The Lost Work of Will Eisner

by Will Eisner, Andrew Carl (Editor), Josh O'Neill (Editor)

Unearthed in a collection of pre-WWII newspaper printing plates, the mid-1930s comic strips UNCLE OTTO and HARRY KARRY represent the earliest known cartooning of the great comics and sequential art pioneer Will Eisner. In these never-before-seen strips you see the young Eisner's imagination expanding, as he experiments with the possibilities of serialized storytelling and works through his numerous influences. Contextualized with an exhaustive introduction by Denis Kitchen, these comics document the genesis of one of the most iconic and brilliant cartoonists of all time.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

72 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2016

About the author

William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collected are the embryotic ideas that would eventually take shape in the mind of this master; from high school to his first paying strip we see the his art style evolve - seeing one of the characters put on a mask sent a shiver down my spine!

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strips collected here, the Uncle Otto pantomime series and the Harry Karry adventure, aren't outstanding as comics. But what makes this book so significant is that it contains the earliest known comics of Eisner. And its historical/biographical value is immense. There were some editorial issues I had in the collection of these strips -- for example, there is slight wrinkle in chronology in the Harry Karry story -- but overall, an impressive effort.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is strictly for completionists like myself who want to read EVERYTHING by a creator. He didn't even go by his name for these-> instead choosing Carl Heck and Willis B. Rensie (read the last backwards).

Story = *
His "Uncle Otto" is just doofus humor that could only entertain simpletons. "Harry Karry" was so bad in the beginning that he ditched the main character in short order and substituted code named spies for the rest which can be seen as pre-"Spirit" practice of an internationally intriguing female opponent.

Art = ***
He's getting there and you can even witness improvements- especially with the arch-fiend female.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rediscovered collection of Will Eisner, the godfather of comics, earliest published strips. These are so obscure that the original publications they were printed in have not survived. It was a chance purchase of some old zinc printing plates containing the comic that brought these to light. Two old strips are presented here, dating from around 1938 and 1939.

The first is a nearly mute strip Called Uncle Otto, which deals with a gag a day style. Most of the jokes are rather stale and I wouldn't have guessed the artist was Will Eisner. They seem to be drawn more in the style of Winsor McCay or E.C. Segar. These aren't much fun.

The second, Harry Carry, is an action series. Originally done in a comic style, the titular character disappears after a few strips and is replaced by an Agent ZV-6. The tone and art style similarity makes a massive leap becoming moodier and filled with shadows. At this point we see the emerging artist of The Spirit begin to emerge. Still, the plot is nonsense. I enjoyed looking at the art rather than reading the plot.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if it is just that these comics are old, or that the humor of Uncle Otto is lost on me, but this isn't really my cup of tea. A gorgeous book, however! The spy stories are better and though repetitive when read all at once because of the recaps, fun to read.

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of early Eisner comic strips. It is interestimg to see his early work and see him developing his style.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

via NYPL - These are historically significant comics and there is a lot of value in having them available, but they're not particularly good comics if you want to enjoy reading them. It is fascinating to see Eisner's artwork evolving toward the more the evocative and impactful artistry of The Spirit. The stories, however, start thin and frequently lapse into incoherence.