Most Popular Books by Will Eisner

An extraordinary autobiography story from a legend in American comics.

The revolutionary work of graphic storytelling that inspired a new art form. Will Eisner was present at the dawn of comics. In the 1940s, he pushed the boundaries of the medium with his acclaimed weekly comic strip The Spirit, and with the publication of A Contract with God in 1978, he created a new medium altogether: the graphic novel. It was unlike anything seen before, heralding an era when serious cartoonists were liberated from the limiting confines of the comic strip. Eisner’s work was a shining example of what comics could be: as inventive, moving, and complex as any literary art form. Eisner considered himself “a graphic witness reporting on life, death, heartbreak, and the never-ending struggle to prevail.” A Contract with God begins with a gripping tale that mirrors the artist’s real-life tragedy, the death of his daughter. Frimme Hersh, a devout Jew, questions his relationship with God after the loss of his own beloved child. Hersh’s crisis is intertwined with the lives of the other unforgettable denizens of Eisner’s iconic Dropsie Avenue, a fictionalized version of the quintessential New York City street where he came of age at the height of the Depression. This centennial edition showcases Eisner’s singular visual style in new high-resolution scans of his original art, complete with an introduction by Scott McCloud and an illuminating history of Eisner’s seminal work. Now readers can experience the legendary book that launched a unique art form and reaffirmed Will Eisner as one of the great pioneers of American graphic storytelling.

The author discusses his ideas and theories and provides instructions on the art of graphic storytelling.

The groundbreaking history of the graphic novel, fully updated to include all of the latest must-reads, the milestones and the future of this exciting medium. The author of 101 Best Graphic Novels now tells the whole history of the graphic novel revolution, from the first modern urban autobiographical graphic novel, Will Eisner''s A Contract With God, to the hip indie comics of the Hernandez Bros'' Love and Rockets, the dark mysteries of Neil Gaiman''s Sandman and the postmodern superheroics of Frank Miller''s Batman: The Dark Knight.

“Eisner was not only ahead of his times; the present times are still catching up to him.”—John Updike Called “a masterpiece” by R. Crumb, A Life Force chronicles not only the Great Depression but also the rise of Nazism and the spread of socialist politics through the depiction of the protagonist, Jacob Shtarkah, whose existential search reflected Eisner’s own lifelong struggle.

One of the 20th c.''s great American artists, Will Eisner pioneered the field of comic arts. In this book her refines the art of graphic storytelling into clear, concise principles that every cartoonist, comic artist, writer, and filmmaker needs to know.

Celebrating the Big Apple, a chronicle of a city building and the people who inhabited it serves as a testament to the greatest human qualities.

A series of vignettes, in graphic novel format, built around elements that make up New York City--its buildings, people, trash and treasures.

A graphic novel by Will Eisner that recounts the story of three families from different generations that struggle to find power, wealth, and happiness.

A work more disturbing than fiction from "the father of graphic novels" (New York Times). "The ultimate illustration of how absurdly comical and cancerous The Protocols has been to mankind."—Thane Rosenbaum, Los Angeles Times Book Review The Plot, which examines the astonishing conspiracy and the fabrication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has become a worldwide phenomenon since its hardcover publication, taught in classrooms around the globe. Purported to be the actual blueprints by Jewish leaders to take over the world, the Protocols, first published in 1902, have become gospel truth to international millions. Presenting a pageant of historical figures from nineteenth-century Russia to today''s ideologues, including Tsar Nicholas II, Henry Ford, and Adolf Hitler, Will Eisner unravels and dispels one of the most devastating hoaxes of the twentieth century.

A black-and-white graphic novel chronicle of the rise, decline, and rebirth of a neighborhood in the South Bronx over the course of more than one hundred years.

Character sketches and timeless snapshots of the eccentric denizens of an American city reflect Eisner''s comic genius and powers of observation.

