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The rest is Commentary...
Every month, Commentary explores a key Jewish thinker or writer, with a brief biography, an introduction to their major works, and suggestions for further reading. Enjoy!
Author of the Month for July
| Will
Eisner was born March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY. The son of Jewish immigrants, his early life and experiences growing up in New York tenements would become the inspiration for much of his graphic novel work. Eisner's first comic work appeared 1936 in WOW What a Magazine! When the magazine folded after only four issues, Eisner formed a partnership with friend Jerry Iger, and the Eisner-Iger studio was born. The studio was a veritable comics factory, churning out strips in a variety of genres in the hopes of placing them with American newspapers. Towards this end, |
Will Eisner |
| Eisner-Iger recruited a number of young artists who would go on to become comics' legends in their own right: Bob Kane, Lou Fine, and Jack Kirby.
The partnership ended in 1939 when Eisner joined the Quality Comics Group to produce a syndicated 16-page newspaper supplement. It was for this supplement that he created his most famous character, The Spirit.
This story of a masked detective who protects Central City from the criminal element with no more than fists, cunning, and an unbelievable tolerance for punishment quickly became the most popular feature of the section. The supplement was renamed The Spirit Section, and became Eisner's proving ground for some of the most innovative work in the genre. Even in these early stories, the presence of cinematic camera angles, atmospheric lighting effects and creative storytelling techniques distinguished The Spirit. Never content to stay within the narrow confines of the detective genre, Eisner used the Spirit to explore a wide variety of stories, from simple tales of ordinary people to wild flights of fancy verging on science fiction. Eisner's work on the Spirit was interrupted in 1942 when he was drafted into the Army for service in World War II. The Army took advantage of his skills as a cartoonist, and during the war he was engaged in producing posters, illustrations and strips for the education and entertainment of the troops. Seeking for a more mature expression of the comics' form, Eisner spent two years creating four short stories of "sequential art" that became A Contract With God, first published in 1978. In this book, with its 1930s Bronx tenements and slice of life moral tales, Eisner returned to his roots and discovered new potential for the comics form the graphic novel. In addition to producing a continuing legacy of great work, Eisner taught cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and is the author of two definitive works examining the creative process, Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling. Each year he presides over the Eisner Awards, established in 1988, one of prestigious two comics industry awards, presented each year at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Eisner has been cited as an inspiration by comics' creators from all corners of the genre, and his influence is seen as widely. He passed away earlier this year. |
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Essential Reading
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The Plot:
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Will Eisner, the great American master of comics, has undertaken what he regards as his most powerful work yet. The Plot examines the outrageous fabrication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports to be the actual blueprint by Jewish leaders to take over the world. Hatched as an anti-Semitic plot by the tsar's secret police to deflect wide-spread criticism of the government, the Protocols, first published in 1905, succeeded beyond the propagandistic ambitions of its originators; the lie became an internationally accepted truth. Presenting a pageant of historical figures including Tsar Nicholas II, Henry Ford, and Adolf Hitler, Eisner exposes the twisted history of the Protocols from nineteenth-century Russia to modern-day Klan members to Islamic fundamentalists. The Plot unravels one of the most devastating hoaxes of the twentieth century.
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This project was first conceived as an introduction to a pictorial adaptation of "Oliver Twist, but as he learned more about the history of Dickens-era Jewish life in London, Eisner uncovered intriguing material that led him to create this new work. In the course of his research, Eisner came to believe that Dickens had not intended to defame Jews in his famous depiction. By referring to Fagin as "the Jew" throughout the book, however, he had perpetuated the common prejudice; his fictional creation imbedded itself in the public's imagination as the classic profile of a Jew. In his award-winning style, Eisner recasts the notorious villain as a complex and troubled antihero and gives him the opportunity to tell his tale in his own words. Depicting Fagin's choices and actions within a historical context, Eisner captures the details of life in London's Ashkenazi community and brilliantly re-creates the social milieu of Dickensian England.Eisner's fresh, compelling look atprejudice, poverty, and anti-Semitism lends an extraordinary richness to his artwork, ever evocative and complex.
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Minor Miracles |
A collection of short stories
that celebrate the miraculous in the everyday. In "The Miracle of Dignity", a rags-to-riches-to-rags tale, Uncle Amos is a fast-talking beggar (some say con man) who learns that dignity comes at a price above worldly wealth. "Street Magic" is a neighborhood parable about surviving the pitfalls of being a newly arrived immigrant in New York that proves brute strength and violence is no match for good sleight-of-hand. In "The New Kid on the Block", a strange and primitive boy turns up on Dropsie Avenue, bringing with him a mysterious wave of good luck and harmony. But when he becomes a victim of the social forces of the neighborhood, everyone's fortunes are affected. Finally, "Special Wedding Ring" is the heartbreaking tale of Reba and Marvin -- two young people forced to the fringes of life by intolerance for their physical disabilities. After being forced into an arranged marriage by their meddlesome mothers. the pair seems to find happiness...until fate intervenes.
A Contract with God With a graphic narrative that 'was closer to the writing of Bernard Malamud or Isaac Bashevis Singer than any comic art which had preceded it'
(The Economist), A Contract with God, originally published in 1978, was the first graphic novel: the prototype for such seminal works as Maus and Persepolis. Dealing with stories and memories from his childhood in a Bronx tenement, he explores the brutality, fragility, and tenderness possible among people living in close quarters close to the poverty line.
The Princess and the Frog A Retelling in Eisner's
inimitable style of the Brothers Grimm Tale.There once lived a fair and popular prince who was transformed by the
spiteful wizard into a frog. The only way he could become his handsome self again was to be kissed by a princess out of true love, which the frog-prince actually succeeds, albeit with great difficulty, in pulling off! Previous
Authors of the Month
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Abraham Joshua Heschel
