Random readings in Will Eisner

At the Graphic Novels Reading Group, we are looking at the work of Will Eisner. I'm not a huge Eisner fan: which is to say that I've never particularly enjoyed his work, but I recognise that he is a significant and influential figure, so it's good to revisit that from time to time. Besides, there are several of his books in the library catalogue, which ought to allow us to share them round and discuss them (it's getting harder to choose topics where this applies). When it came to raiding the shelves, not so much (we are hoping that the library will find more scattered around the branches), and someone else was faster off the mark in grabbing The Spirit, which is why I have been reading The Plot: the Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

( Reading: 'The Plot' )

tl:dr version: If you were looking for a handy reference work with which to debunk Protocols of the Elders of Zion, this is it. If you wanted a narrative of general interest, then for all its visual charm, it isn't.

Scrutiny of the shelves at Durham Library turned up a single volume of Eisner, a piece of Dickens fanfic called Fagin the Jew. That's fanfic in the sense of so identifying with the character that you don't feel the author has done them justice. Eisner's introduction to the first edition places this in the curious context of wanting to atone for the racial stereotypes he employed, not maliciously but thoughtlessly, in his own early work (he gives the example of the Spirit's comedy sidekick, Ebony White).

( Reading: 'Fagin the Jew' )

tl:dr version: So that was interesting, but I don't really think it comes off.

Increasingly, I suspect that for all Eisner thought seriously about comics graphic novels / sequential art, his own work appeals more to people for whom the visual side comes first. Certainly when I think of The Spirit, I think of the ingenious ways Eisner works the title into the opening panel, hiding the letters in the shapes of buildings or the arrangements of windows. Of the stories themselves I have only the haziest memory.