The Contract with God Trilogy
Categories: Graphic Novels , Rediscoveries , Staff Picks
In a recent post, I headed a list of milestones in modern comics history with Will Eisner’s 1978 A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories. The pioneering writer, artist, publisher, and teacher for whom the Eisner Awards are named marketed this collection of adult tales as a “graphic novel.”
A few months before his death in January 2005, Eisner decided to republish his landmark work together with two other collections set on the mythical New York tenement street that reflects his childhood home. The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue includes the stories of A Life Force, written in 1983, and Dropsie Avenue from 1995, both new to the Library with this omnibus volume.
While A Contract with God and A Life Force portray the world of the 1930s, Dropsie Avenue traces the changes in the neighborhood, especially the succession of ethnic groups, since 1870, when “still there were farms in the Bronx.”
Other Eisner tales of Jewish and immigrant life include The Name of the Game, Minor Miracles, To the Heart of the Storm, and A Family Matter. He explores issues of anti-Semitism in Fagin the Jew and The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a nonfiction work completed in the last months of his life.
For more subject variety, try The Will Eisner Reader: Seven Graphic Stories by a Comics Master or City People Notebook. And of course, check out Will Eisner's The Spirit Archives for the adventures of the 1940s masked crimefighter that made Eisner an industry star.
Eisner also applied his artistic and storytelling skills to classic novels. The Library has Moby Dick and The Last Knight: An Introduction to Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes. His children's books in our collection are Sundiata: A Legend of Africa and The Princess and the Frog.
A consummate professional devoted to his art, Eisner passed on a lifetime of knowledge in two guides: Comics & Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling.
Here are some books about Eisner’s life, work, and influence, and a few documentaries that feature him:
Eisner/Miller: A One-on-One Interview, a long, fascinating conversation between Eisner and the legendary Frank Miller
Will Eisner: A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman
The Will Eisner Companion: The Pioneering Spirit of the Father of the Graphic Novel by N.C. Christopher Couch
The Art of Will Eisner by Will Eisner and Catherine Yronrode
Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked (VHS)
The Masters of Comicbook Art (VHS)
Comic Book Confidential (VHS)
