Week 5: Body Talk: Eisner and Thompson

Will Eisner's A Contract with God is a collection of four short stories set in the 30's era fictional Bronx neighborhood. In Eisner's world, the denizens of the Bronx gossip about their neighbors, scheme to escape the terrible realities of tenement life, and hang an endless supply of laundry to dry. Families fall apart over the weekend and drunks fling their infant children across rooms in drunken rages. A whole page is even devoted to the word "Shaddap!" There is a surprising sexual frankness in three of the four narratives. Women are objects and sex is either portrayed as infidelity, desperate attempts at personal gain, or attempted rape.

In this story, Eisner figuratively draws his characters and situations in this very sketchy line work. Some of it is pleasing to look at, while other parts of the story's line work is just hard to make out because the lines are used for the values as well. Simplistic lessons abound: honesty is good, greed is bad, and no man is above God. His characters emote hugely and gesticulate wildly, often with a fist raised to the heavens.