{"title":"Books by Will Eisner","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781787745353","title":"The Collected Will Eisner's John Law","description":"\u003cb\u003eWherever men live, be they nomads or city dwellers, there they must have law and a man to enforce it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeet Detective John Law of Crossroads City. Strong, decent, hardworking and hard-nosed. He’s a man who believes in the law and order. He’s the last of a dying breed.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1948, Will Eisner produced the first issue of “John Law Detective”, which he intended to add to a line of self-published comics. However, after Eisner's “Baseball Comics”, “Kewpies”, and “Pirate Comics” failed to find an audience, John Law never made it to the newsstand and was quietly dropped, with much of the original artwork reworked in 1950 for his most famous creation, The Spirit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeaturing original stories by Will Eisner, Gary Chaloner’s award-winning reboot from 2004, including a previously unpublished John Law Story, and a foreword by long-time Eisner publisher Denis Kitchen, this is a must-have for not just Eisner fans but comic collectors of all ages.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54926350188917,"sku":"9781787745353","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787745353_ec10afa6-fd2e-4c2f-ac40-1fbf810e5aff.jpg?v=1786025983"},{"product_id":"9780393328080","title":"The Dreamer","description":"A roman ? clef about Eisner's early years in the thriving comics industry prior to World War II-featuring new annotations that reveal comics pioneers such as Bob Kane and Jack Kirby who appear under pseudonyms.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56288428392821,"sku":"9780393328080","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328080_623a0508-2105-45f8-9952-eef3fea9718c.jpg?v=1786014196"},{"product_id":"9780393328066","title":"City People Notebook","description":"Character sketches and timeless snapshots of the eccentric denizens of the American city that perfectly capture Eisner's genius and powers of observation.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56288428425589,"sku":"9780393328066","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328066_6b04d1e0-2c41-4905-a845-72bee921f47d.jpg?v=1786014193"},{"product_id":"9780393061055","title":"Contract with God Trilogy – Life on Dropsie Avenue","description":"Will Eisner (1917–2005) saw himself as \"a graphic witness reporting on life, death, heartbreak, and the never-ending struggle to prevail.\" The publication of A Contract With God when Eisner was sixty-one proved to be a watershed moment both for him and for comic literature. It marked the birth of the modern graphic novel and the beginning of an era when serious cartoonists could be liberated from their stultifying comic-book format.   More than a quarter-century after the initial publication of A Contract With God, and in the last few months of his life, Eisner chose to combine the three fictional works he had set on Dropsie Avenue, the mythical street of his youth in Depression-era New York City.   As the dramas unfold in A Contract With God, the first book in this new trilogy, it is at 55 Dropsie Avenue where Frimme Hersh, the pious Jew, first loses his beloved daughter, then breaks his contract with his maker, and ends up as a slumlord; it is on Dropsie Avenue where a street singer, befriended by an aging diva, is so beholden to the bottle that he fails to grasp his chance for stardom; and it is there that a scheming little girl named Rosie poisons a depraved super’s dog before doing in the super as well.   In the second book, A Life Force, declared by R. Crumb to be \"a masterpiece,\" Eisner re-creates himself in his protagonist, Jacob Shtarkah, whose existential search reflected Eisner’s own lifelong struggle. Chronicling not only the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression but also the rise of Nazism and the spread of left-wing politics, Eisner combined the miniaturist sensibility of Henry Roth with the grand social themes of novelists such as Dos Passos and Steinbeck.   Finally, in Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood, Eisner graphically traces the social trajectory of this mythic avenue over four centuries, creating a sweeping panorama of the city and its waves of new residents—the Dutch, English, Irish, Jews, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans—whose faces changed yet whose lives presented an unending \"story of life, death, and resurrection.\"The Contract With God Trilogy is a mesmerizing, fictional chronicle of a universal American experience and Eisner’' most poignant and enduring literary legacy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56288959103349,"sku":"9780393061055","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393061055_3d72b4d9-2721-48db-8c0e-e1cd5c1e364b.jpg?v=1786014054"},{"product_id":"9780393328042","title":"A Contract With God","description":"Through a quartet of four interwoven stories, A Contract With God express the joy, exuberance, tragedy, and drama of life on the mythical Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx. This is the legendary book that launched a new art form and reaffirmed Will Eisner as one of the great pioneers of American graphics.