Funny, exciting, genius layouts
I’ve been on a mission to read the work of Will Eisner, the deceased eminence grise of American comics. Eisner was responsible for The Spirit, a hugely influential strip syndicated weekly through Sunday newspapers through the 1940s; for a long time after that he turned his attention to practical instructional comics, largely for the US Army, but in the 1970s he pioneered the form we know today as the graphic novel, writing longer stories intended for book publication, on the kinds of themes normally addressed by novelists. In the history of comics he is of undeniable importance, although I feel ill-equipped to really assess his significance, as I’m pretty much ignorant of (for example) the history of bandes dessinées or manga, both huge commercial comics markets, and both sites in which comics were accorded respect as cultural forms well before they were in the English speaking world. Comics is a big world, and only partially documented, which does not benefit from the huge hinterland of criticism and theory that exists in relation to literature or film, for example. I think it’s safe to say that Eisner has exerted an influence on many creators, however, and I can definitely confirm that his work is well worth reading.
Life On Another Planet is a satire, which presents itself as science-fiction, but actually concerns itself with American politics, turning a pretty jaundiced and unsentimental eye on the relationship between Washington and Wall Street, and the relationship between American foreign policy and private commercial interest. As I began to read I found it stretching my credibility, until I realised what sort of creature it is; so don’t look for realistic representations of espionage or scientific research (although Eisner did put the work in to give his SF a suitably elaborated framework, rather than leaving crucial elements unexplained), but do look for plotting and characterisation as cartoonish as the art. The basic premise is to explore the social and political consequences of alien contact, the opening scene showing the holy grail of the SETI project being concealed and hoarded by scientists for selfish gain… Few characters come out any better, aside from the ‘hero’, an astrophysicist turned unwilling CIA operative, who sets out to disrupt any partisan or nationalist attempt to unilaterally contact the alien intelligence, but even he is pretty flawed. The American administration and establishment is portrayed as utterly corrupt, in hock to organised crime and shadowy commercial conspiracies. The book is a relatively short read, funny and exciting by turns; it is rarely particularly moving, except in terms of the well channelled political anger that seeps out of each panel. This is a subtle thing, however, despite the root and branch disdain Eisner shows for the structure of the American state, always moderated by his humour and his trademark empathy. It is the work of a master; his art is stylised and unpretentiously commercial in form, though extremely skilled, but it is in the page layouts that his formal genius is truly striking. Panels are rarely given hard borders, and when they are they are drawn freehand; everything flows beautifully, the narrative taking centre stage at all times, but if you stop to look, every page is a graphical koan of superb balance and elegance. Sometimes the layouts are straightforward, but moments of drama are broken up with every device in the book, most of which were Eisner’s own invention! This is a great comic book, and although it’s not the best of Eisner’s work that I’ve read, it’s a really good read.