A Contract with God

Eisner was a genius storyteller and comic artist. His power of observation is superb.His characters are full of life and his use of vernacular language adds to his character portrayals.

good comic written by a legend in the comics industry in america will eisner, worth a read mainly because, this well portrayed, good writing, and illustrations have a certain old school feel to it. read it, read it now.

R. Crumb calls it comix. Jules Feiffer called it junk art. Will Eisner gives it the ugly-sounding title of sequential art. A popular name for it now is graphic fiction. What DOES one call the genre in which Eisner was such a pioneer?Eisner tells us that his goal in A Contract with God, a book that has become famous for being the "first" graphic novel, was to create an art work in which there is "no interruption in the flow of narrative because the picture and the text are so totally dependent on each other as to be inseparable" (preface). This is a hard trick to pull off. Equally difficult is the task of telling a coherent story that many readers will (unfavorably) judge using the standards that they apply to novels or short stories. Whatever else a graphic novel is, it doesn't fall in either of those genres. The graphic novel is much more impressionistic, more minimalistic, than even a short short story can afford to be.Eisner takes the bull by the horns in this ground-breaking book, and puts not one but four separate stories between one cover. His artwork truly is breathtaking, pretty nearly succeeding in the uninterrupted flow he's aiming at. The stories themselves are uneven in quality, and each of them, with the possible exception of the last one ("Cookalein"), tend toward the maudlin in places. Moreover, the most ambitious of them, the title story, seems especially underdeveloped. It may be that the potential depth of the story simply can't be expressed in this genre. At the same time, though, each of them captures, in a way reminiscent of the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer, something of the flavor of Jewish city life in the 1930s.All in all, Eisner's book is both an historical landmark in the evolution of junk art, sequential art, graphic fiction, or whatever we eventually call it, as well as a collection of stories that are still very readable and artistically commendable.

Will Eisner is a genius. This is a great introduction to the beginnings of the genre of graphic novels. I liked the theme, a fable kind of sorts and the drawings have all the pathos and joy you could possibly tell in words. As a matter of fact, on your second read....don't look at the words.Eisner's life story is really interesting, the people and ideas made for a great tale if you've the time.

A true classic. This startled the “graphic novel” as we know it. Comics were no longer a kids medium (though writers like frank miller were also seeing to that.) Really delves into the lives of poor folk, specifically Jews in New York during Eisners formative years. The first story is by far the best and takes a lot of what Judaism is and turns it into an accessible format.

Early American story factually portraying life in the inner city experienced by immigrants. Takes place in New York during the depression. For me, an enchanting read.

I did research A Contract With God before I read it and understand its iconic place in the genre. I didn't like the drawings at all, although I could tell there was a lot of detail in them. And I didn't find the stories all that good either. Perhaps they were dated, but the entire experience of reading my first graphic novel disappointed me. It just didn't meet my expectations.

The stories are painfully honest and the artwork full of rich detail. If you don’t know Eisner's work, this an outstanding introduction to the master at the height of his talents.It isn’t for kids—it deals with adult subjects and the art doesn’t pull any punches.

Qué decir.....léanlo, admirenlo, y disfruten.

Pretty much the perfect graphic novel.Second only to the classic, Maus.Yes it really is that good!

Sensacional!

There was a big dent in the middle of the book which ran several pages deeper and with use this might give in and leave a big whole in the first ten to fifteen pages of the book. Paper quality and cover quality also seems bad.

Well done, but I didn't enjoy it particularly.