Will Eisner Books In Order

A Life Force

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 Na*zism and the spread of socialist politics through the depiction of the protagonist, Jacob Shtarkah, whose existential search reflected Eisner’s own lifelong struggle.

Life on Another Planet

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.

.

The Spirit Archives

Criminologist Denny Colt let the world believe he was dead in order to continue his war against crime as the masked vigilanted known only as The Spirit. Through his career, he fought some of the world’s deadliest villains with nothing more than his wits, his fists and his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.

The blue suit clad, fedora wearing crime fighter created by Will Eisner starred in hundreds of newspaper adventure stories that thrilled readers, and Eisner’s groundbreaking style utilized the comics format to its greatest strengths.

Eisner’s masterwork continues through one of its greatest periods in WILL EISNER’S The Spirit Archives VOL. 21, collecting stories featuring such classics as ‘The Moment of Glory,’ ‘The Wreck of Old 78’ and ‘Camp Wachoobee.’

The Plot

A work more disturbing than fiction from ‘the father of graphic novels’ New York Times. 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 widespread 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.

A Contract With God

The legendary graphic novel and the sequels that launched an art form. WITH 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 along with Life Force and Dropsie Avenue for such seminal works as Maus and Persepolis. Set during the Great Depression, this literary trilogy, assembled in one volume for the first time, presents a treasure house of now near mythic stories that fictionally illustrate the bittersweet tenement life of Eisner’s youth. With nearly two dozen new illustrations and a revealing new foreword, this book ultimately tells the epic story of life, death, and resurrection while exploring man’s fractious relationship with an all too vengeful God. This mesmerizing, fictional chronicle of the universal American immigrant experience is Eisner’s most poignant and enduring legacy.

Will Eisner Reader

Four extraordinary autobiographical stories from a legend in American comics. 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.

A Family Matter

This powerful graphic novel confirms Will Eisner as a master of the genre. 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.

.

Minor Miracles

This powerful graphic novel confirms Will Eisner as a master of the genre. 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.

.

Fagin the Jew

From his early newspaper comics to the sophisticated graphic novels he produces today, Will Eisner has been a pioneering force in comics for more than sixty years. Ron Goulart, writing in Book World, declared, A shrewd, thoughtful man, Eisner has always had a knack for deftly combining dialogue and images to tell his story, and fellow graphic novelist Alan Moore simply said, Eisner is the single person most responsible for giving comics its BRAINS. And Amazon. com, which called him ‘the Elvis of comics,’ said, ‘It’s fair to say that Eisner invented modern comic art.’In Fagin the Jew, Eisner proves himself to be not only a master of comic storytelling, but also an incisive literary and social critic. 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 Ashkena*zi community and brilliantly re creates the social milieu of Dickensian England. Eisner’s fresh, compelling look at prejudice, poverty, and anti Semitism lends an extraordinary richness to his artwork, ever evocative and complex. Like the modern classics Maus and The Jew of New York, Fagin the Jew blends image and prose in an unforgettable exploration of history.