Everyone loves comic book trivia, but with decades of comics behind, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite names in comics in our continuing video series. You think you know comics? Well, here’s a few things you might not know!

This coming week will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Will Eisner, and so this week we are casting our video gaze upon one of the most innovative and influential creators in the history of comics. If all you know about Will Eisner is that the comics industry's most prestigious awards, this video will enumerate many of his other accomplishments, from his time packaging comics for publishers that saw him create such heroes as Blackhawk and Uncle Sam, to the debut of his signature creation the Spirit, to his time creating instructional comics for the Army, to decades of innovation in the graphic novel format. If you don't know Eisner, you should, and this video will help get you started.

Show notes:

  • You can see our video on Eisner's most famous creation, The Spirit, here.
  • A brand new art book came out literally this week celebrating Eisner's contributions to the art of comics: Will Eisner: A Centennial Celebration.
  • This book collects various Spirit stories from across the decades, including some not by Eisner.
  • A collection of Eisner's cartoons for the Army's PS Magazine is here.
  • The Contract With God Trilogy is here.
  • Eisner's semi-autobiographical graphic novel, The Dreamer, is here. That one's got pseudo-Jack Kirby in it.
  • Eisner's final graphic novel, The Plot, is here.
  • Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel is a survey of Eisner's work and life, together with interviews with notable cartoonists influenced by him, written by Paul Levitz. You can check that out here.
  • If you want to learn how to make comics, there are worse books you could buy than Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrativeand Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative.
  • Honestly, you should just go to Amazon's Will Eisner page and just go nuts.

Watch more installments of You Think You Know Comics? below and let us know what comic book characters we should cover next!

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