Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisnerwas an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spiritwas noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art. The Eisner Award was named in his honor,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth6 March 1917
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
advantage art comic demanding great happens imagined mind page painters painting work
The work we do is as demanding as any of the great painters because nothing that happens on the page of a comic is accidental. It has to be imagined first in your mind before you do it. Those of us who know something about the art of painting know that working on a canvas, very often a lot of serendipitous things happen that work to the advantage of the painter ultimately.
accurate artists became believed content correct defined early feeling merely needed obsolete suggested term writers
The term "comics" long ago became obsolete and inaccurate. It merely defined the content of the early joke-based comical strips. "Sequential Art" is a more accurate description of the form. I first suggested it because I believed something needed to be done to correct the feeling of inferiority by artists and writers in this field.
artists becoming dreams escape gallery others work yorker
I did not have the dreams that the other artists working with me had, of 'moving uptown,' becoming an illustrator or a gallery painter, or those others who said, 'I'm going to go uptown and be a writer, I'm going to work for The New Yorker one day and escape this ghetto.' For me, there was no escape.
art thinking two
A key to my thinking has always been the almost fanatical belief that what I was engaged in was a literary art form. That belief was compounded out of ego and necessity, I guess, a combination of the two.
reading unique artist
Still,[...] in all forms of comics the sequential artist relies upon the tacit cooperation of the reader. This cooperation is based upon the convention of reading and the common cognitive disciplines. Indeed, it is this very voluntary cooperation, so unique to comics, that underlies the contract between artist and audience.
art long-ago feelings
The term comics long ago became obsolete and inaccurate. It merely defined the content of the early joke-based comical strips. Sequential Art is a more accurate description of the form. I first suggested it because I believed something needed to be done to correct the feeling of inferiority by artists and writers in this field.
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The message that we are trying to get across here is we are conscious of how great our assets are and what they can generate. We feel strongly about our future position and this is the beginning of a series of conference calls we will do to articulate that, to help the markets have the same confidence we have.
art management
Management is not a science, it is an art.
art making-money obligation
We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.
contempt historical largely life medium regarded spent
I've spent my whole life working in a medium that was regarded with contempt largely because of historical reasons.
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I believe that in spite of this courageous, not comic but tragic book by Will Eisner the story is hardly over. Yet it is a story very much worth telling, for one must fight the Big Lie and the hatred it spawns.
believe book comic fight hardly hate hatred spite tragic worth
I believe that in spite of this courageous, not comic but tragic book by Will Eisner the story is hardly over. Yet it is a story very much worth telling, for one must fight the Big Lie and the hatred it spawns.
amorphous base constantly details determine emotion identity memory past people pursuit selective shaped strategy
Memory is a very amorphous thing. It is selective and shaped by emotion . . . people are constantly in pursuit of the details of their past because it is from that they determine their own identity upon which they can base their strategy of survival.
achieve contact eager maintain
It's very important for me to maintain contact with the reader, because I'm writing to someone, and I'm desperately eager to achieve believability.