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Will Eisner's Shop Talk
Awards:
Will Eisner: Winner 2001
Harvey Award Best Graphic Album of Original Work for Last Day in Vietnam
Will Eisner is a master of the comics medium, and when he got together to chat with other masters of the medium, what came of it was a collection of information vital to everyone working in the industry, and indispensable to anyone looking to get into it. Featuring interviews with Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Jack Davis, Neal Adams, C.C. Beck, Milton Caniff, Gill Fox, Harvey Kurtzman, and distribution guru Phil Seuling, Will Eisner's Shop Talk is chock full of golden tidbits of comics knowledge. Previously serialized in the now long out-of-print Spirit Magazine and Will Eisner's Quarterly, the interviews flow naturally into a compendium of technical secrets, light-hearted anecdotes, and informative history lessons.
Will Eisner: Winner 2001
Harvey Award Best Graphic Album of Original Work for Last Day in Vietnam
Will Eisner is a master of the comics medium, and when he got together to chat with other masters of the medium, what came of it was a collection of information vital to everyone working in the industry, and indispensable to anyone looking to get into it. Featuring interviews with Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Jack Davis, Neal Adams, C.C. Beck, Milton Caniff, Gill Fox, Harvey Kurtzman, and distribution guru Phil Seuling, Will Eisner's Shop Talk is chock full of golden tidbits of comics knowledge. Previously serialized in the now long out-of-print Spirit Magazine and Will Eisner's Quarterly, the interviews flow naturally into a compendium of technical secrets, light-hearted anecdotes, and informative history lessons.
335 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2001
7 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
Will Eisner
760 books534 followersWilliam 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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 5, 2023
Ora, se non sapete chi fu Will Eisner, basti dire che nell'ambiente del fumetto è stato considerato uno dei più grandi, ma sopratutto il primo vero fumettista. Ossia il primo vero teorico del fumetto come forma linguistica, nonché quello che si è sforzato prima degli altri di dare la giusta dignità a questo linguaggio.
Questo libro raccoglie una serie di interviste, di "chiacchere di bottega" come le definisce Eisner, con tutta una serie di colleghi. Disegnatori, inchiostratori, qualcuno che fa entrambe le cose, qualcuno che sceneggia e disegna, nonché degli "editor" ossia i curatori delle testate. Infine Seuling, l'uomo che inventò le comiconvention e il direct market, e di conseguenza l'uomo probabilmente più influenete nel campo del fumetto tra la seconda metà dei '60 e la fine degli anni '90.
Molto interessante ed illuminante, anche se da prendere "cum grano salis" perché quando si entra nelle vicende di lavoro personale spesso la gente prende delle posizioni negate dalla controparte, che in queste interviste non compare.
Ho trovato alcuni punti di vista significativi e alcuni artisti che non conoscevo, pur magari avendo visto alcune loro opere. Penso a Little Annie Fanny ad esempio, od a CC Beck che conoscevo solo di nome.
Le interviste per me più significative sono state quelle a Joe Kubert ed a Phil Seuling, ma anche quelle a Davis e Kurtzman. Le più polemizzanti quelle a Kirby e Neal Adams. Tutte, sotto un aspetto od un altro, rivestono una certa importanza per chi vuole capire cosa voleva dire fare fumetti tra la fine degli anni '30 e la metà degli ani '80.
5 stelle
Questo libro raccoglie una serie di interviste, di "chiacchere di bottega" come le definisce Eisner, con tutta una serie di colleghi. Disegnatori, inchiostratori, qualcuno che fa entrambe le cose, qualcuno che sceneggia e disegna, nonché degli "editor" ossia i curatori delle testate. Infine Seuling, l'uomo che inventò le comiconvention e il direct market, e di conseguenza l'uomo probabilmente più influenete nel campo del fumetto tra la seconda metà dei '60 e la fine degli anni '90.
Molto interessante ed illuminante, anche se da prendere "cum grano salis" perché quando si entra nelle vicende di lavoro personale spesso la gente prende delle posizioni negate dalla controparte, che in queste interviste non compare.
Ho trovato alcuni punti di vista significativi e alcuni artisti che non conoscevo, pur magari avendo visto alcune loro opere. Penso a Little Annie Fanny ad esempio, od a CC Beck che conoscevo solo di nome.
Le interviste per me più significative sono state quelle a Joe Kubert ed a Phil Seuling, ma anche quelle a Davis e Kurtzman. Le più polemizzanti quelle a Kirby e Neal Adams. Tutte, sotto un aspetto od un altro, rivestono una certa importanza per chi vuole capire cosa voleva dire fare fumetti tra la fine degli anni '30 e la metà degli ani '80.
