Will Eisner (March 6, 1917 – Jan. 3, 2005) was a one-of-a-kind genius, that rare figure of whom it can be said, comics and graphic novels, as we know them today, would not exist without him.
He was one of the pioneers in the American Comic Book Industry, proving himself a master of a variety of artistic and literary styles. His landmark comic series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its expressive artwork and breathtaking experiments in content and form.
In 1978, Will Eisner popularized the term graphic novel with the publication of his book A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories, which was then followed by three decades of extraordinary work, much of it examining topics in comics form that had never before been dealt with in that medium. Some of it, like the works of Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, dealt with the Jewish-American experience. His work also explored themes of love, death, loyalty, life in the big city, and more – including humor and science fiction.
Will Eisner was one of those rare practitioners who was adept at both the creative and business aspects of the medium. He owned most of the properties that he created and co-founded EisnerIger, one of the first comics “shops,” where comics creators worked together. The list of wellknown comics creators who passed through his shop enroute to becoming comics professionals themselves is amazing. They included Jack Kirby, Jules Feiffer, Al Jaffee, Nick Cardy, Mike Ploog, and many others.
Will Eisner pioneered yet another facet of comic art - its use as a highly effective instructional and educational tool. Drafted into the Army during WWII, he combined image and text to teach GI’s about maintaining their equipment. The comic format proved to be more quickly and easily understood by the soldiers than the dry technical language of standard Army manuals alone. He went on to use sequential art for instructional purposes by publishing PS Magazine for the Army and producing pamphlets for industry and government. He later championed its use in teaching children who were reluctant learners.
Eisner was also an early contributor to formal comics studies with his textbooks Comics and Sequential Art (1985), Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (1995) and Expressive Anatomy (2005). He taught at New York’s School of Visual Arts for twenty years, alongside other famous comic creators such as Harvey Kurtzman and Art Spiegelman. Eisner was an evangelist and goodwill ambassador for comics, burning with a passion to show and tell people that comics stood on an equal footing with other storytelling media. As part of this, he lent his name to the prestigious Will Eisner Awards, the Oscars of the Comics Industry, presented each year at the world’s foremost comics convention, San Diego’s Comic-Con International.
Will Eisner passed away in 2005 at age 87, having just completed The Plot, a work of non-fiction, which was another significant graphic novel achievement. 2017 marked the centennial of Will Eisner’s birth and included the publication of the centennial edition of A Contract with God, and two original art exhibitions traveling to museums and festivals in the US and Europe, along with a companion hardcover catalogue, Will Eisner: The Centennial Celebration, 1917-2017.
*Information provided by the Will Eisner Week Playbook c 2025