January 21, 2005/Shevat 11 5765, Vol. 57, No. 21
Comic activism
RAFAEL MEDOFF
|
 Comic book artist Will Eisner, who used his craft to fight anti-Semitism, died earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Kitchen and Hansen Agency |
The cause of death was complications from heart bypass surgery.
Eisner invented the "graphic novel," which used comic book-style art to tell a book-length story and influenced an entire generation of cartoonists.
Born on New York City's Lower East Side in 1917, William Eisner was the son of European Jewish immigrants, and his experiences growing up in interwar Brooklyn and the Bronx later would figure prominently in his work.
Eisner's most famous character creation was the Spirit, an unconventional crime-fighter whose adventures appeared in the Sunday color comics pages from 1940 to 1952. His stories featured innovative graphics and storylines that alternately were humorous, clever and moralistic.
In the 1950s, Eisner began using cartoon art for educational purposes, helping to create the U.S. Army magazine PS, which he produced for two decades. It used cartoon illustrations to teach soldiers how to maintain equipment and vehicles.
Then, at an age when most people would be planning their retirement, Eisner launched a major new phase of his career, one that drew heavily on his Jewish roots. In 1978 he authored "A Contract With God," the first graphic novel, which featured comic book-style slice-of-life stories set in a heavily Jewish Bronx tenement in what he called "the dirty '30s."
Eisner produced 10 more graphic novels in the 1980s and 1990s, many utilizing themes from the lives of Jewish immigrants. "A Life Force," for example, chronicled the life of Jacob Shtarkah, an aging carpenter, as he struggled through the Depression years, rising anti-Semitism and the intermarriage of his daughter.
Two years ago, Eisner undertook a major new venture: combating anti-Semitism through cartoon art. His graphic novel "Fagin the Jew," published by Doubleday, featured the Oliver Twist character in a book-length rebuke of Charles Dickens' anti-Semitic portrayal of him.
Eisner next turned his attention to the most infamous anti-Semitic text of all, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which purports to reveal a secret Jewish plot to rule the world.
Shocked by the book's continuing popularity in Arab and Muslim countries, Eisner set to work on a full-length, line-by-line rebuttal of "The Protocols," told through the medium of cartoon illustration and titled "The Plot."
Rafael Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Melrose Park, Pa.