Eisner, Will

▪ 2006

William Erwin Eisner 

      American comic-book artist (b. March 6, 1917, Brooklyn, N.Y.—d. Jan. 3, 2005, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), created the influential comic strip The Spirit and was generally regarded as the inventor of the graphic novel. He began his career in 1936 at the short-lived pulp Wow What a Magazine!, where he met fellow artist Jerry Iger. After the collapse of Wow, the two men formed Eisner and Iger, an independent publisher that employed comic legends Bob Kane (creator of Batman) and Jack Kirby (cocreator of Captain America, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four). Eisner developed a number of characters during this period, including Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, but he was best remembered for the Spirit—a working-class hero who debuted in June 1940. The Spirit's lack of gadgets, superpowers, and outrageous costumes contrasted with most of the other comic titles of the day. After he was drafted into the army in 1942, Eisner turned his attention to creating Joe Dope. The bumbling GI was featured in a series of instructional cartoons that covered everything from equipment maintenance to family issues. After the war Eisner returned to The Spirit, but he devoted an increasing amount of energy to educational comics. After The Spirit concluded in 1952, Eisner formed the American Visual Corp. For the next 25 years, the company produced visually arresting and highly effective educational comic books for schools, government, and the armed forces. In 1978 Eisner returned to the mainstream comic world with A Contract with God, a collection of stories that redefined the medium. The book's religious themes, mature tone, and somber look highlighted the strengths of what Eisner referred to as “sequential art.” The success of A Contract with God brought Eisner back to comics full time, and his final work, The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was published posthumously.

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