He also obtained commentary from well-known comics creators including Jules Feiffer, Art Spiegelman, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, novelists Michael Chabon and Kurt Vonnegut, and a variety of comics historians - in particular, publisher Denis Kitchen.Graphic Storytelling and Visual NarrativeĬomics and Sequential Art is a book by American cartoonist Will Eisner that analyzes the comics medium, published in 1985 and revised in 1990.
Among the more interesting detours: a discussion of the way American comics and popular culture were shaped by East European Jewish sensibilities, fantasies and rhythms, and a consideration of Ebony, the Spirit’s sidekick, who was drawn in a stereotypical black minstrel-show fashion.įilming over many years, helmer Cooke secured the co-operation of Eisner and his wife Ann, as well as the rights to show Eisner’s artwork, homemovies and photos. The narrative flow of Eisner’s career is weakened by digressions that introduce new talking heads and less potent footage.
In the ’70s, inspired by the energy of the underground “comix” artists, he changed course again, creating a series of single volumes meant as permanent editions, coining the term “graphic novel.” to exploit a more didactic use of cartooning, making highly technical material intelligible to the masses.īy the time the industry instituted the Comics Code in 1954, Eisner was a suburban family man.
He also launched the American Visuals Co. Postwar, he brought a new maturity to “The Spirit,” introducing cinematic angles and characters that experienced genuine agony. He wound up seconded to the Pentagon in charge of “Firepower” magazine. He founded his own comicstrip production company while still in his teens, and went on to negotiate an unprecedented deal to retain ownership of his most enduring character, “The Spirit.”ĭrafted during WWII, Eisner proposed using sequential art as a teaching tool, employing cartoon panels to make dull army manuals more understandable.
The son of Jewish emigre parents - a dreamy painter father and practical mother - savvy Eisner managed to combine aspects of both to succeed in art and commerce. comics) from a pulpy visual format, meant to entertain kids, into a bona fide means of self-expression, docu uses a mix of interviews, artwork and talking heads to trace his 70-year career. Asserting that Eisner’s entrepreneurial, literary and drawing skills turned sequential art (i.e.
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