Some stories from the "GODFATHER"

Hello Chums,

Okay so my last post featured a Frank Miller story. That got me to thinking about Eisner/Miller, a pretty good book I read last year. I hate to admit that I have read even less Will Eisner material than I have read Jack Kirby material. And I call myself a comic book fan. That won't do. So I got busy and read not one, not two, but three Will Eisner trades. Even though Will Eisner is the father of the "Graphic Novel", I'll call these trades because they were full of small stories that I believe appeared elsewhere first.

The three books I read were New York, The Big City, Will Eisner Reader and City People Notebook. All three of these books had an underlying theme: people's lives in a big city environment. We get to see people in all walks of life doing the mundane: fighting the crowds walking to work (or riding the subway), dealing with noise, crime, pollution and the lack of money. There are kids playing stoop ball, splashing in the water from a hydrant on a hot summer day and of course trying to fish up someones lost valuables from a storm drain. The people of these stories seem real, almost as if Eisner looked out his window and drew what he saw that day.

Even though there are some panels with dates as late as the mid-eighties, these stories feel like they are from the forties or maybe the fifties. The artwork reminds me of Mad Magazine, that I used to read as a kid. And I mean that in a good way. Each individual person has their own look. There is very nice detail in the people's faces and clothing. And I especially liked the use of the grey tones. When I read these books I could hear "Rhapsody In Blue" playing (in my mind) as an underlying background track, but that's probably because of the segment of Fantasia 2000 that uses that song during an Eisner-esque tale.

Not to be missed by a true comics fan. Now I want to read more of his graphic novels.

Rating: Story and Art: A

K.R.C.

D.L.