The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel
Dubbed the "Most influential comic book artist of all time," Will Eisner began his professional comic career at the age of nineteen. Over the next 68 years he changed the world of comics, fathering the graphic novel and expanding the literary potential of the genre. The highest award in the world of comics is aptly named the Will Eisner Award. With the first issues of The Spirit in 1940 Eisner began to differentiate his work, creating gritty characters shaped by the vice and violence of their urban worlds. Eisner's acclaimed work on The Spirit served as the definitive prototype for the graphic novel--a phrase he would later coin. His notable graphic novels and work includes: Sundiata: A Legend of Africa, Moby Dick, A Contract with God, and the academic work Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative.