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Will Eisner

  
 
FinderWolf
17:02 / 04.08.04
I was re-reading what is perhaps my favorite Will Eisner book the other day, THE DREAMER, Eisner's mostly-autobiographical account of the beginning of his career as a comic book artist when that peculiar form called 'the comic book' was just being created as the pulps died out -- the book is just so wonderful. I've got lots of Eisner's graphic novels and lots of his SPIRIT stuff, the latter of which I discovered in high school when Kitchen Sink was reprinting the whole SPIRIT run.

I remember DC recently announced it would reprint the SPIRIT stuff in hardcover, which it's started doing - but wasn't DC going to reprint his graphic novels, too?

I figured a thread on Eisner was in order, since unless the search function is messing up again, there isn't a Barbe-thread about the Master of Comics. I had a few questions about THE DREAMER, but I'm not sure if people here would know the answers - Eisner talks about a bunch of people in the studio he created, and they're all based on real artists.

Lou Fine = "Lew Sharp"
Jack King = (of course) Jack Kirby

but there are a few he mentions that I'm not sure who they are - their fictionsuit names, as given to them by Eisner in THE DREAMER, are as follows:

Armand Budd and Andrea Budd (Armand wrote & drew and was the father of Andrea, who only wrote)

Gar Tooth (who I think might be Alex Toth just from the name, but I'm not sure).

And THE DREAMER talks about Superman coming out and a rival comics company coming out with a character so close to Supes that DC sued - this must be Capt. Marvel, right? [Atlas?] came out with Capt. Marvel and DC sued, saying he was too similar to Superman, IIRC, as also discussed in Michael Chabon's AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND KLAY. DC won, if I remember correctly, and that's how Capt. Marvel became absorbed into DC's ouvre...? Is that right...?

Also, Dark Horse is about to come out with a paperback volume called MILLER/EISNER about conversations between Frank Miller and Will Eisner. Eisner's SHOP TALK (came out about 5 years ago) is a terrific book in a similar vein, featuring conversations/interviews Eisner had with various comics professionals back in the 60s, 70s and maybe 80s.

I also realized I haven't read Eisner's TO THE HEART OF THE STORM in a looong time.
 
 
FinderWolf
17:33 / 04.08.04
did this come out already? I know the press release says April, but I haven't seen it at either of the 2 big comic stores I go to, which usually get everything...

from Dark Horse's press release:

Comics Criticism 101: Eisner/Miller conversation from Dark Horse this April

Are there any creators who have more greatly affected their chosen medium than Will Eisner and Frank Miller? Comics readers are now invited to read along as two of its greatest contributors —- legendary innovator and godfather of sequential art, Will Eisner, and the modern master of cinematic comics storytelling, Frank Miller -— discuss one-on-one, in an intimate interview format, the ins-and-outs of this compelling and often controversial art form.
Eisner and Miller seem perfectly coupled in such a dialogue, as editor Charles Brownstein explains: “They share a relentless passion for formal innovation and have equally keen understandings of the business mechanisms that drive the field. This conversation reveals the aesthetic passions and formal theories that are at the foundation of their bodies of work. It also portrays two opinionated views of comics history and two informed perspectives on how to make it in comics.”

Brownstein also believes this is a project whose time has come. “The book also opens up a new door in comics criticism. In film, it's not uncommon for acclaimed directors to publish a discussion about their form and field, but in comics such documents are rare. Eisner/Miller brings to comics a tradition that stretches back to Hitchcock/Truffaut. Walking in, it was our hope that presenting a serious conversation between these masters of the form would open comics criticism up in a meaningful way.”

“Eisner/Miller is a surprisingly contentious exchange,” Brownstein continues. “While there is unquestionable respect between these two men, they have very heated exchanges about the history of the business, censorship, and their approaches to their jobs. Within this discussion we get a sense of what drives them both and of the forces that have driven the field since its inception.”

Brownstein believes that Eisner/Miller will enlighten comics historians, critics, fans, and creators. “The book lends insight to the climate of the comics business during Will's career and how that climate carried over into the present day through Frank's career. It sheds light on what goes into making masterful comics. It also reveals the real joys of cartooning and the intellectual depth that these men bring to every graphic novel they draw.”

The Eisner/Miller trade paperback is available April 28 with a retail price of $19.95.
 
 
FinderWolf
18:02 / 04.08.04
I just saw that Eisner/Miller has been re-solicited for September 29, 2004 on DH's site.
 
 
FinderWolf
19:18 / 27.09.04
Apparently they've pushed this book back to November 17, 2004, according to their website.

