Order ‘The Property’ By Rutu Modan, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!

by Michael Aushenker
Jewish Journal

Rutu Modan’s recently released graphic novel, “The Property,” is the latest in a long line of works using the medium to express the Jewish experience.

In 1978, Will Eisner began popularizing the long-form comics format with Lower East Side Jewish tales in “A Contract With God.” By 1986, Art Spiegelman legitimized the genre with his Pulitzer Prize winning Holocaust account “Maus,” paving the way for more Jewish book-length comics, such as Joann Sfar’s “The Rabbi’s Cat” (2007).

And yet, unlike its predecessors, “The Property” uses its Jewish themes almost as a prop, an engine humming in the background intended to propel the complex, sometimes dysfunctional dynamics between her characters.

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April 26, 2013

7. Will Eisner

Will Eisner’s place on this list is not only due to his remarkable creative ability but also due to his influence on many of the great artists of the Golden Age.  Eisner, along with partner Jerry Iger founded the Eisner & Iger Studio in 1936.  They were not a publisher themselves but their studio produced on-demand work for various comic publishers including Timely, Fiction House, Fox, Quality, and others.  Among the artists who got their starts in the comic business through the Eisner & Iger studio were Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Lou Fine, and Wally Wood.  Eisner is credited with creating or co-creating Dollman, Blackhawk, and Wonder Man.

Eisner left the studio in 1939 and created his long-running newspaper strip/comic hero, The Spirit.  The masked vigilante debuted in 1940 and became one of the most popular strips of the day.  Part of the charm of the strip was that it was many things at many times…sometimes many things at the same time…crime/action, horror, mystery, comedy, romance.  It became noted for its wonderfully madcap  rogue’s gallery of villains and even more for its sexy femme fatales like Sand Saref, Silk Satin, and P’Gell.  The strip ran until 1952.

In the 1970s Warren Magazines and then Kitchen Sink Press began reprinting the stories featuring new covers by Eisner and several new Spirit stories.  In 2009, DC began producing hardcover archive editions of the Spirit as well as new stories.  The strip would inspire a big screen film in 2008.  Will Eisner would influence many artists over the decades including Jim Steranko, Paul Gulacy, and Frank Miller.

Notable Works: The Spirit, The Eisner & Iger Studio

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Order ‘The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue (A Contract With God, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue)’ by Will Eisner, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!

by Thomas Knowlton
Mid-Manhattan Library, Language and Literature
May 10, 2013

For this month’s Reader’s Den, we’ll be hosting an online book discussion of Will Eisner’s The Contract With God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue. This is only the second time we have featured a graphic novel (the first was Joe Sacco’s Palestine in October 2010).

However, as part of NYC Summer, we have two more graphic novel discussions coming up: Alan Moore’s The Watchmen in July and Leela Corman’s Unterzakhn in September! Please visit bit.ly/nycsummer-nypl for the full schedule.

If you need a copy of the book, you can request The Contract With God Trilogy through the NYPL catalog. This compilation (published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2006) consists of three different works: A Contract With God (1978), A Life Force (1983), and Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood (1995).

To give us a loose structure for the discussion, I’ve listed a schedule below, but please feel free to comment on any of the four postings throughout May.

Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: A Contract With God (p. 3 – 180)
Week 3: A Life Force (p. 181 – 322)
Week 4: Dropsie Avenue (p. 323 – 498)

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NorthFace, new PS Magazine offices

BlogPost 36 in our ongoing salute to the US Army’s historic and pace-setting “PS Magazine” features pictures and news regarding the move of the “PS” staff into new offices in a recently refurbished building on Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville, Alabama). The “PS” program continues as an element of the US Army Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) under the US Army Materiel Command, also based at Redstone Arsenal.

An exterior view of their new quarters is attached.

Joe Kubert and I initiated this blog in 2011, shortly after the celebration of the publication’s Sixtieth Anniversary. Following Joe’s death last August, I am endeavoring to continue it–with an admittedly diminished frequency.

Continue the march!

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fitz

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ComicBookDaily.com

After much delay, and that’s being kind, I was blown away by Will Eisner’s The Spirit Artist’s Edition. Those reading this who wonder if this book is worth the money should run to their nearest comic shop and buy it while they can.