5 stelle
October 5, 2018
Eisner interviews a bunch of comics luminaries (mostly artists, but including Phil Seuling, key figure in the development of direct distribution), focusing mainly on the practicalities of being a comics artist. One thing that's clear here is that Eisner liked to talk about himself. Another is that he didn't always really have much of an idea about the the comics landscape in which the folk he interviewed worked--especially the more recent guys like Neal Adams and Gil Kane. Oddly, the "Lou Fine" interview is actually an interview with someone else ABOUT Lou Fine. On the plus side, Eisner often uses the interview to push his "comics is an art form" agenda, with which I of course agree. On the minus side, he often does not seem to have much of a sense of how to draw out interesting stuff. Case in point: Joe Simon mentions the litigation he and Kirby engaged in to try to regain control of Captain America, and instead of pursuing that, Eisner ends the interview. Oy vey!
April 23, 2020
It consists of a series of interviews with comic creators Eisner conducted between late 1980 and 1983, most originally appeared as back matter in either The Spirit magazine or Will Eisner Quarterly. Interviewees include Neal Adams, C.C.Beck, Milton Caniff, Jack Davis (with Harvey Kurtzman kibitzing during the interview), Lou Fine's partner Gill Fox (about Lou Fine), Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Harvey Kurtzman (solo this time), Phil Seuling (the only non-creator in the bunch), and Joe Simon.
Eisner focused on the same themes in each interview-the creator's history in the industry (how they broke in, where they worked, a lot of whys and wherefore's), the techniques used in creating comics, their philosophy/approach to creating comics, and their vision of the future of comics, though not all were touched upon in equal depth by each interviewee.
I read each interview as a separate unit, reading the entire interview in one sitting (the Caniff interview was the longest, the Beck interview the shortest), and allowing time for myself to digest each interview before reading the next (usually only one interview per day, often with a day or so between interviews) so I would not conflate the views of different creators. The only two I read the same day were the last two-Seuling and Simon as they were different enough to keep straight, but still left a few hours between reading each of them.
There was a lot of thought-provoking stuff. I was particularly fascinated by the discussions of the future of comics, remembering these were conducted between '81 and '83 for the most part when the direct market was a rising force in the industry by the bulk of sales were still form newsstands (Eisner remarks in the interview with Joe Simon that about 30% of Marvel's sales the time came from the direct market-and Simon's response was interesting-that this was a harbinger of doom for the industry since it meant newsstand sales, and thus access to new customers to replenish the audience, was slipping. A lot of it has to be viewed in hindsight of course, but there was some interesting trends in those who went into more depth about their vision of the future of comics. Some of focus of this were different-Adams was more focused on creator rights and ownership, Canniff focused on the world of syndicated strips not comic books, Beck was retired so didn't have much to say on the future of comics, etc. Only Sueling saw the future lying in sticking with monthly periodicals on newsprint. The rest (among those who expressed their vision, not all did) thought comics future lie in leaving the periodical format behind, leaving newsprint for better paper and abandoning the archaic coloring techniques that had been used since the inception of the comic book for better techniques that allowed for more lavish and varied coloring techniques and less reliance on the black lines of current production standards (Kurtzman was the most vocal on that last point). Seuling, on the other hand, felt comics needed to go back to the cruder art styles and techniques of the golden age, feeling stories and plots had become too complicated and too long. He saw a two tiered world of comics, with monthly newsstand comics remaining cheap and returning to its roots in Golden Age style storytelling being products for the masses and the industry staple, and higher-priced, higher production value special projects that were the exclusive domain of the direct market, but these were special done in one or limited release projects, not ongoing titles. But for most, if comics were to have a future, they would have to transcend the limitations of the monthly periodical format, the assembly line nature of monthly comics, the terrible reproductions of newsprint and the antiquated coloring processes associated with it, and the restraints of corporate owned properties (none of them thought much of things like shared universes or continuity seeing them as impediments to originality and creativity-even Seuling who came at it form more of a fan perspective thought those things were impediments to the long-term commercial success of comics and were at best marketing tools that had outlived their usefulness by the early 80s). Again this was the early 80s and if we look at where comics went after that, and where they are at now, it seems that their visions were ignored in the short term and a lot of the accrued problems the industry has seen in recent years are the result of that, and that a lot of what they called for is the area where the only real growth in the market is now occurring nearly 40 years later.
It was a very different perspective on the world of comics, from a generation of creators who did not grow up as fans of comics and didn't seek out careers in comics because they were fans. Some had real passion for the art form, and the possibilities it offered in creating unique and meaningful content (Eisner chief among them), but none of them conflated comics with super-hero universes and stories, even the ones who spent most of their career creating those things.
