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A Life Force page by Will Eisner - Planche originale
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A Life Force page by Will Eisner

Planche originale
1972
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Here is an early page from A Life Force which is the second book in the Contract with God/Dropsie Avenue trilogy. These comics are extremely powerful reading material. They don't have any costumed heroes, just the kind of everyday heroes one might encounter soldiering on despite the adversities of circumstance and life in general. This page features the main character Jacob Shtarkah in a two panel layout that utterly brilliant. The top panel is almost two panels and the space gives time between the left and right of the panel as if it were two. The lighting is remarkable with Jacob being lit through a window with shadows adding to his sense of despair in losing his employment mid-depression. With the hat and shadows, it a very Spirit-esque image. The body language of the the characters speaks volumes such that the text doesn't need to. Benjamin is looking at the plaque with pride of the study that Jacob has built over the past 5 years and will now be named after the donor(Goldfarb) and Jacob is out on his own without any further work. The black background removes noise from the panel and gives the desk the ability to be a white silhouette which also gives the second panel more room to fit in a bigger character. The desk now is a brilliant light coming down and providing a spotlight on the floor as if Jacob is now a lone actor on a darkened stage talking to himself. It is a simple page but so masterful in design and execution. What strikes me most about Eisner's work on this series and his other works around this time are the self reflections and questions he poses. In just a few pages from here Jacob is sitting in an alley next to a cockroach laying on its back and contemplating why we keep on going, what drives us to live when things are so bad. He questions whether man made God or God made man. In the end he saves the cockroach from being stepped on at his own peril. The story goes on through the great depression and tells the story of a people and a city as much as it does of Jacob and his family.


I had the honor of meeting Will Eisner almost two decades ago at a comic convention in Toronto. I had met many artists by that point in my career but meeting him was something special. It was only for a moment, a hand shake, a little signature and a brief five or six sentences back and forth. What I took away from that left a tangible memory that still stands out for me. He had a presence to him of confidence and humility. He was gracious and a gentleman toward some young stranger he had never met but who had stood in line for 2 hours for this brief moment. I have read so many interviews with him since and seen him speak but never got the chance to meet him a second time but once was enough...I had been in the presence of greatness... and I knew it at that time.

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A propos de Will Eisner

William Erwin Eisner, dit Will Eisner, est un auteur de bande dessinée américain. Créateur du Spirit ainsi que du concept de « roman graphique » et de ses premières applications aux États-Unis, théoricien et directeur éditorial, c'est une figure majeure de la bande dessinée du XXe siècle et l'un de ses plus grands auteurs.