Book Review: The Plot by Will Eisner

The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Will Eisner

Seeking a way to manipulated the fickle Czar Nicholas II, Russian bureaucrats needed a justification for blaming the country's problems on Russian Jews rather than the repressive government. Mathieu Golovinski, a minor official with a track record in forging evidence, was commissioned. Golovinski found The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, a French propaganda piece meant to discredit Napoleon III's corrupt government. Golovinski freshened up the vocabulary and shifted the target to a supposed Jewish conspiracy to take over the whole world. Thus The Protocols of the Elders of Zion came into existence. To get it to the Czar's attention, they passed the text on to a Russian court holy man, Sergius Nilus. He incorporated the text into his own book The Great and the Small before The Protocols became an independent work in the early 1900s. The book spread worldwide, especially after the Russian Revolution caused a dispersal of Russian aristocrats fleeing the Bolshevik tyranny. By the 1920s, The Dialogue in Hell was rediscovered and The Times of London had an article detailing the obvious plagiarism. In spite of constant debunking, The Protocols is still in publication and people are still willing to believe, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, that it accurately describes what Jews are like and what Jews are planning. Such a belief is eminently ridiculous but people often grasp at straws in order to justify their prejudices.

This book documents (in Eisner's typically evocative graphic format) the history of The Protocols. It's the last graphic book that Eisner made and is the product of twenty years of research. The case against The Protocols is irrefutable, as is the sad fact that some people still give it credence. Eisner goes over the various publications all over the world in the last half of the twentieth century all the way up to 2003 when the book was published.

Highly recommended--It's important to be informed about this nonsense and to be able to refute it.

Book Review: Fagin the Jew by Will Eisner

Fagin the Jew by Will Eisner

Bothered by the stereotypical depiction of Jews in classic literature, Will Eisner wrote this story of Fagin, the leader of the youthful gang of pick-pockets in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. Fagin is frequently referred to as "the Jew" and is depicted as a money-grubbing low-life. Decades after it was published, Dickens removed most of the references to Fagin as a Jew in the 1867 edition. By then, the book was already widely read. In response, Eisner wrote and illustrated a life story for Fagin, making him a more sympathetic character.

Eisner uses a framing device of Dickens visiting Fagin on death row. Fagin explains his story since it "has remained untold and overlooked." [p. 5] He came to London as an infant when his parents fled oppression in central Europe. The community was welcoming. Jews who had fled earlier from the Iberian peninsula were already established in society. The new wave of immigrants from Germany and Poland were looked upon as lower class but they still had opportunities to rise. Fagin had quite a few opportunities in his youth. A combination of bad luck and prejudice kept him in the lower classes, winding up in a penal colony working off a ten-year sentence of servitude. He finally returned to London where the novel's plot begins, leading back to Fagin confronting Dickens over his portrayal. The anger of the scene is mollified by an epilogue giving Fagin a beautiful though hidden legacy.

I haven't read Oliver Twist; I've watched one or two movies long ago; mostly my knowledge of the story is from the musical Oliver! which has a fairly sympathetic portrayal of Fagin. Eisner's work is certainly more sympathetic. His story is founded on historical research, giving the reader a look at different aspects of society and a fuller depiction of the times. Amazingly, this story doesn't suffer from the author's agenda. Eisner weaves a fascinating tale as he builds his case for the unfair negative stereotype reinforced by the novel. Eisner's work is a great companion piece and critique. I am inspired to read Dickens' novel, which shows the corruption of the London criminal world and the horrible treatment of orphans at the time.

Book Review: The Best of The Spirit by Will Eisner

The Best of The Spirit written and illustrated by Will Eisner

After enjoying the Contract With God Trilogy, I sought out some more of Will Eisner's work. His most popular hero is The Spirit, whose stories appeared as a Sunday edition insert in many newspapers from 1940 to 1952. In subsequent decades, stories would appear here and there in comic book format. The character has a long history and is an early comic book hero. He's not quite a superhero, though. Police Detective Denny Colt is presumed dead and buried but he was really in a sort of coma. He came out of the grave and decided to become a crime fighter who could work just outside the law. He informed Police Commissioner Dolan of his secret identity, then put on his dark blue suit, hat, and mask and began fighting crime as The Spirit. This collection of stories is from the 1940s and 1950s.

The stories run a wide range of themes and styles. Some are straight up crime or noir dramas. Some are comedies, horrors, and romances (with one science fiction story!). Occasionally, the stories don't even have The Spirit in them or he is an extremely peripheral character. The style is often experimental. One story has two parallel narratives each in its own column. Another story is told through the eyes of one character with each panel showing the outline of his eyes as he sees the scene.

They are all interesting to read. My favorites were "The Christmas Spirit" where Santa sneaks into jail and gives a con one wish that turns out surprisingly well for the con and the reader; "Two Lives" where an escaped convict gets to swap lives with a harried husband with wistfully comic results; and "The Story of Rat-Tat, the Toy Machine Gun" where a department store heist brings a toy tommy gun into the lives of a gang and a child who wants to join the gang.

I highly recommend this book for comic fans and action fans and those who love good storytelling.

Book Review: The Contract with God Trilogy by Will Eisner

The Contract with God Trilogy by Will Eisner

Will Eisner had a long, successful career in comics before he was able to publish these three books. He had written and drawn for newspapers, comic books, and training materials. His style of writing was not considered appropriate for serious drama. Thus these serious dramas about life in a New York City neighborhood were deemed unpublishable in the early 1970s. He finally got the first volume published and it became a critical hit, creating a new branch of the comic book industry--"graphic novels."

The stories deal with the frustration and disillusionment of the characters living in a run-down tenement building. One man's adopted daughter loses her life and he turns his back on God. An aging diva and an ambitious street singer use each other for personal gains. A group of people go to the Catskills to escape the hardships of the city only to find plenty of human drama dealing with each other. Many other stories show the lives and history of the fictional neighborhood (Dropsie Avenue), depicting the political, racial, and social ebbs and flows as wealth comes in and out along with various waves of immigrants and construction.

The storytelling is well done with evocative black and white drawings showing the stark reality of urban depression, decay, and decadence. The later stories have fascinating political machinations, with various characters using the brains and charisma (and sometimes brute force) to improve things as best they can. The last of the trilogy, "Dropsie Avenue," goes through the history from the 1700s to the late 1900s, with the waves of different immigrants having their impact on the community. It made for convincing and compelling reading, as did the rest of the book. This book is rightly considered a classic.

Parental advisory: As a realistic work of fiction aimed at adults, no punches are pulled when depicting racism, violence, and sex. I'd recommend this for late teens and up.