RIP Will Eisner
Jan. 4th, 2005 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurI just found out from Peter David's blog that Will Eisner passed away last night. That deserves a few words.
Those of you who don't read comics probably haven't heard of Will Eisner, but his influence was immense, and echoes all over modern popular culture.
Eisner revolutionized the field twice. The first time started in the 1940's, when he created the ongoing called The Spirit. On the surface, this was nothing terribly unusual -- a weekly 8-page strip about a masked crimefighter. And to be fair, the first few years were unremarkable. But after WWII, Eisner began to use it as a springboard for a remarkable variety of little meditations about life. This wasn't a big superhero yarn: it was about finding the extraordinary stories in ordinary lives. Almost every week he would create new characters to weave in, and in those 8 pages he would define that character more richly than most writers can manage in years of a monthly comic (or in a 500-page novel). In those weekly strips, he proved that really *good* writing was compatible with the illustrated form, even when under the deadline doom. The Spirit ran for a decade or two; DC is currently collecting the complete run in hardcover form, and it is the only comic for which I'm willing to regularly spend hardcover prices.
The second revolution came, oh, about 25 years ago, when Eisner wrote A Contract With God. This was a collection of interwoven short stories about life in the Jewish tenements of his youth, and is often credited with establishing the modern concept of the graphic novel. After being off the radar of most fans for a number of years, this firmly cemented his central position, as he began to come out with books on a regular basis, often drawing from this same autobiographical well. Even in his 80's, his distinctive writing and art styles remained steady and undimmed, more consistent than most people half his age. With the benefit of perspective, his later work brims with a complex emotional honesty that is rare in any literature, moreso in comics.
Greatness is something you can really only judge historically, and he is the only comic book writer who I can unreservedly call "great" -- his body of work, spanning over 60 years, establishes it without question. There are a few modern writers who may be judged similarly when perspective allows, but Eisner was the first, and I doubt anyone will ever truly better him. The comic book equivalent of the Oscars are the Eisners, and it's for good reason: he is a worthy standard to compare everything else against.
He'll be missed, terribly. Greatness aside, he is one of my three or four favorite writers of all time, fun to read even at his most heartbreaking. His work may never have had quite the poetry of Gaiman or the structural brilliance of Moore, but his understanding of the human condition resonated better than anyone else has ever managed...
Those of you who don't read comics probably haven't heard of Will Eisner, but his influence was immense, and echoes all over modern popular culture.
Eisner revolutionized the field twice. The first time started in the 1940's, when he created the ongoing called The Spirit. On the surface, this was nothing terribly unusual -- a weekly 8-page strip about a masked crimefighter. And to be fair, the first few years were unremarkable. But after WWII, Eisner began to use it as a springboard for a remarkable variety of little meditations about life. This wasn't a big superhero yarn: it was about finding the extraordinary stories in ordinary lives. Almost every week he would create new characters to weave in, and in those 8 pages he would define that character more richly than most writers can manage in years of a monthly comic (or in a 500-page novel). In those weekly strips, he proved that really *good* writing was compatible with the illustrated form, even when under the deadline doom. The Spirit ran for a decade or two; DC is currently collecting the complete run in hardcover form, and it is the only comic for which I'm willing to regularly spend hardcover prices.
The second revolution came, oh, about 25 years ago, when Eisner wrote A Contract With God. This was a collection of interwoven short stories about life in the Jewish tenements of his youth, and is often credited with establishing the modern concept of the graphic novel. After being off the radar of most fans for a number of years, this firmly cemented his central position, as he began to come out with books on a regular basis, often drawing from this same autobiographical well. Even in his 80's, his distinctive writing and art styles remained steady and undimmed, more consistent than most people half his age. With the benefit of perspective, his later work brims with a complex emotional honesty that is rare in any literature, moreso in comics.
Greatness is something you can really only judge historically, and he is the only comic book writer who I can unreservedly call "great" -- his body of work, spanning over 60 years, establishes it without question. There are a few modern writers who may be judged similarly when perspective allows, but Eisner was the first, and I doubt anyone will ever truly better him. The comic book equivalent of the Oscars are the Eisners, and it's for good reason: he is a worthy standard to compare everything else against.
He'll be missed, terribly. Greatness aside, he is one of my three or four favorite writers of all time, fun to read even at his most heartbreaking. His work may never have had quite the poetry of Gaiman or the structural brilliance of Moore, but his understanding of the human condition resonated better than anyone else has ever managed...
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Date: 2005-01-04 08:11 pm (UTC)The business side of The Spirit was just as important as the creative side. He invented a new method of selling comic books -- a weekly newspaper insert (admittedly it didn't catch on with anyone else, but it was revolutionary). Also, he was one of the very *very* few creators of the period who held on to the IP for his work, thus allowing him to continue profiting on reprints down to the present day. Arguably, he laid the groundwork for Dave Sim, who laid the groundwork for the modern idea of keeping (good) comics in print perpetually.
Between the end of The Spirit and the "graphic novel period", Eisner was responsible for another revolution in comics, albeit one that wasn't visible to most comic book fans. During those years, he helped bring the concept of comic books as educational materials into mainstream culture, primarily for the U.S. Army, but with other projects as well. Without that foundation, the Cartoon History of The Universe, and many other fine projects might never have seen the light of day.
He is sorely missed.