Will Eisner

William Erwin Eisner (pronounced EYEZ-nər; March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. A pioneer in the American comic book industry, he created *The Spirit* (1940–1952), a series known for its formal and narrative experiments. In 1978, he helped bring the term "graphic novel" into common use with *A Contract with God*. His 1985 book *Comics and Sequential Art* was an early work in formal comics studies. The annual Eisner Award, named after him, honors achievements in comics; he was also among the first three inductees into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Eisner’s father, Shmuel "Samuel" Eisner, was born to Galician Jewish parents on March 6, 1886, in Kolomyia, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine). One of eleven children, he aspired to be an artist and painted murals for wealthy patrons and Catholic churches in Vienna as a teenager. To avoid military conscription, he moved to New York before World War I, where poor English made work hard to find. He earned a living painting backdrops for vaudeville and Jewish theater. Eisner’s mother, Fannie Ingber, was born to Romanian Jewish parents on April 25, 1891, on a ship bound for the United States. Her mother died on her tenth birthday, followed soon by her father; an older stepsister raised her, keeping her so busy with chores she had little time for school or socializing. Later in life, she hid her illiteracy from her children. Shmuel and Fannie, distant relatives, met through family. They had three children: Will Erwin, born on his father’s birthday in 1917; Julian, born February 3, 1921; and Rhoda, born November 2, 1929.

Eisner was born in Brooklyn and grew up poor, with his family moving often. He frequently fought back against antisemitic schoolmates. Tall and sturdy but unathletic, he devoured pulp magazines and films, including avant-garde works by Man Ray. Despite his mother’s disappointment, he shared his father’s interest in art, and his father bought him supplies. His mother often berated his father for the family’s poor income as he moved from job to job, trying ventures like a furniture store and a coat factory without success. After the 1929 Wall Street crash and the start of the Great Depression, the situation grew dire. In 1930, when Eisner was thirteen, his mother demanded he help support the family. He began selling newspapers on street corners, a competitive job where the toughest boys fought for the best spots.

At DeWitt Clinton High School, influenced by commercial artist J. C. Leyendecker, Eisner drew for the school newspaper, literary magazine, and yearbook, and did stage design, which made him consider theater work. After graduating, he studied for a year under Canadian artist George Brandt Bridgman at the Art Students League of New York. Contacts there led to a job as an advertising writer-cartoonist for the *New York American*. He also drew $10-a-page illustrations for pulp magazines like *Western Sheriffs and Outlaws*. In 1936, high-school friend and fellow cartoonist Bob Kane (later of Batman fame) suggested Eisner try selling cartoons to the new comic book *Wow, What A Magazine!* At the time, comic books were tabloid-sized collections of color reprints of newspaper strips, but by 1935 they had begun including new material. *Wow* editor Jerry Iger bought Eisner’s adventure strip *Captain Scott Dalton*, about an H. Rider Haggard-style hero traveling the world for rare artifacts. Eisner also wrote and drew the pirate strip "The Flame" and the secret agent strip "Harry Karry" for *Wow*. Eisner recalled once being approached by a man he described as a mobster straight out of Damon Runyon—complete with pinkie ring, broken nose, black shirt, and white tie—who claimed exclusive distribution rights for all Brooklyn and offered him $3 a page to draw Tijuana bibles. Eisner said he declined, calling it one of the most difficult moral decisions of his life.

*Wow* lasted only four issues (cover-dated July–September and November 1936). After it ended, Eisner and Iger partnered to produce and sell original comics material, anticipating that the supply of reprints would soon dry up, though their accounts of how the partnership formed differ. One of the first comic-book "packagers," their venture was an immediate success. They soon had a stable of creators supplying work to Fox Comics, Fiction House, and Quality Comics, for whom Eisner co-created characters like Doll Man and Blackhawk. Turning a profit of $1.50 per page, Eisner said he "got very rich before I was 22," detailing that in 1939 alone, during the Depression, he and Iger split $25,000—a considerable sum. Among their products was a self-syndicated Sunday comic strip, *Hawks of the Seas*, which initially reprinted Eisner’s old *Wow* feature "The Flame" and then continued with new material. Eisner’s work even reached Europe, with him drawing the new cover for the October 16, 193...