And as interesting as their discussion of the future of comics was (and it was by far the smallest portion of the interviews in most cases), the discussions of their approach and their techniques was just as, if not more fascinating to me, but there is too much there to get into here. Well worth checking out if you are a fan of the creative process of comics, the philosophy of comics or the history of comics.
Eisner focused on the same themes in each interview-the creator's history in the industry (how they broke in, where they worked, a lot of whys and wherefore's), the techniques used in creating comics, their philosophy/approach to creating comics, and their vision of the future of comics, though not all were touched upon in equal depth by each interviewee.
I read each interview as a separate unit, reading the entire interview in one sitting (the Caniff interview was the longest, the Beck interview the shortest), and allowing time for myself to digest each interview before reading the next (usually only one interview per day, often with a day or so between interviews) so I would not conflate the views of different creators. The only two I read the same day were the last two-Seuling and Simon as they were different enough to keep straight, but still left a few hours between reading each of them.
There was a lot of thought-provoking stuff. I was particularly fascinated by the discussions of the future of comics, remembering these were conducted between '81 and '83 for the most part when the direct market was a rising force in the industry by the bulk of sales were still form newsstands (Eisner remarks in the interview with Joe Simon that about 30% of Marvel's sales the time came from the direct market-and Simon's response was interesting-that this was a harbinger of doom for the industry since it meant newsstand sales, and thus access to new customers to replenish the audience, was slipping. A lot of it has to be viewed in hindsight of course, but there was some interesting trends in those who went into more depth about their vision of the future of comics. Some of focus of this were different-Adams was more focused on creator rights and ownership, Canniff focused on the world of syndicated strips not comic books, Beck was retired so didn't have much to say on the future of comics, etc. Only Sueling saw the future lying in sticking with monthly periodicals on newsprint. The rest (among those who expressed their vision, not all did) thought comics future lie in leaving the periodical format behind, leaving newsprint for better paper and abandoning the archaic coloring techniques that had been used since the inception of the comic book for better techniques that allowed for more lavish and varied coloring techniques and less reliance on the black lines of current production standards (Kurtzman was the most vocal on that last point). Seuling, on the other hand, felt comics needed to go back to the cruder art styles and techniques of the golden age, feeling stories and plots had become too complicated and too long. He saw a two tiered world of comics, with monthly newsstand comics remaining cheap and returning to its roots in Golden Age style storytelling being products for the masses and the industry staple, and higher-priced, higher production value special projects that were the exclusive domain of the direct market, but these were special done in one or limited release projects, not ongoing titles. But for most, if comics were to have a future, they would have to transcend the limitations of the monthly periodical format, the assembly line nature of monthly comics, the terrible reproductions of newsprint and the antiquated coloring processes associated with it, and the restraints of corporate owned properties (none of them thought much of things like shared universes or continuity seeing them as impediments to originality and creativity-even Seuling who came at it form more of a fan perspective thought those things were impediments to the long-term commercial success of comics and were at best marketing tools that had outlived their usefulness by the early 80s). Again this was the early 80s and if we look at where comics went after that, and where they are at now, it seems that their visions were ignored in the short term and a lot of the accrued problems the industry has seen in recent years are the result of that, and that a lot of what they called for is the area where the only real growth in the market is now occurring nearly 40 years later.
It was a very different perspective on the world of comics, from a generation of creators who did not grow up as fans of comics and didn't seek out careers in comics because they were fans. Some had real passion for the art form, and the possibilities it offered in creating unique and meaningful content (Eisner chief among them), but none of them conflated comics with super-hero universes and stories, even the ones who spent most of their career creating those things.
And as interesting as their discussion of the future of comics was (and it was by far the smallest portion of the interviews in most cases), the discussions of their approach and their techniques was just as, if not more fascinating to me, but there is too much there to get into here. Well worth checking out if you are a fan of the creative process of comics, the philosophy of comics or the history of comics.
July 11, 2024
Os shops eram espécies de estúdios da Era de Ouro dos Quadrinhos, em que os quadrinistas, geralmente artistas novos e iniciantes, eram contratados a preço de banana para desenvolver gibis inteiros para editoras. Um dos shops mais famosos daquela época foi o de Eisner e Iger. Eisner, mais tarde, viria a se tornar um grande nome da indústria de quadrinhos estadunidense. Neste livro, cujas entrevistas foram feitas nos anos 1980, todos estes entrevistados e o entrevistador, se já não morreram estão bem velhinhos. É inegável a influencia e a magistralidade de todos eles, incluindo Eisner no mercado de quadrinhos mundial. É interessante o que conversam, mas senti que Einser poderia ter preparado melhor as suas entrevistas, pensado mais o estilo de cada um, suas influencias, e deixado mais regulares as mesmas. Algumas são muito longas e outras bem curtinhas. Assim dá a impressão que alguns tinham mais importância que outros, o que não pode ser calculado especificamente. De toda forma, Shop Talk é um belo documento que registra práticas de uma época e de uma geração de artistas.
