Comics Artist Will Eisner: Born 94 Years Ago Today

"Google Doodle Celebrates Comics Legend Will Eisner"
David Murphy, PCMag.com (March 6, 2011)

"Google has unveiled its latest doodle—a creative play on the logo that adorns the company's primary search page. Comics artist Scott McCloud assisted in the creation of today's illustration, which pays tribute to comic book legend Will Eisner. The masked character making up the two 'Os' in Google represents one of Eisner's more well-known works: The Spirit, or Denny Colt, a crime-fighting detective whose comic (of the same name) ran in newspapers between 1940 and 1952.

"Subsequent work by Eisner, including his graphic novels entitled, 'A Contract With God, and Other Tenement Stories,' as well as a graphical retelling of Herman Melville's, 'Moby Dick,' earned Eisner the unofficial honor of being considered the father of modern graphical storytelling. He continue to publish graphical books up until his death in 2004...."

Eisner's books, some of them, have been updated and reprinted - successfully, in the Lemming's opinion. A purist might insist that the original versions are the only 'real' Eisner instructional books: But the Lemming thinks the revised reprints are useful, too.

Anyway: Will Eisner was born 94 years ago today; contributed quite a lot to the comics in America; and, in the Lemming's opinion, is one of the folks who made it easier to regard comics as 'real' art.

Not what the Lemming's ersatz alter ego, Narcissus-X, would call 'art:' and that's another topic.

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