The Spirit of Will Eisner Captured in Museum Show
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The Spirit couldn’t have been more infectious at the reception the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art held Thursday to mark the opening of its exhibition of “Will Eisner’s New York, From The Spirit to the Modern Graphic Novel.” The exhibition, at the museum’s space at 594 Broadway, mounts a stunning array of drawings and paintings by the iconic master of what he called sequential art.
It also features a related exhibit work by creators influenced by the legendary draftsman, including such giants as Art Spiegelman, the creator of Maus; Jack Kirby, the artist behind the Marvel superheroes; Jules Feiffer, who began on Eisner’s staff and went on to his own glorious career; and Joseph Kubert, who rose to fame via his covers for D.C. Comics, to name but a few of the famous names present.
An exhibit like this makes it possible for one to lean forward and peer at the original drawings — or, in some cases, paintings — and, in so doing, double one’s appreciation of the art of Eisner and those he influenced. It has always been apparent from the newspaper supplements, books, and comics in which his work appeared. But getting close to the original drawings, and to such a broad array of them, reinforces the notion that Eisner was a creator on the scale of, say, Daumier.
Ellen S. Abramowitz, the chairman of the museum, spoke of how emotional it was to see how many artists were influenced by Eisner, who died in 2005 at the age of 88. The point was esched by the Canadian artist, Paul Rivoche, whose drawing, “Slum Reisen,” or “Slum Tour,” was on exhibit.
“The amazing thing about Will Eisner,” one of the co-curators of the show, Danny Fingeroth, told the New York Sun “is not only how good he was in both the Spirit and the Graphic Novel eras, but just how much material of high quality he produced over the years. He never stopped coming up with unique ideas which he would then masterfully execute.”
The exhibit coincides with the 10th anniversary of MOCCA, which has emerged as a jewel among the small museums in the city. The Eisner exhibition is up until June 30, and information on times and tickets is available here.
