high quality, 16-page comic book every single week (in 1946 it dropped to 8 pages) all through the war and long afterward, for national syndication in major newspapers across the country. More people read The Spirit every week than were reading Superman!!  Later on in the 1980s, Eisner initially published his how-to books himself, with his brother handling the shipping and business end. I handled all of these—and then I put him in touch with Northlight Books, who at the time was the biggest name in instructional/how to draw books across the art spectrum. They hooked up, published new editions and introduced all his books into regular book stores. We talked about the need for a book discussing comic book storytelling, panel by panel, page by page. He (and Carl Barks) were masters of this, it seemed to come naturally to both creators—aided by study of cinema/film techniques. Will took the suggestion and wrote a book purely about comic book narration and storytelling techniques. Will was a super nice guy and smart, a rare combination of brilliant creator and also a very, very good businessman who kept ownership of his work and wrote for a mature readership. He believed from their earliest days that comic books were their own art form and they could tell a story just as well as a film or a prose novel. History has proven him right. -Bud "An epic origin story of one of the giants in the world of comics!"  - Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid "It was my good fortune to call Will Eisner my friend." - Jeff Smith, Bone