Happy birthday, Will Eisner!

Above: Comics legend and teacher, Will Eisner. William Erwin "Will" Eisner was born on March 6, 1917.

Will Eisner was always a wealth of information. Many members of P.I.C. were once students in Will’s ‘Sequential Art' class at the School of Visual Arts.



Above photo: Original artwork from Will Eisner’s A CONTRACT WITH GOD. This piece was part of the School of Visual Arts’ Ink Plots exhibit. The photo was taken during the exhibit's reception on October 14th 2010 by Miguel Martinez Joffre.

"I think comic books are far more than two mutants trashing each other." -Will Eisner (September 1986)

"I feel the same as the other winners ... proud and pleased by the approval of my peers. Of course I'm embarrassed at winning an award that has my name on it. But it will not stop me from continuing to produce the very best I can do. Perhaps I ought to change my name." -Will Eisner (who won a 2002 Eisner Award for "Best Graphic Album" for his THE NAME OF THE GAME)

"That’s one of the main struggles in this medium, anyway, is the struggle for sovereignty over storytelling and art. I believe this is a language. I think of it as a literary form. Comics is literature." -Will Eisner (from an interview in HERO GETS GIRL! By TwoMorrows Publishing)

"(SHOP TALK interviews) reinforced the feeling I always had about the fact that this (comics) is a valid literary form and also a valid field to be in. And when you talk to guys like Joe Kubert and Jack Kirby- as simple a guy as he was- you got the feeling that you were part of group of giants. That’s exactly what they were." -Will Eisner (on his new book, SHOP TALK, 2001)



Above photo: Original artwork from Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT.