Eisner, Will – A Contract With God

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A Contract with God: and Other Tenement Stories

It’s strange how somebody can basically create the graphic novel and still have people not even touch his work, all these years later. This is basically a four part story, mostly about a tenement building in New York. The first story is about a rabbi and his contract with God, but that contract is broken when his daughter dies of a sudden illness. The second story is the tale of an alley singer who attracts the attention of a former opera star but, like most of these stories, a happy ending is hard to come by. Part three is about the superintendent of the building, a desperately lonely man who makes a fatal mistake with a ten year old (and good luck finding a story that evokes more feelings of sympathy for a supposed sex offender). The fourth tale is the most complex and satisfying of the bunch, about a variety of people away at camp for a month and how they deal with the opportunities presented to them.

It’s hard to say what my favorite story in this bunch is. They’re all essential to the continuity of the book, if that makes any sense at all when you consider that they have almost nothing to do with each other. My trip to the library was completely unsuccessful, meaning that I’m going to have to buy the bulk of these, and that might take me some time. As far as right now goes, if you have any interest in the history of comics and the worlds of Krazy Kat, Pogo, Popeye and some of the other greats seem too cartoony to you (and boy, are you in for a surprise when you eventually read them), then this is definitely the place to start. I was expecting this to be an interesting experiment, what with it being the first ever and all, but it turns out that the first ever was a masterpiece. I don’t know about the rest of his work, as I haven’t seen it, but if it’s half as good as this I’ll have nothing to worry about. One thing that might turn people off is his slightly too comic style (I know it’s ridiculous, but apparently it’s a real problem with some people). All I can say to that is: grow up. Look past the art and go to the story, and you’ll see that the art is perfect for the story anyway. Expand your horizons about the whole graphic art field and you’ll be a lot better off. Until I read the rest of these volumes, I really don’t know what to tell you. I’ve heard that Invisible People and The Dreamer are both great, but I can’t give a personal recommendation on any of these yet. If you’re adventurous, try them out. This guy is one of the heroes of almost everybody good working good today, and it wouldn’t hurt you at all to try and find out why.