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56288979583349,"sku":"9780393328042","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328042_109791b1-7c62-46de-ae78-7ba37176d8bc.jpg?v=1786014193"},{"product_id":"9780393331264","title":"Comics and Sequential Art – Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist","description":"Will Eisner is one of the twentieth century's great American artists, a man who pioneered the field of comic arts. Here, in his classic Comics and Sequential Art, he refines the art of graphic storytelling into clear, concise principles that every cartoonist, comic artist, writer, and filmmaker meeds to know.   Adapted from Eisner's landmark course at New York's School of Visual Arts, Comics and Sequential Art is an essential text filled with invaluable theories and easy-to-use techniques. Eisner reveals here the fundamentals of graphic storytelling. He addresses dialogue, anatomy, framing, and many other important aspects of the art form. Fully updated and revised to reflect current practices and technology, including a section on digital media, this introduction to the art of comics is as valuable a guide as it was when first published.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56288986825077,"sku":"9780393331264","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393331264_588ecc00-c19d-4513-9f4c-2bb40fa2bc47.jpg?v=1786013352"},{"product_id":"9780393284836","title":"A Contract with God and Other Stories of Dropsie Avenue – A Norton Critical Edition","description":"This Norton Critical Edition includes:Jared Gardner’s insightful introduction and explanatory notes.   Generous selections from four of Will Eisner’s major graphic novels and story collections, carefully chosen with student readers in mind.   Will Eisner’s interviews and published writing on comics and the graphic novel genre from 1978 to 2000.   Thirteen wide-ranging reviews and assessments of Eisner’s works.   Critical essays by Andrew J. Kunka, Paul Williams, Jeremy Dauber, Greg M. Smith, and Derek Parker Royal.   A chronology of Will Eisner’s life and work and a selected bibliography.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289564983669,"sku":"9780393284836","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393284836_cbc8a8dc-f402-44f5-ae29-03ecb9158d69.jpg?v=1786014143"},{"product_id":"9780393061079","title":"Life, In Pictures – Autobiographical Stories","description":"In what will be the closest thing Eisner fans  will see to an autobiography, the great master  and pioneer of American graphic arts presents  the most intimate and personal perspective yet  on his life as a writer, a professional, and an  artist. “The Dreamer” and “To the Heart of the  Storm” describe Eisner’s gritty early life and  career, while “The Name of the Game” chronicles  a personal history of his wife’s family.  Finally, two shorter pieces illuminate the  bookends of a legendary career: “The Day I  Became a Professional” —which will appeal to any hopeful young artist—describes Eisner’s first  rejection from a potential publisher, and “A  Sunset in Sunshine City” provides a poignant  portrait of Eisner in old age. The book features famous characters from the world of comics (under pseudonyms, of course) and other historical  figures and family members, all drawn with  Eisner’s characteristic mastery and technique.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289567670645,"sku":"9780393061079","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393061079_a711718d-db16-45bf-897b-c578a3626634.jpg?v=1786014055"},{"product_id":"9780393328165","title":"The Building","description":"With an unparalleled eye for stories and expressive illustration, Will Eisner, the master and pioneer of American comics art, presents one of his renowned celebrations of the Big Apple. No illustrator evoked the melancholy duskiness of New York City as expressively as Eisner, who knew the city from the bottom up.The Building is a story filled with ghosts, and a testament to our greatest human qualities—a deeply moving chronicle of a city building and the people who inhabited it.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289588871541,"sku":"9780393328165","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328165_a308f67c-9a4a-44bb-a8c9-cc71f0b9df35.jpg?v=1786032910"},{"product_id":"9780393328608","title":"The Plot – The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion","description":"The Plot, which examines the astonishing conspiracy and the fabrication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has become a worldwide phenomenon since its hardcover publication, taught in classrooms around the globe. Purported to be the actual blueprints by Jewish leaders to take over the world, the Protocols, first published in 1902, have become gospel truth to international millions. Presenting a pageant of historical figures from nineteenth-century Russia to today's ideologues, including Tsar Nicholas II, Henry Ford, and Adolf Hitler, Will Eisner unravels and dispels one of the most devastating hoaxes of the twentieth century.