FATHER OF TRASH

"Will Eisner could have drawn a better, sexier and shorter book review than you could ever write," said a scolding friend in a recent conversation. "Don't take offence."

None taken. Upon reading two recently published collections of Eisner, whom I'd never read despite a life-long comics addiction, I can see what's most remarkable about the work are those qualities that my friend successfully pegged as sheer economy in storytelling and "sexiness."

In his early work, The Spirit, Eisner tells the story of a chivalrous masked vigilante-replete with dashing good looks and a solid physique-who solves various crimes around Central City, enamoring a dangerous vixen or two along the way. Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman series, points out in his introduction to The Best of the Spirit that "a lot of the delight in the Spirit is in watching Eisner invent and discover new ways of telling stories-the use of white space and panels to represent freedom and captivity in one story, the echoing reflecting dual panels in another, the use of the murderer's point of view in a third." To this list of innovations, I would add a willingness to show a thorough and deep understanding of human nature that, even at this early stage in his career, is evident in the artist's gift for characterization. Also, the "acting"-the collection of facial and bodily gestures of the characters-is consistently superb in its range of expression.

Surprisingly, the character of Denny Colt, the Spirit himself, remains strangely undeveloped throughout the series. Sure, it is exciting to see him battling his way through the underworld, but the vigilante stays largely uninteresting, at least in the selection of strips chosen for the anthology. Much more intriguing are the various villains, glamorous women and peripheral characters that populate the noir-ish setting: the war hero turned into a psychotic killer; P'Gell, the Turkish gold-digger; the poor little rich girl Wild Rice (the precursor of Patty Hearst, perhaps?) and the gorgeous Silk Satin. All of them possess elements of tragedy, pathos and melancholy that make each seven-page story feel fully developed. Nowadays, it takes authors several 24-page issues to achieve that much depth.

One drawback to The Spirit strips is the lack of realistic dialogue, but the melodramatic quality of the material and the innocence of the age in which the comic was produced make this easily forgivable. Unfortunately, Eisner's ear does not get that much sharper with age; the graphic novels presented in The Contract With God trilogy suffer from stilted dialogue and captions. One panel, referring to a thunderstorm afflicting the city, reads: "Only the tears of a thousand weeping angels could cause such a deluge."

In the end, the author's overall structure, both in art and storytelling terms, helps overcome any problems, engaging and enveloping the reader in the world and the thread of the narrative.

The drawings in these works are highly detailed and specific; for example, in the first story of the first book, The Contract With God, Eisner employs the shape of the lettering in the panel narration to connote the emotional state of the protagonist, the bereaved pious Jew, Frimme Hersch. What is even more impressive about the art is that it is solely in black and white and that it seems to be done only in pencil with minimal inking. In an interview with the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana, Eisner explains his shunting of colored artwork in his late career: "Black-and-white is a more direct communicant. Color has an interrupting effect in that it complicates the visual."

The art allows Eisner to build a strong and overwhelming sense of atmosphere around Dropsie Avenue, where all three novels are set. It's a Bronx neighborhood populated throughout its history by all sorts of recently landed immigrants-Irish, Italians, Jews and Puerto Ricans. The Contract With God trilogy tells the story of these people. The first book in the trilogy is a collection of four short stories taking place during the Great Depression. One shows the transformation of Frimme Hersh into a slumlord upon the death of his daughter, the second tells of an alcoholic street singer, another of a depraved building super and a murderous little girl, and the final one is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story. A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue, the other two books in the trilogy, are bona fide novels, focusing on a limited cast of characters. Though the themes of these works are heavy, Eisner is able to inject humor-though sometimes quite macabre-and sexiness, especially evident in the coming of age story.

The recently published anthologies are fitting vehicles for Eisner's work. It makes a lot of sense that the three Dropsie Avenue books should finally be collected in one volume, as the first in a new series of re-issues of the Will Eisner library. As I said before, I was not overly familiar with The Spirit comic so it is hard for me to judge the quality of strips selected by DC Comics in The Best of the Spirit (2005, $14.99). I wish that this anthology had been printed on better quality paper but, then again, the newsprint lends an almost nostalgic feeling to the book. The strength of the material inside more than compensates for this minor nuisance; this is a great introduction to the world of Denny Colt and I feel compelled to look at the complete collection of the strips (The Spirit Archives, also by DC). I do, however, hope that the adventures of the masked vigilante are not habit-forming; with seventeen-plus glossy hardcover volumes published so far, at 50 bucks a pop, it could prove to be a very expensive addiction.