This powerful graphic novel confirms Will Eisner as a master of the genre. In this graphic novel, Will Eisner’s pen cuts an expansive swath through all aspects of the human condition. Life on Another Planet places American life within a broader perspective, chronicling the lives of scientists, politicians, spies, and nobodies as they come to terms with the discovery of extraterrestrial life: in reaching out to other galaxies, Eisner’s characters ultimately find themselves focusing within.

Culture-curious readers and life-long fans of comics are invited to read along as two of the medium''s greatest contributors - legendary innovator and godfather of sequential art Will Eisner, and the modern master of cinematic comics storytelling, Frank Miller, discuss the ins-and-outs of this compelling and often controversial art form. Eisner/Miller is widely illustrated and features rare, behind-the-scenes photos of Eisner, Miller, and other notable creators.

Publisher Description

A graphic novel by Will Eisner about a young man who dreams of creating comic books in the 1930s.

A graphic novel that traces the events in the life of one family over the course of twenty-four hours, bringing to light secrets of abuse, greed, and other dark memories.

Celebrating the Big Apple, a chronicle of a city building and the people who inhabited it serves as a testament to the greatest human qualities.

A commonplace clerk turns private eye. A lifelong failure attempts a marathon. An octogenarian hitman tries to settle an old score. The seven exceptional short works gathered here range from the grim to the hilarious, narrating the lives of the good, the bad, and the eccentric. Featuring "A Sunset in Sunshine City," Eisner''s very personal ode to memory and nostalgia inspired by his transition to retirement in Florida, this book displays the artist''s mastery of the short story form, as well as his acute understanding of family and friendship, betrayal and redemption.

Nobody suspected that Lady Luck was actually Brenda Banks, a "debutante crime buster bored with social life" who decided to become a "modern lady Robin Hood." Her costume was not that of a traditional comic book vigilante; it looked like something that a Will Eisner femme fatale would wear. It was an emerald green gown, a green hat, and a green silk veil that hung over her face to disguise her identity. She solved blackmail cases, spy cases, kidnappings, and any other cases that came her way. As Brenda Banks, she was in love with Police Chief Hardy Moore; ironically, Moore''s job was to bring in Lady Luck. Lady Luck is a fictional, American comic-strip and comic book crime fighter and adventuress created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner with artist Chuck Mazoujian (1917-2011). Through 1946, she starred in a namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert colloquially called "The Spirit Section". The feature, which ran through November 3, 1946, with one months-long interruption, was reprinted in comic books published by Quality Comics. A revamped version of the character debuted in 2013 in DC Comics''s Phantom Stranger comic. Lady Luck was ranked 84th in Comics Buyer''s Guide''s "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list. Created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner (who wrote the first two Lady Luck stories under the pseudonym "Ford Davis") with artist Chuck Mazoujian, Lady Luck appeared in her namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert colloquially called "The Spirit Section". This 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book, sold as part of eventually 20 Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million, starred Eisner''s masked detective the Spirit and also initially included the feature Mr. Mystic, plus filler material. Writer Dick French took over scripting after these first two episodes. Later, writer-artist Nicholas Viscardi (later known as Nick Cardy) took over the feature from the May 18, 1941 strip through Feb. 22, 1942, introducing Lady Luck''s chauffeur and assistant, Peecolo.[5] Though his Lady Luck stories were credited under the house pseudonym Ford Davis, Viscardi would subtly work in the initials "NV" somewhere into each tale. Writer-artist Klaus Nordling followed, from the March 1, 1942 to March 3, 1946 strip, when "Lady Luck" was temporarily canceled. After briefly being replaced by the humor feature "Wendy the Waitress" by Robert Jenny, "Lady Luck" returned from May 5 to November 3, 1946, under cartoonist Fred Schwab. "Lady Luck" stories were reprinted in the Quality Comics comic book Smash Comics #42-85 (April 1943 - Oct. 1949), whereupon the series changed its title to Lady Luck for five more issues. Nordling providing new seven- to 11-page stories in Lady Luck #86-90 (Dec. 1949 - Aug. 1950), with Gill Fox drawing the covers. Occasional backup features were "Lassie" by writer-artist Bernard Dibble and the humor features "The Count", by Nordling, and "Sir Roger", by Dibble or, variously, Bart Tumey. Lady Luck was revived alongside Eisner characters John Law, Nubbin, and Mr. Mystic in IDW Publishing''s Will Eisner''s John Law: Dead Man Walking, a 2004 collection of new stories by writer-artist Gary Chaloner.. This Archive contains Lady Luck adventures from: Smash Comics #42-85 Lady Luck #86-90 Approx 308 pages.