Am I the only one finds a book about Eisner & Miller appealing?
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
19:51 / 27.09.04
I'm interested in the Miller/Eisner book, mostly because both are just masters of storytelling by using the comics page. I hope this is the first of a long series of "discussions" between Eisner and other creators. I was VERY upset that that Comics Journal somehow screwed up their plan to get a long interview with Alex Toth, who is another master of storytelling and layout.

Eisner is one of the few people whose work in the Golden Age is just as readable now as it was then. If not for the racist elements (the supporting character Ebony), you could print it today and most people wouldn't know they were stories that were over 50 years old. His modern graphic novels are very well done, although there is a bit of a "sameness" to them, and I have a lot of trouble reading more than one every so often, since they have a very similar tone.
 
 
sleazenation
20:57 / 27.09.04
Without wishing to state the obvious, Eisner's work is fantastic - No one utilized page layout as a storytelling tool like Will Eisner.

Miller, however, I've grown more and more bored of as time has progressed. His work seemed to have decended into self-parody in the mid-90s and has not yet recovered. This is a shame because Miller has shown himself to be a fantastically talented artist and storyteller in the past.
 
 
Benny the Ball
21:50 / 27.09.04
Yeah, Miller seemed to peak with Elektra Lives or Dies Again or whatever the hardback book one off was called - some really nice design stuff in there.

Eisner is great though. I remember as a kid finding some Spirit comics for sale amongst the Marvel and DC monthlies at a local newsagents. I spent so many months after that trying to find more of them, but never succeded.
 
 
FinderWolf
15:28 / 22.11.04
Dark Horse has yet AGAIN pushed this book back, now from November til March 2005! March 16, 2005, to be exact...
 
 
Mark Parsons
23:09 / 23.11.04
Well alay yr dissapointment with the "Will Eisner COmpanion" HC which is out this week from DC. Bought two Spirit Archives last week (post war stuff) and good god they are beautiful. Hadn't read the strips in a decade. if only I could afford to buy the upcoming volumes regularly!
 
 
FinderWolf
13:32 / 04.01.05
I think the Eisner/Miller Dark Horse book is now rescheduled to April, or something like that...
 
 
charrellz
20:35 / 04.01.05
Just to clear up some of the roman a clef elements in The Dreamer: Gar Tooth was really George Tuska, one of the only guys that never really broke out into something else. Captain Marvel was (I think) published by Faucet Press, created by Vincent Fox (in Dreamer, he is Vincent Reynard, French for Fox).
 
 
FinderWolf
20:59 / 04.01.05
Thanks - I was actually wondering about those references in The Dreamer.
 
 
FinderWolf
21:00 / 04.01.05
...as I wrote above months ago, which I forgot I'd written specifically (in case anyone says "duh, we know you were wondering it cause you said it above!")
 
 
charrellz
13:59 / 12.01.05
This should make you extra happy, finderwolf: The Annotated Dreamer.

Enjoy.
 
 
FinderWolf
16:39 / 12.01.05
cool, thanks.

I remember George Tuska from his drawing (and in many cases, only inking) lots of 70s Hulk comics.
 
 
FinderWolf
17:03 / 12.01.05
Will Eisner's art will now grace the 2005 CBLDF membership card:

Art & info here.
 
 
sleazenation
14:51 / 03.12.06
Since Eisner's Spirit character is undergoing a bit of a rebirth at the moment I thought that now would be a good time to bump this thread up and give us all a chance to talk a bit about Eisner's comics, which often appear to be more widely acclaimed than they are actually read, or at least that is the impression I'm left with.

Have you read much Eisner? Have you read more of his graphic novels or his Spirit collections? Which ones? And which worked best for you?
 
 
sleazenation
17:59 / 05.01.07
Alex's grandma said
What would you recommend, Sleaze?

Based on my extremely limited knowledge of his work, Eisner's always seemed depressingly vanilla, and a bit kitsch. I'm sure the art's great, but isn't the writing rather dated? At least, the idea that it might be has always kind of put me off. In much the same way that I can't be arsed wth Jack Kirby, unless the writing's solid.

(Not trying to start a fight here, again - I'm genuinely curious; what, exactly, is the appeal of 'The Spirit'?)

Well I'd probably start by saying that Eisner's work is not strictly limited to the Spirit or his New York-based graphic novels, although they are two large parts of his work.

Eisner was a relentless exprimenter in the comics form, as others have pointed out in the classic comics thread.

Other parts of his work include his formalist analysis of the comics form in Comics and Sequentiual art and other books. Late in his career he also created two notable works that explored Jewish identity. He did some semi-bigrahical comics, set in both in war and peacetime, created a sci fi graphic novel and also spent many years creating comic strips on weapons and vehicle maintainence for the US army.

I'd like to go into some of these in greater depth and give some recommendations, but I have a train to catch, so I'll have to come back to this...
 
  
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