Will Eisner

(1917-2005)

Will Eisner is considered by many to be the godfather of the modern graphic novel, and he is credited with creating the first true graphic novel, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories, in 1978.

Will Eisner is also the creator of The Spirit (1940-1952), a popular seven-page color Sunday newspaper strip that followed the adventures of a masked vigilante named Denny Colt.

Between his work on the highly influential The Spirit and his later pioneering work in the graphic novel medium, Eisner is arguably the most important creator in comic book history.

Over the course of his career, Eisner was awarded many accolades and honors, including the National Cartoonist Society Comic Book Award five times, the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, the Reuben Award, and he was inducted into the Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame in 1971. In 1988 the comic book community created the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which serves as the industry's annual Oscars. Not surprisingly, Eisner himself won six of the awards over the next several years.

Official Website
Will Eisner

Books
The Building
City People Notebook
Comics and Sequential Art
A Contract with God
The Contract with God Trilogy
The Dreamer
Dropsie Avenue
Fagin the Jew
Family Matter
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
To the Heart of the Storm
Invisible People
Last Day in Vietnam
A Life Force
Life on Another Planet
Minor Miracles
The Name of the Game
New York: The Big City
New York: Life in the Big City
Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Spirit Casebook, vol. 1
The Spirit Casebook, vol. 2: All about P’Gell