By: Will Eisner Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: W.W. Norton & Co. Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 208 Publication Date: December 17, 2006
“Eisner was not only ahead of his times; the present times are still catching up to him.”—John Updike A revolutionary novel, A Contract With God re-creates the neighborhood of Will Eisner's youth through a quartet of four interwoven stories. Expressing the joy, exuberance, tragedy, and drama of life on the mythical Dropsie Avenue of the Bronx, A Contract With God is a monumental achievement, a must in the library of any graphic novel fan.
Amazon.com Review: Four powerful dramas recall tenement life in 1930s New York--an absolute must for fans of Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth,and Isaac Singer. The storytelling is straightforward: sometimes heart warming, sometimes heart breaking. It's printed in a single sepia-colored ink, which adds to the nostalgic feel of the book and includes "A Contract with God," "The Street Singer," "The Supper," and "Cookalein."
The granddaddy of an art form R. Crumb calls it comix. Jules Feiffer called it junk art. Will Eisner gives it the ugly-sounding title of sequential art. A popular name for it now is graphic fiction. What DOES one call the genre in which Eisner was such a pioneer?
Eisner tells us that his goal in A Contract with God, a book that has become famous for being the "first" graphic novel, was to create an art work in which there is "no interruption in the flow of narrative because the picture and the text are so totally dependent on each other as to be inseparable" (preface). This is a hard trick to pull off. Equally difficult is the task of telling a coherent story that many readers will (unfavorably) judge using the standards that they apply to novels or short stories. Whatever else a graphic novel is, it doesn't fall in either of those genres. The graphic novel is much more impressionistic, more minimalistic, than even a short short story can afford to be.
Eisner takes the bull by the horns in this ground-breaking book, and puts not one but four separate stories between one cover. His artwork truly is breathtaking, pretty nearly succeeding in the uninterrupted flow he's aiming at. The stories themselves are uneven in quality, and each of them, with the possible exception of the last one ("Cookalein"), tend toward the maudlin in places. Moreover, the most ambitious of them, the title story, seems especially underdeveloped. It may be that the potential depth of the story simply can't be expressed in this genre. At the same time, though, each of them captures, in a way reminiscent of the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer, something of the flavor of Jewish city life in the 1930s.
All in all, Eisner's book is both an historical landmark in the evolution of junk art, sequential art, graphic fiction, or whatever we eventually call it, as well as a collection of stories that are still very readable and artistically commendable.
Start of a genre The "first" graphic novel, Will Eisner's A Contract With God is an unapologetic look at tenement living in NYC in the 30s. Taken from his own recollections from his childhood, Eisner creates 4 stories that combine to create a novel that is both unique in its vision as well as brutal in its honesty. Told as much in pictures as in words, Eisner used this book as a stepping stone to creating a body of work using the then blossoming, now growing medium of the graphic novel.
Ordinary World, Extraordinary Art
Will Eisner is an artist; do not mistake him as a cartoonist. A pioneer in Graphic Art, drawing masterpieces since before most of us were born; his concept of Graphic Novel has caught on bigtime in recent years. The first of such is A Contract With God. Tenement stories they are, drawn from memory and delivered through compassionate heart. These are tales of ordinary people communicated in the innovative and much desired format of a Graphic Novel.
I own the book with a different cover, the original cover released long back with the old Jewish man wearily climbing the long steps to his tenement door. He has just buried his only child. A contract he made with God has been broken by the Almighty. He is an immigrant and has worked hard all his life only for the benefit of receiving love from his solitary treasure. He is angry and dejected. This is one of the many heart warming and moving emotional stories told here with visuals that forces words to hit us harder than any regular text novel.
Another story of the singer who uses an older lady is equally emotional and delivered to us in as much visual pain. The story of a Super duped in his own game by a child is also touching. You feel disgust and pity for this super all at the same time. The unique child who is toughened and cruel growing up in the tenement is also a great character here. City-dwellers in their holiday best (or worst) is also displayed in the last story. The getaway which turns from anticipation to expectation, to surprise, to regret and disappointment is something that is easily told but not as easily depicted in Fiction or Novel as has been achieved by the genius of Will Eisner.
Eisner passed away recently and this is his rich legacy apart from the Spirit Archives sold by DC Comics in expensive hard cover editions. This is a good start to build your Eisner Collection. http://www.willeisner.com/
The truth and pain is these tales of common man in the old times can be told again with equal sentiment in this day and age as well.
Realistic self contained stories A Contract with God tells the stories of people living in a tenement in 1930's New York. The format is similar to comic book, but more like illustrated text, because there is about one frame per page. Maybe this is because the stories are more serious than the comic genre usually deals with, and altering it here is a way to get this to a different audience than the usual comic book crowd.
The stories: The Super tells about the super in a building and shows different kinds of monsters in society. A story about a street singer - in the 30's out of work people might go from block to block and sing in the streets in the hopes of money being tossed out the windows to them. A story following people's vacations. SIngle people pretend to be rich on vacation in the hopes of snagging a rich spouse. I particularly liked this one (and it ends happily).
Th stories here are not for kids since there is a lot of sex and desperation. However these are well done comic book stories, and would be good for someone who is into or new to the genre.
Realistic self contained stories A Contract with God tells the stories of people living in a tenement in 1930's New York. The format is similar to comic book, but more like illustrated text, because there is about one frame per page. Maybe this is because the stories are more serious than the comic genre usually deals with, and altering it here is a way to get this to a different audience than the usual comic book crowd.
The stories: The Super tells about the super in a building and shows different kinds of monsters in society. A story about a street singer - in the 30's out of work people might go from block to block and sing in the streets in the hopes of money being tossed out the windows to them. A story following people's vacations. SIngle people pretend to be rich on vacation in the hopes of snagging a rich spouse. I particularly liked this one (and it ends happily).
Th stories here are not for kids since there is a lot of sex and desperation. However these are well done comic book stories, and would be good for someone who is into or new to the genre.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
