Will Eisner's Later Career and Legacy

Comics Award Named for Spirit Creator and Graphic Novel Pioneer

Oct 13, 2009

Will Eisner's mature comics included pioneering graphic novels and educational books on comics theory. The annual Eisner Awards are named in honor of his achievements.

In the 1930s and '40s, Will Eisner became a great financial and artistic success in the quickly-growing world of comic books. Eisner's early career peaked with The Spirit, a revolutionary weekly comic which challenged the conventions of graphic storytelling.

After The Spirit ended its run in 1952, Will Eisner faded from the very comics scene he had helped create. Eisner focused on educational and instructional art for over two decades. Feeling it was a work of juvenilia, he resisted calls during this time to resuscitate The Spirit.

Will Eisner's Return & The Rise of the Graphic Novel

However, Will Eisner continued to ruminate on the comics medium, and by the late 1970s, he was ready to return to comics. His comeback began in 1978 with the publication of A Contract With God. Drawing on his experiences as a Jew growing up in 1930s New York, Eisner put together a collection of finely-drawn moral tales which was ultimately recognized as the first modern graphic novel.

Eisner would go on to follow up A Contract With God with a number of other mature works in subsequent years. These included the semi-autobiographical The Dreamer (1986) and To the Heart of the Storm (1991), as well as Life on Another Planet (1983), The Building (1987), A Life Force (1988), and Invisible People (1993).

Meanwhile, Will Eisner had been teaching cartooning at the New York School of Visual Arts, where he helped train another generation of comics artists. That, and his earlier background producing instructional comics, served as fodder for Eisner's next great contribution to the comics medium.

In 1985, Eisner published Comics and Sequential Art, the first in-depth look at the mechanics of the comics medium written by a master practitioner. Eisner used excerpts from his Spirit comics to illustrate his points, and this landmark of comic book theory would go on to have a profound influence on later theorists like Scott McCloud.

Will Eisner followed up Comics and Sequential Art with Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (1996), which featured illustrations by other comics masters from Al Capp to Robert Crumb. A final volume, the posthumous Expressive Anatomy (2008), completes Eisner's non-fiction comics trilogy.

The Legacy of Will Eisner

In 1988, the first Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, named in Eisner's honor, were presented at the San Diego Comic Con (now Comic-Con International). The Eisner Awards have since become the preeminent honor for writers and artists in the comics world. The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award is also given out at the same ceremony, in recognition of the efforts of comics vendors on behalf of the medium.

Will Eisner died on January 3, 2005, at the age of 87. Though he left an unrivaled body of work, from his early Spirit comics to his mature graphic novels and theoretical works, the tireless promotion of the medium which he helped create is just as important a part of Will Eisner's legacy.

The copyright of the article Will Eisner's Later Career and Legacy in Graphic Novelists is owned by Luke Arnott. Permission to republish Will Eisner's Later Career and Legacy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.