The legacy that Will Eisner (1917–2005) had on sequential art cannot be overstated—his innovative storytelling, layouts, and art on his newspaper series The Spirit inspired a generation of cartoonists, and his turn toward an acclaimed run of graphic novels beginning in 1978 with A Contract with God helped pioneer the form. This catalogue includes over 175 selected illustrations, reproduced from the original artwork, from the landmark Will Eisner Centennial Celebration exhibitions taking place in 2017 at Le Musée de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême and the Society of Illustrators in New York. Dual English and French text with essays by Denis Kitchen, Paul Gravett, and John Lind. Celebrating the centennial of a master storyteller! Over 175 Eisner illustrations, reproduced from the originals! The official catalogue to exhibitions at Le Musée de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême and The Society of Illustrators in New York!

One of four extraordinary graphic novels celebrating the Big Apple, from the master of American comics art.

Collects four graphically illustrated stories from Will Eisner that explore strange occurrences in daily life, including "The Miracle of Dignity," "Street Magic," "A New Kid on the Block," and "A Special Wedding Ring.

Chronicles the lives of ordinary people surviving the Great Depression in the Bronx, portraying the economic collapse, leftist politics, and rise in Nazism.

Comics luminary Will Eisner takes on literary giant Charles Dickens, in this fascinating retelling of the life of Oliver Twist''s Fagin! Imagining Fagin''s impoverished childhood in the slums of London and his initiation into the criminal underworld, Eisner''s story counters the anti-Semitism of Victorian literature as his gorgeous brushwork creates an evocative portrait of the era. * Now with Eisner''s previously unused full-color cover art! * Foreword by Brian Michael Bendis! * Introduction by Dickens scholar Jeet Heer!

Released to coincide with Will Eisner Week—the annual celebration of Eisner’s life and work—Last Day in Vietnam is now available in a handsome new hardcover edition! Last Day in Vietnam recounts the artist’s own experiences with soldiers engaged not only in the daily hostilities of war but also in larger, more personal combat. Some of the stories in this novel are comical, some heartrending, some frightening, yet all display the incredible insight into humanity characteristic of Eisner’s entire oeuvre. Printed with special sepia ink and in hardcover for the first time, this new edition gives this modern classic the literary presentation it deserves!

Published quietly in 1978, Will Eisner''s revolutionary literary work A Contract With God marked the invention of the modern graphic novel, took on a life of its own, and inspired a generation of "sequential artists." Will Eisner (1917–2005) saw himself as "a graphic witness reporting on life, death, heartbreak, and the never-ending struggle to prevail." The publication of A Contract With God when Eisner was sixty-one proved to be a watershed moment both for him and for comic literature. It marked the birth of the modern graphic novel and the beginning of an era when serious cartoonists could be liberated from their stultifying comic-book format. More than a quarter-century after the initial publication of A Contract With God, and in the last few months of his life, Eisner chose to combine the three fictional works he had set on Dropsie Avenue, the mythical street of his youth in Depression-era New York City. As the dramas unfold in A Contract With God, the first book in this new trilogy, it is at 55 Dropsie Avenue where Frimme Hersh, the pious Jew, first loses his beloved daughter, then breaks his contract with his maker, and ends up as a slumlord; it is on Dropsie Avenue where a street singer, befriended by an aging diva, is so beholden to the bottle that he fails to grasp his chance for stardom; and it is there that a scheming little girl named Rosie poisons a depraved super’s dog before doing in the super as well. In the second book, A Life Force, declared by R. Crumb to be "a masterpiece," Eisner re-creates himself in his protagonist, Jacob Shtarkah, whose existential search reflected Eisner’s own lifelong struggle. Chronicling not only the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression but also the rise of Nazism and the spread of left-wing politics, Eisner combined the miniaturist sensibility of Henry Roth with the grand social themes of novelists such as Dos Passos and Steinbeck. Finally, in Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood, Eisner graphically traces the social trajectory of this mythic avenue over four centuries, creating a sweeping panorama of the city and its waves of new residents—the Dutch, English, Irish, Jews, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans—whose faces changed yet whose lives presented an unending "story of life, death, and resurrection." The Contract With God Trilogy is a mesmerizing, fictional chronicle of a universal American experience and Eisner’'' most poignant and enduring literary legacy.

