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Writing About Comics the Will Eisner Way
In 1985, decades after his first comic book, Will Eisner wrote Comics and Sequential Art, his treatise about how comic books work. The first of three books (Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy… [more]
A Brief History of the Spirit
Many articles have been written about The Spirit, but the best man to recount his origins was his creator. “When we started,” Will Eisner told The Comics Journal in one of the many interviews he… [more]
Sing Me a Sweet Song: Eisner’s Tragic Love Triangle
The lamentable times we find ourselves in are rife with class disparity and injustice. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and cheap, ambling diatribes against these injuries grow more and more cliché. The… [more]
Will Eisner and the Ethics of Care
Remembering Will Eisner – and borrowing from Michael Chabon – Art Spiegelman said that the Jews have always been known as the People of the Book, but now they were also the People of the… [more]
“A Will Eisner Reader”: Your Introduction to a Master
To me, he’s always “Mr Eisner”. I’m sure he would have told me to call him “Will”, but something in my upbringing would have prevented me from being so informal. He could just as easily… [more]
Frimme and His God: Eisner’s Meditations on Suffering
Will Eisner, like Walt Disney or Orson Welles, is a household name in his field of expertise. He pioneered his work with such love and dedication that few have contested his reputation as the man… [more]
To the Heart of Will Eisner
Some of you may remember that back in January, when I first started writing this weekly column, we conducted a poll of Sequart contributors who ranked the greatest works and most important creators in comics… [more]
The Master Builder: Lego Collides with Animal Man #19
If you haven’t seen The Lego Movie yet, you ought to. I found that the film lived up to its expectations, which included the usual kiddy fanfare. But what I was unable to anticipate was… [more]
Black Adam, Orientalism, and The Marvel Family #1
Black Adam is a focal point of American fears about the Other, and contributes to the perception of American moral and mental superiority over the Oriental inferior. [more]
Chasing Amy: A Pioneering Film Featuring Female Comics Creators
It’s easy to forget in 2014 that there was a time when comics weren’t really that close to the center of the cultural zeitgeist. But, though someone under twenty may not believe it, there was… [more]
Death of a Dream – “The Kindly Ones” Conclusion
The Kindly Ones ends much how it starts. There is a haunting momentum that drives the story forward, and yet it is clear how this narrative energy is spilling over from the entirety of the… [more]
A Thousand Batmen Blooming: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 8
Continued from last week. The superhero genre had become more and more susceptible to the myth of the definitive version. It was a fan-consuming fallacy which presumed that each character possessed an irreducible core of utterly… [more]
True Detective: Something Deep and Dark
Most people still see Matthew McConaughey as the pretty boy, the Prince Charming of chick flicks. Those individuals clearly haven’t seen Killer Joe or Dallas Buyers Club. But how could I blame them? When I… [more]
Unfinished Apocalypse: Doktor Sleepless
At times, reading Warren Ellis’ and Ivan Rodriguez’ unfinished story Doktor Sleepless, especially in single issues, can feel like showing up a day late to the party of the century. The vibrant community surrounding the… [more]
Hannibal: Beauty in Gore
The second season of Hannibal is upon us, and I, for one, think this show deserves much more attention than it has. Although this NBC series struggled with its first season’s ratings, many (including developer,… [more]
Bugged Out!: Scarab Reconsidered 20 Years On, Part Six
In the immortal words of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “And Now For Something Completely Different —” It’s my belief, dear reader, that we live in drastic times — and that we have been for some… [more]
Experiments in Slayage
Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires are two anthology comics published in trade paperback in 2001 and 2004, respectively. Both offer numerous diversions away from the established Buffy/Angel storylines and glimpses into… [more]
Pulling Out of the Dark Age?: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 7
Continued from last week. It’s only to be expected that Millar’s work on the JLA would mesh with Grant Morrison’s agenda. But it is remarkable how closely and effectively Millar’s contributions reflected his friend’s wider ambitions… [more]
Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: John Lewis’s March
The story begins on the Edmund Pettus Bridge with a long line of marchers in the center of the top panel. They walk two-by-two on the left side of the road, hugging the railing, prepared… [more]
On the Art and Cycle of Proper Suffering: The Artist-Figure in Phoenix: Karma Part 3
In the second part of this article, we looked at the challenges that faced each artist-figure in Phoenix: Karma. Now, in the final part of this article, we will look at how they come to… [more]
On “The Elements of Heartbreak”: A Special Valentine’s Day Post
Legion of Super-Heroes #31 (July 1992), co-written by Giffen and Tom & Mary Bierbaum, would go down in history as one of the most controversial Legion stories of all time. Taking a break from the… [more]
Dream in Conflict: “The Kindly Ones,” Chapters 7-9
It is revealed in The Kindly Ones Part 8 that the identity of the furies has lain in the titular designation all along. When Lyta Hall comes upon them in a solitary shack, deep in… [more]
“How Can You Possibly Live in a World Without Superheroes?”: The American Superhero Comics Of Mark Millar, Part 6
Continued from last week. Who was responsible for what in Morrison and Millar’s many collaborations? Credit boxes are often little help at all. Stories which carried the Morrison/Millar by-line were on occasion the product of an… [more]
The Foucault Gospel: Grant Morrison, French Philosophy, and One Mangy Coyote
William Shatner has said that one of the secrets to a fulfilling life is learning to say “yes.” Sure, you sometimes make mistakes, but if you say “yes” enough times you wind up recording albums… [more]
On the Art and Cycle of Proper Suffering: The Artist-Figure in Phoenix: Karma Part 2
In the first part of this article, we looked at the beginnings of the artist-figure Tezuka Osamu, the cultural time period that informed his work, the era he chose to create Phoenix: Karma in and… [more]