The Spirit Artist’s Edition Cover

All the pages in this book have been scanned from the actual original art that was drawn by Will Eisner. This Artist’s Edition measures 15 x 22 inches and is 144 pages long. Each book is shipped in a custom cardboard box for maximum protection.

• Writer, Artist: Will Eisner
• HC, 144 Pages, 15” x 22”
• IDW Publishing
• $125 USD Suggested Retail

As with all Artist’s Editions, this one is a collection of original inked comic art pages scanned in colour, and as always the end product is stunning. I’m not here to review the material as it’s over sixty years old and has been published in multiple formats since. In this review I’m looking at this book from it’s presentation of material and overall production.

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Will Eisner’s The Spirit: Artist’s Edition (IDW)

The latest and longest awaited volume in IDW Publishing’s Artist’s Edition series makes its debut this week as Will Eisner’s The Spirit: Artist’s Edition arrives in stores on Wednesday, April 10, 2013. One of the first announced in the series, this is the week that fans decide whether or not it was worth the wait (we vote “yes,” in case anyone’s asking).

Like the other offerings in the series, the pages have been scanned in full color at the original size from the original black-and-white artwork. This process shows everything from original corrections, paste-ups and editorial marks to aging of the art board in amazing detail. In the cases of older work such as this, these volumes have often provided the finest reproduction the art has ever received.

Though known to later generations for his long form work in graphic novels beginning with A Contract With God, Eisner’s work on The Spirit was done in short, complete stories. This created the chance for IDW’s Scott Dunbier, editor of their Artist’s Edition line among other projects, to highlight a wide selection of the master cartoonist’s work.

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By: Timothy Callahan

In 1978, the legendary Will Eisner released A Contract With God upon the world, a masterpiece that launched the graphic novel craze that would eventually compel your local Barnes & Noble to push aside mid-list Sidney Sheldon and Chuck Palahniuk novels to dedicate upwards of twelve feet of shelving to books like The Walking Dead Volume One, The Walking Dead Volume Two, Persepolis, and Superman: Earth One.

That’s the simple and untrue history of the graphic novel, and of A Contract With God in particular. Decades hence, we know more about how what we call the graphic novel came to be, what A Contract With God had to do with it, and how this seminal work was not always viewed with such esteem.

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Diana Schutz, Dark Horse Comics editor

By Christian Lipski

In honor of Will Eisner Week (the week of March 6th every year), Portland publisher Dark Horse Comics joined up with the Comics Underground live-reading event to present a tribute to the comic book legend. In a switch from the normal Comics Underground show, all the participants read from Eisner’s last book, Last Day In Vietnam.

Starting off the evening was Dark Horse editor Diana Schutz, who worked with Eisner on Last Day In Vietnam, Eisner’s recollections of his time as both a soldier and reporter in several wars. Schutz talked about her time with Eisner on the book, and was followed by the local comics talent that she invited to participate.

Brian Michael Bendis (Powers, Ultimate Spider-Man) read the first story in the book, a first-person perspective of a reporter who is shown around an encampment by a soldier on his last day.

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Eisner Awards 2013

Order ‘Fatale, Book 2: The Devil’s Business,’ available from Amazon.com by clicking on the graphic novel above!

Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees 2013

Best Short Story
“A Birdsong Shatters the Still,” by Jeff Wilson and Ted May, in Injury #4 (Ted May/Alternative)
“Elmview” by Jon McNaught, in Dockwood (Nobrow)
“Moon 1969: The True Story of the 1969 Moon Launch,” by Michael Kupperman, in Tales Designed to Thrizzle #8 (Fantagraphics)
“Moving Forward,” by drewscape, in Monsters, Miracles, & Mayonnaise (Epigram Press)
“Rainbow Moment,” by Lilli Carré, in Heads or Tails (Fantagraphics)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Lose #4: “The Fashion Issue,” by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
The Mire, by Becky Cloonan (self-published)
Pope Hats #3, by Ethan Rilly (AdHouse Books)
Post York #1, by James Romberger and Crosby (Uncivilized Books)
Tales Designed to Thrizzle #8, by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics)

Best Continuing Series
Fatale, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
Hawkeye, by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)
The Manhattan Projects, by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra (Image)
Prophet, by Brandon Graham and Simon Roy (Image)
Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)

Best New Series
Adventure Time, by Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, and Braden Lamb (kaboom!)
Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain)
Fatale, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
Hawkeye, by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)
Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)

Click HERE to read the entire list at THE BEAT!

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