Will Eisner 1917–2005
One of the most influential figures in the history of comic books
Will Eisner gave a talk at the Library of Congress on April 1, 2003 titled "Eisner on the Graphic Novel" where he reflected on his career in comic books and the evolution of the graphic novel.
William Erwin Eisner was born on March 6, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were Jewish immigrants. His father, Shmuel "Samuel" Eisner, emigrated from Austria, and his mother, Fannie Ingber Eisner, came from Romania.
Eisner attended DeWitt Clinton High School, where he met future comics artists like Bob Kane (creator of Batman). He also worked odd jobs and did commercial drawing work to help support his family. In the late 1930's, Eisner and Jerry Iger (1903-1990) co-founded Eisner & Iger, a comic book packaging operation that produced content for publishers and was the starting place for a number of famed comic book artists, such as Jack Kirby, Lou Fine, and George Tuska.
In 1940 Eisner created The Spirit, a masked-man heroic detective and adventure comic book that was inserted into Sunday newspapers, at this point he exited the packaging business and Iger continued by himself as S.M. Iger Studio. The Spirit series was lauded for its storytelling innovations and visual experimentation, and for featuring a non-superpowered crimefighter with a moral tone suitable for newspaper audiences.
At the onset of World War II, Eisner was drafted and eventually given the job of authoring training and instruction comics for the U.S. Army, a task that developed his ideas on using comics for education. After his military duty was completed, he was the creator and artistic director for a military publication called The Preventive Maintenance Monthly (1951–1970s) using art and comic book format instruction. He was involved with this until the early 1970s. Suring this time Eisner also founded American Visuals Corporation which created comic-based educational material for clients such as General Motors, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Job Corps and the U.S. Army and Navy. In the 1970s he was also a teacher at School of Visual Arts in New York.
In 1978 Eisner created what is convered the first graphic novel,* A Contract with God, which was published by Baronet Books in hardcover.
List of Will Eisner's books:
- 1978 – A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories
- 1983 – Life on Another Planet
- 1986 – The Dreamer
- 1987 – The Building
- 1988 – A Life Force
- 1989 – City People Notebook
- 1991 – To the Heart of the Storm
- 1992 – Invisible People
- 1995 – Dropsie Avenue
- 1998 – A Family Matter
- 2000 – Minor Miracles
- 2001 – The Name of the Game
- 2003 – Fagin the Jew
- 2005 – The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Non-Fiction:
Comics and Sequential Art (1985)
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (1996)
Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative (2008, posthumous)
Footnote
Who made the first "Graphic Novel" is disputed, some say the accolade belongs to Rich Corben for the 1975 Bloodstar.
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Original Page June 19, 2025