Today, I’d like to focus for a brief moment on Will Eisner’s A Contract with God. If you haven’t read it it, high recommend. And if it’s been a while, it’s worth revisiting.
A contract with God was published in 1978. As a book it tells us four stories about different characters living in one building. It is often referred to as the first graphic novel, thought cartoonists and writers debate this. But what can be said is that Will Eisner brought a literary approach to comics with this publication. After all, this is the book with witch Eisner coined the term “Graphic Novel.” his intent was to have this book for sale in book stores instead of only Comic Shops.
In 1988, Eisner produced a sequel to this book by crating more stories within the same tenement. He titled it “A Life Force.” And seven years later, the follow-up “Dropsie Avenue” expanded his reach by telling stories about the development of the Bronx from 1870 all the way to (at the time) present day.
Currently, you can find these three books individually sold. Or you can acquire them in once single volume under the name “The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue.”
