Will Eisner's Contract With God

Before this week's scheduled reading, I had never read any of Eisner's work. I had heard a lot about him, and I knew what his style looked like but didn't know that he also wrote his own stories. I really enjoyed the way he organizes his pages. You can really tell that everything in each image is incredibly well thought out in such a way that the story is easiest to follow. He takes special care to make it so every little detail in the image has a purpose, there are no accidents in his work. I like that he doesn't set his pages up in the traditional panel to panel format. His illustrations are contained, but within the border of the page rather than a series of small boxes. I thought that it made reading this novel more enjoyable because it flowed more freely rather than having a staccato-type movement that for me is typical of traditional panel to panel comics.

Something else that I found very compelling about this work was the story line. I had never read or even heard of a religiously-based comic and I think its very interesting that he chose to address that topic. Something that tends to be very controversial and debatable among groups of people. Particularly the stance that he chose to take with religion, which really isn't a glamorous, innocent, happy one. The people involved in the stories are by no means "heavenly". The fact that Frimme Hirsch (one of the main charaters) is losing his faith, and questioning god's ways is something I think many people can relate to. I personally am not a religious person, but I know what it feels like to lose faith in something/somebody that you've dedicated yourself to. I love that this topic was addressed. The way it was presented really makes you question the ways of this man's God. You start to feel for Frimme. After signing a contract to be dedicated to God and serving him for his life, it makes you wonder what he did to deserve having his daughter taken from him. If I were in Frimme's position, I would probably react in the same way, debating the true nature of God and whether or not he truly exists.

I thought that the other stories were also compelling but after the first one, didn't pack the same punch. One common theme that's within all of the stories is that there's no clear protagonists or antagonists. Every single person in each story has their flaws. You may begin to think that somebody in one of the stories is not all that bad, but then Eisner comes around and hits you with this real dark side to the character. I love his plays with duality, it definitely adds a fantastic dimension to his story telling.

After reading this piece, I can certainly understand and respect why Scott McCloud spoke so highly of Eisner in Understanding Comics. Eisner receives a lot of praise from McCloud and now I see that it is very well deserved.