Comic Pioneer Dead at 87

Will Eisner is widely considered to be the father of the modern comic book, or graphic novel. In fact, he is said to have coined that term himself and used it to describe his book "A Contract With God" to combat the idea that stories told with a series of pictures could never be anything but amusing diversions.

Not only did Eisner lay the cornerstone for the graphic novel, his syndicated comic strip, "The Spirit" ran for over ten years. Although The Spirit did have a superhero costume, he differed from other serial heroes in that he had no special powers. He was often described as a middle class kind of hero, one to whom the public could relate.

It is no understatement to say that the comic book/graphic novel community lost one of its greatest contributors when Will Eisner died early this week at 87 years of age. Eisner was the first to use close-ups of his characters to emphasize emotion. He also replicated camera angles in some of his books to give them a more interesting look. Furthermore, he wasn't simply content to entertain, but in his books he addressed serious social and psychological issues. The techniques he used have been imitated and reinvented hundreds of times since, and have enriched the genre to an exponential degree.