Will
Eisner’s ‘A Contract With God and Other
Tenement Stories’
Will Eisner is famous for all manner
of things, not least of which is a comic career spanning more decades than most
readers will have been alive. But it was with this book, A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories that Eisner is
credited by creating adult related novel length comics to a broader audience.
America was usually focused on monthly series and newspaper strips. Eisner took
the basic elements and created a very unique and influential piece of quality
work.
This collection of four stories: A Contract With God, The Street Singer, The
Super and Cookalein takes the reader to the Bronx in the 1930s as seen from
Eisner’s autobiographical perspective. Each story is about a different
character, passed on a real person, with one thing binding them – an overwhelming
desire to lift themselves out of the tenements.
The fact that it is not completely
about himself seems to bring more seriousness to his work, meaning that there
is less time for him to replenish half remembered details but more time for the
development of his characters and their dramatic lives.
Another graphic novel created by
Will Eisner called To the Heat of the Storm is a stark of great
ambitious contrast, because we as readers are left with a feeling that the
characters are keen observations rather than two dimensional stereotypes. The
tenements themselves provide a heavy, almost gravitational backdrop, drawing
Eisner’s cast back into the black holes of poverty and depression no matter how
hard they try to leave.
This graphic novel almost does not show its age
despite its venerable years with the history of the New York Bronx as important
now as it was when this narrative was made.
These short narratives are unique in the medium
and rightly deserve the reverence they receive.
Will Eisner’s ‘To the Heart of the Storm’
Left: To the Heart of the Storm front cover.
Right: Artwork from the novel
Right: Artwork from the novel
A classic example of how comics
can be treated as a more serious subject, To
the Heart of the Storm is an autobiographical narrative, which tells a
story about a young Jewish boy, growing up in New York City during both world
wars.
The memories are pictured flooding
back to Eisner as he sits on a train. He is on his way to boot camp having been
sent to fight in World War Two. A silent, ruminative Eisner is seen in a
thoughtful mood, gazing out of the window, twisting the buildings and people he
passes into scene from his past.
Eisner’s black and white style
really creates mood and atmosphere of the dream-like nature of his
recollections; as an artist I myself also agree with this statement. Eisner
also does not use rigid frames to keep the sequential drawings in check;
instead he uses drifting smoky effects to take the reader from one memory to
the next. His style within his character drawings involves some caricature with
their exaggerated facial expression to get the effect he requires, but still
keeps other aspects of anatomy maintained with the correct scale and forms;
this balances his caricature style with a realistic feel.
To the Heart of the Storm is a
fascinating insight into the formative years of the author, especially from his
perspective of a Jew in an era when racial tolerance was quite poor. The way,
in which the author’s train-travelling alter ego remembers his past to be
chaotic, especially scattered, as it is with further dramatized recollections
built from the memories of his parents.
‘This probably is one best left to
those with a particular interest in the era or the circumstances in which
Eisner grew up, as it left us feeling like we wanted more, that too few
conclusions had been drawn. Or perhaps that’s just the way life is.’
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