Kirjahaku

A collection of brilliant short-story gems, including "A Sunset in Sunshine City"—an ode to memory and nostalgia inspired by Eisner's transition to life in Florida after his "retirement" in 1985.

Unearthed as part of a massive collection of pre-WWII newspaper printing plates, the mid-1930s comic strips UNCLE OTTO and HARRY KARRY represent the earliest known cartooning of the great comics and sequential art pioneer Will Eisner. In these strips you can see the young Eisner's imagination expanding, as he experiments with the possibilities of serialized storytelling and works through his numerous influences. The comics collected within document the genesis of one of the most iconic and brilliant cartoonists of all time.

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.

In what will be the closest thing Eisner fans will see to an autobiography, the great master and pioneer of American graphic arts presents the most intimate and personal perspective yet on his life as a writer, a professional, and an artist. “The Dreamer” and “To the Heart of the Storm” describe Eisner’s gritty early life and career, while “The Name of the Game” chronicles a personal history of his wife’s family. Finally, two shorter pieces illuminate the bookends of a legendary career: “The Day I Became a Professional” —which will appeal to any hopeful young artist—describes Eisner’s first rejection from a potential publisher, and “A Sunset in Sunshine City” provides a poignant portrait of Eisner in old age. The book features famous characters from the world of comics (under pseudonyms, of course) and other historical figures and family members, all drawn with Eisner’s characteristic mastery and technique.

This Norton Critical Edition includes: Jared Gardner’s insightful introduction and explanatory notes.Generous selections from four of Will Eisner’s major graphic novels and story collections, carefully chosen with student readers in mind.Will Eisner’s interviews and published writing on comics and the graphic novel genre from 1978 to 2000.Thirteen wide-ranging reviews and assessments of Eisner’s works.Critical essays by Andrew J. Kunka, Paul Williams, Jeremy Dauber, Greg M. Smith, and Derek Parker Royal.A chronology of Will Eisner’s life and work and a selected bibliography.

A portrait of Jacob Shtarkah and his existential quest for meaning is set against the backdrop of the lives of ordinary people struggling to survive the Great Depression in the Bronx, portraying the economic collapse, leftist politics, and rise in Nazism. Reprint.

A single-volume edition of a classic Great Depression graphic novel series documents its role in launching the graphic novel as an art form, in a collection that fictionally depicts its creator's bittersweet struggles with a vengeful God within a tenement district. Reprint.

Before the Lower East Side was cool, there was the grit and grime of Avenue C, a world filled with street musicians, overflowing sewers, and peeping toms, all recalled in Eisner’s unforgettable style.

Character sketches and timeless snapshots of the eccentric denizens of the American city that perfectly capture Eisner’s genius and powers of observation.

A roman à clef about Eisner's early years in the thriving comics industry prior to World War II—featuring new annotations that reveal comics pioneers such as Bob Kane and Jack Kirby who appear under pseudonyms.

A haunting trio of stories about life’s forgotten shut-ins in the tradition of Kafka, Gogol, and Melville.

A historical novel touching on prejudice, assimilation, and anti-Semitism, this sweeping saga takes us from New York in the eighteenth century to Vienna before World War I, and finally to America during the depression and World War II.

Portrays the metamorphosis of a South Bronx neighborhood as it undergoes a transformation from a rural to an urban environment, and experiences waves of new immigrants moving into and out of the area, from colonial times to the present. Reprint.

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.

In this classic graphic novel, Will Eisner’s pen cuts an expansive swath through all aspects of the human condition. A Family Matter starts close to home, following a family as it gathers to observe the ninetieth birthday of its patriarch. While they must decide how best to provide for him, he ends up making a crucial choice of his own.

In this classic graphic novel, Will Eisner’s pen cuts an expansive swath through all aspects of the human condition. A powerful portrayal of Jewish life in the New York City of Eisner’s youth, Minor Miracles encourages similar introspection as it examines how luck and coincidence converge in everyday life in ways that, in hindsight, seem miraculous.