Will Eisner

Will Eisner (1917–2005) was an American comics artist and author. In the 1930s, he worked on various comic series; in 1940, he created The Spirit, whose adventures appeared for twelve years as the lead feature of a weekly newspaper supplement. With A Contract with God (1978), Eisner produced one of the first successful graphic novels and helped establish the genre. His other works included the autobiographically inspired books The Dreamer and To the Heart of the Storm, as well as The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (2005). His teaching at New York’s School of Visual Arts led to the books Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling. Eisner received numerous international honors, including the Grand Prix Alfred and, in 2002, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.