For most of the 20th century, the work of cartoonist and graphic novelist Will Eisner defined the art of comic book storytelling in the U.S. and throughout the world. Still prolific today at the age of 86, Eisner is the embodiment of "living legend" in the world of comic books, continuing to produce some of the most innovative and influential work in the medium. This all-new hardcover collection of Eisner''s gorgeous pencil sketches and groundbreaking designs is a must-have for pop-culture enthusiasts and fans of comic books. Culled from many decades'' worth of work, the Sketchbook presents the world as seen through Will Eisner''s eyes, with introductory notes for each of the eleven different sections. From his observations of his friends and loved ones hustling through their busy daily lives to witnessing those quiet moments when no one is supposed to be watching, Eisner''s keen perception and steadfast hand capture the essence of what it means to be alive.

In this work, Eisner reveals his techniques and theories about movement, body mechanics, facial expressions, and posture: the key components and, generally, the most challenging aspects of effective graphic storytelling.

Presents a collection of twenty-two Spirit stories from 1940-1950, featuring the adventures of Eisner''s famous crime fighter.

The final volume of Will Eisner’s celebrated instructional trilogy explores the critical principle of body grammar in comics storytelling. Designed and outlined by Will Eisner before his death in 2005, this posthumous masterwork, the third and final book in the Will Eisner Instructional Series, finally reveals the secrets of Eisner’s own techniques and theories of movement, body mechanics, facial expressions, and posture: the key components of graphic storytelling. From his earliest comics, including the celebrated Spirit, to his pioneering graphic novels, Eisner understood that the proper use of anatomy is crucial to effective storytelling. His control over the mechanical and intuitive skills necessary for its application set him apart among comics artists, and his principles of body grammar have proven invaluable to legions of students in overcoming what is perhaps the most challenging aspect of creating comics. Buttressed by dozens of illustrations, which display Eisner’s mastery of expression, both subtle and overt, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative will benefit comics fans, students, and teachers and is destined to become the essential primer on the craft.

The latest volume in the popular Archive series collecting the completeappearances of Will Eisner''s The Spirit reprints the newspaper Spirit Sectionsfrom January 4 to June 28, 1942

Examines the fundamentals of storytelling in comic book style and offers advice on story construction and visual narratives.

With an unparalleled eye for stories and expressive illustration, Will Eisner, the master and pioneer of American comics art, presents graphic fiction''s greatest celebration of the Big Apple. No illustrator evoked the melancholy duskiness of New York City as expressively as Eisner, who knew the city from the bottom up. This new hardcover presents a quartet of graphic works ("New York, The Building, City People Notebook," and "Invisible People") and features what Neil Gaiman describes as "tales as brutal, as uncaring as the city itself." From ancient buildings "barnacled with laughter and stained with tears" to the subways, "humorless iron reptiles, clacking stupidly on a webbing of graceful steel rails," "Will Eisner''s New York" includes cameo appearances by the author himself; several new illustrations sketched by Eisner, posthumously inked by Peter Poplaski; and three previously unpublished "out-takes" a treasure for any Eisner fan, and sure to become a collectible. Introduction by Neil Gaiman.