Comic-Con 2015

Panelists Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), Michael Uslan (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Trina Robbins ( Pretty in Ink: American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013), Karen Green (Columbia University), Jared Gardner (Ohio State University), and moderator Danny Fingeroth (Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero) discuss the two major phases of Will Eisner's career. Beginning with the 1940 creation of his iconic character the Spirit, used by Eisner to tell stories of sophistication and depth, the discussion will then shift to his 1970s reinvention of comics, catalyzing the literary comics movement with A Contract with God, the first of many graphic novels he'd create. While The Spirit is by no means forgotten, it wrestles for primacy regarding what Eisner's more important achievements were. Academia tends to focus on his personal work of the '70s and beyond. This focus overlooks, perhaps due to The Spirit's action-adventure milieu, the fact that in the feature Eisner told stories with great personal meaning, a harbinger of the rich work to come. Today, we celebrate the innovations of 23-year-old Eisner, explore what makes the Spirit important, and trace Eisner's evolving interests, from action-adventure to memoir and social commentary.