Will Eisner (1917–2005)

The Spirit: An 80th Anniversary Celebration is a well put together collection of classic comics. I really enjoyed getting to read the background to each comic beforehand as well. It's always nice to have those little insights. For example, the fabricated feud with Lil' Abner's creator, is a hilarious bit of context that a modern-day reader wouldn't necessarily get if they were coming into The Spirit as a new reader, like myself. I really enjoyed reading each comic with its "historical" context.

The only downside I really see with the book is, at least in the digital version I received from the publisher for review, A couple of the strips are hard to read and look like poorly xeroxed newsprint. I could assume that the publisher wants to maintain the integrity of the strip as it was originally presented. But it makes reading some of them very hard. It would have been nice if there was some minor touch up done to the strips, at least with lettering. I don't feel it would have removed anything from the stories. though it certainly would have made them a lot easier to read. On the other hand, that does help to present the age of each strip, so maybe I'm completely offbase.… (más)

My first Will Eisner. The art is exquisite, but maaaan is this a bleak depiction of the human condition.

In general, I don't love narratives that are framed around whoever is causing the most pain. In these stories, it's often unclear which character earns this superlative - nevertheless, most are organized around broken men and the inscrutable or one-dimensional women who, like the God of the title story, push them toward their tragic ends. From this perspective, "Cookalein" was probably my favorite story - it's heavy, but felt more multidimensional.

I think the best art resonates even when the creator and audience have different worldviews. From that perspective, A Contract With God is a successful book - I found a lot to unpack in these stories, despite not sharing their assessment of human nature.… (más)