March 1, 2017
Yo tengo el libro EISNER/MILLER , en el cuál Eisner y Miller discuten sobre quien tiene la polla mas larga a través de cientos de hojas, pero son guiados y contenidos por un periodista, que se encarga de plantear un tema, guiarlos, contenerlos. Pero acá no hay nadie, solo es Eisner entrevistando a otro artistas, y si, aprendí un montón de historia del comic, de la ilustración publicitaria, de las tiras de prensa, de estilos y métodos, pero Eisner me desespera y mucho, el hombre ,que en el cielo de los artistas se encuentre, es de un ego tremendo y es de una condescendencia altísimo en todas las entrevistas,tipo:
EISNER: ¿Utilizabas pincel en esa época?.Los estudiantes siempre preguntan eso.
KIRBY: Si,utilizaba pincel,porque era mas rápido y vigoroso,creo que utilizaba uno del dos.
EISNER: Probablemente seria uno del tres, porque los del dos son mas pequeños.
Y así con todos los artistas, le dice a Joe Kubert que no aprendio nada cuando dejo su estudio, a Caniff que no sabe como manejar las cliffhangers, a Kurtzman que no tiene razón sobre el desarrollo del cómic en Francia , a Jack Davis que su arte se aprece al de el, porque es muy masculino, y asi, el tipo ve un espacio y te recuerda lo grandioso que es, lo importante que fue, aunque acepta que no ha leido nada fuera del medio desde los 50´s. Gracias, esta fue mi ultima vez con Eisner.
EISNER: ¿Utilizabas pincel en esa época?.Los estudiantes siempre preguntan eso.
KIRBY: Si,utilizaba pincel,porque era mas rápido y vigoroso,creo que utilizaba uno del dos.
EISNER: Probablemente seria uno del tres, porque los del dos son mas pequeños.
Y así con todos los artistas, le dice a Joe Kubert que no aprendio nada cuando dejo su estudio, a Caniff que no sabe como manejar las cliffhangers, a Kurtzman que no tiene razón sobre el desarrollo del cómic en Francia , a Jack Davis que su arte se aprece al de el, porque es muy masculino, y asi, el tipo ve un espacio y te recuerda lo grandioso que es, lo importante que fue, aunque acepta que no ha leido nada fuera del medio desde los 50´s. Gracias, esta fue mi ultima vez con Eisner.
August 26, 2020
Not the mind blowing series of interviews I remember it being back in high school, but it's still nice to read a bunch of old men talk about the Good Ol' Days. I also appreciate Eisner's constant desire to start an argument to spice up the interview.
November 6, 2017
Highly Recommended!!
April 24, 2013
Eisner's "Shop Talk" was great...but I couldn't help shake the feeling of this being an even greater tease.
What a wonderful idea. Sitting down with comic legends and talking about, what else? Comics! Throughout the conversations we learn about techniques, we learn about history of the medium from those who were there for its early inception, and we learn about some of the ideologies of those in the field.
As I said, as great as the book was, I would have liked to see more conversations, with more in-depth looks, though I guess that kind of grand scope has practical issues. It would also have been nice to see a greater variety of people talked too (both in terms of country, and creed) but maybe that wasn't what Eisner was after.
Anyone interested in comic culture should give this a peep.
What a wonderful idea. Sitting down with comic legends and talking about, what else? Comics! Throughout the conversations we learn about techniques, we learn about history of the medium from those who were there for its early inception, and we learn about some of the ideologies of those in the field.
As I said, as great as the book was, I would have liked to see more conversations, with more in-depth looks, though I guess that kind of grand scope has practical issues. It would also have been nice to see a greater variety of people talked too (both in terms of country, and creed) but maybe that wasn't what Eisner was after.
Anyone interested in comic culture should give this a peep.
October 2, 2016
The bottom line - should you read this book?
YES, BUT - unless you are at least somewhat familiar with the names featured, you won't get much out of it.
Varies in quality. Sometimes Eisner cuts the "interviewee" off to prevent them from rambling off-topic, despite their tangent being more interesting than the original discussion. Overall very interesting.
YES, BUT - unless you are at least somewhat familiar with the names featured, you won't get much out of it.
Varies in quality. Sometimes Eisner cuts the "interviewee" off to prevent them from rambling off-topic, despite their tangent being more interesting than the original discussion. Overall very interesting.
March 17, 2008
It's in my top five of books of the "how to make comics" genre...famous Eisner interviews 20 or so landmark comic artists--the information is fascinating, informative, and entertaining to read.
Read
February 22, 2013this book gives a real insight into the early days of comics.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews