Fan Forum - Graphic Novel Pioneer Will Eisner Dead At 87

Due to the new upgrades, I didn't get a chance to post about this, but sad news, and a huge loss for the comics world:

Quote:

WILL EISNER

Mon Jan 10, 4:34 PM ET

(Variety) Will Eisner, who helped pioneer the graphic novel, died Jan. 3 in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. of complications from quadruple bypass heart surgery last month. He was 87.

Eisner started making comics in the 1930s, addressing addressed subjects considered unthinkable in comicbooks and rarely seen at the time in newspaper comics: spousal abuse, tax audits, urban blight and graft.

The graphic novel combines elements of comicbooks and literary novels. His first, "A Contract with God," was published in 1978 and had stories of his childhood and the immigrant Jewish experience in a poor Brooklyn tenement.

In 1940, he created a gritty weekly newspaper supplement titled "The Spirit," which at its height had a circulation of 5 million in 20 Sunday newspapers. The supplement consisted of a comic book with three self-contained stories, and "The Spirit" became the most popular. A 1987 TV series was based on the character.

Eisner was drafted during World War II, and the Army had him create "Joe Dope" to teach Jeep maintenance to soldiers with a bumbling comic-strip character.

After the war, he went back to "The Spirit" and continued the series until 1952. The Army also hired him for more instruction manuals, which he produced until the 1970s.