Will Eisner
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Will Eisner in 2004
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| Born | William Erwin Eisner March 6, 1917 Brooklyn, New York City |
| Died | January 3, 2005 (aged 87) Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Publisher |
| Pseudonym(s) | William Erwin Maxwell |
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Notable works
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William Erwin "Will" Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor, and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Eisner's father Shmuel "Samuel" Eisner was born March 6, 1886, in Kolomyia, Austria-Hungary, and was one of eleven children. He aspired to be an artist, and as a teenager painted murals for rich patrons and Catholic churches in Vienna. To avoid conscription in the army, he moved to New York before the outbreak of World War I. There he found getting work difficult as his English skills were poor. He made what living he could painting backdrops for vaudeville and the Jewish theater.
Eisner's mother, Fannie Ingber, was born to Jewish parents from Romania April 25, 1891, on a ship bound for the US. Her mother died on her tenth birthday, and was quickly followed by her father. An older stepsister thereafter raised her and kept her so busy with chores that she had little time for socializing or schooling; she did what she could later in life to keep knowledge of her illiteracy from her children.
Family introduced Shmuel and Fannie, who were distant relatives. They had three children: son Will Erwin, born on his father's birthday in 1917; son Julian, born February 3, 1921; and daughter Rhoda, born November 2, 1929.
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