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289588904309,"sku":"9780393328608","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328608_885d35d3-5be3-4dca-b9dd-55e695063e7f.jpg?v=1786014199"},{"product_id":"9780393328141","title":"Minor Miracles","description":"In this classic graphic novel, Will Eisner’s pen cuts an expansive swath through all aspects of the human condition. A powerful portrayal of Jewish life in the New York City of Eisner’s youth, Minor Miracles encourages similar introspection as it examines how luck and coincidence converge in everyday life in ways that, in hindsight, seem miraculous.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289636155765,"sku":"9780393328141","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328141_56ce2ad6-801b-4951-9ed8-d6bd24af8bb0.jpg?v=1786014197"},{"product_id":"9780393331288","title":"Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative – Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist","description":"Designed and outlined by Will Eisner before his death in 2005, this posthumous masterwork, the third and final book in the Will Eisner Instructional Series, finally reveals the secrets of Eisner’s own techniques and theories of movement, body mechanics, facial expressions, and posture: the key components of graphic storytelling. From his earliest comics, including the celebrated Spirit, to his pioneering graphic novels, Eisner understood that the proper use of anatomy is crucial to effective storytelling. His control over the mechanical and intuitive skills necessary for its application set him apart among comics artists, and his principles of body grammar have proven invaluable to legions of students in overcoming what is perhaps the most challenging aspect of creating comics. Buttressed by dozens of illustrations, which display Eisner’s mastery of expression, both subtle and overt, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative will benefit comics fans, students, and teachers and is destined to become the essential primer on the craft.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289638449525,"sku":"9780393331288","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393331288_7449388d-3153-433e-b582-934ca17e8573.jpg?v=1786013355"},{"product_id":"9780393328073","title":"The Will Eisner Reader","description":"A collection of brilliant short-story gems, including \"A Sunset in Sunshine City\"-an ode to memory and nostalgia inspired by Eisner's transition to life in Florida after his \"retirement\" in 1985.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311743447413,"sku":"9780393328073","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393328073_d34c30b7-3f1c-4ad4-b533-cfa0c58660aa.jpg?v=1786014195"},{"product_id":"9781506749600","title":"Eerie Archives Volume 11 (Double-Sized Volume)","description":"\u003cb\u003eA DOUBLE SHOT OF TERROR—TWO HORRIFYING VOLUMES IN ONE!\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eLEGENDARY CREATORS OF LEGENDARY TERROR!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow in a packed-full double volume with twice as many ghoulish stories, previously collected in Dark Horse's hardcover volumes 11 and 12. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCollecting \u003cb\u003eeight \u003c\/b\u003efull issues of Warren Publishing's legendary \u003ci\u003eEerie\u003c\/i\u003e horror anthology and nine covers, this double volume paperback edition features the inimitable art of the legendary Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Wally Wood, Will Eisner, and more!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCrack open this tome to read Esteban Maroto’s enchanting tales of Dax the Warrior, the explosive introduction of the Hunter the demon killer of the future, a run of breathtaking covers by Sanjulian and Ken Kelly and a do-it-yourself Werewolf! board game top off this fine collection of 1970s horror tales!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCollects \u003ci\u003eEerie\u003c\/i\u003e magazine #52–#58 and #60, and the cover for \u003ci\u003eEerie\u003c\/i\u003e #59, a reprint issue of Dax the Damned stories that were collected in past \u003ci\u003eEerie Archives\u003c\/i\u003e volumes.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368940351861,"sku":"9781506749600","price":30.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781506749600_f1d5a78a-d46f-4b34-8694-cf58fdad2040.jpg?v=1786021940"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-will-eisner.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}