book data
126 ratings, 3.48 average rating, 24 reviews
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published
May 16th 2005
by W. W. Norton & Company
binding
Hardcover, 148 pages
isbn
0393060454
(isbn13: 9780393060454)
description
A work more disturbing than fiction from "the father of graphic novels" (New York Times).
Will Eisner, the great American ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 182)
Read in May, 2005
Will Eisner was one of the most influential graphic artists of the 20th century. He pioneered the graphic novel form, and his life partially inspired Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Sadly, Eisner passed away in January, but not before he finished what might be his finest effort. The Plot uncovers the origins of the most infamous and most inflammatory anti-Semitic documents of all time. Originally published in Russia in 1905, The Protoc...more
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Read in December, 2008
Eisner's debunking of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and his look at previous debunkings (word choice?) is worth the quick read this book asks. For a non-fiction account, it's more didactic than entertaining, but interesting nonetheless, in its suggestion that the faux primary text of anti-Semitism is remarkably immune to disputation, despite all and repeated evidence (not to mention common sense) that it's a fake. Nice sentence, Nick.
Haven't read much of Will Eisner. I wonder what his...more
Haven't read much of Will Eisner. I wonder what his...more
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I wasn't really sure what Eisner was going to do with this Graphic Novel. From the back cover, it sounded like he was creating a comic book about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in order to show everyone how stupid it was, but he was still going to just present the text. In reality, Eisner did so much more. He took apart the history of the book's creation and explained how the text itself was lifted from a 19th century French revolutionary book about Napoleon III. Almost word for word....more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Dan by:
Leerecommends it for: anyone who can stand a graphic novel
This book is a graphic novel that tells the history of the anti semitic work "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a forgery of a document stating that the elders of the Jewish religion are plotting world domination. Since it was originally released by the Tsarist Russian government in the late 19th century, it has been adopted by various anti-Semitic movements.
This book continues to defame the Jewish religion even now all ove...more
This book continues to defame the Jewish religion even now all ove...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone Concerned With Anti-Semitism or Interested in Graphic Histories
A graphic-novel history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that terrible anti-Semitic pamphlet dreamed up by reactionary Russians at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, The Plot attempts to uncover why such a document has been so frequently published and used, when its status as a forgery had been demonstrated again and again.
I know very little of comic books and graphic art, so the name Will Eisner does not have that magical ring for me, that it apparently has for some o...more
I know very little of comic books and graphic art, so the name Will Eisner does not have that magical ring for me, that it apparently has for some o...more
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Eisner, the great American master of comics, has undertaken what he regards as his most powerful work yet. The Plot examines the outrageous fabrication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports to be the actual blueprint by Jewish leaders to take over the world.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review "Famed innovator Eisner showed the creators of modern comics what a potentially rich medium they were working with. In particular, he used the term "graphic novel" to sell A Contract with God (1978), a collection of interrelated comics stories about residents in a Jewish tenement section of New York. He returned to that territory in A Life Force (1988), showing one man's uncertain progress, and in Dropsie Avenue (1995), an historical panorama of the whole neighborhood. Printed together for the first time in this volume, the works reinforce each other beautifully. Eisner's virtuoso art always has been admired, but his writing sometimes has been disparaged as thin and sentimental. Over the span of these three books, though, emotions jostle and balance each other; sometimes the stories seem upbeat, sometimes fatalistic. The characters frequently are defeated in the short term but always yearning for more than their surroundings offer. In any case, Eisner's illustrations are superb: water drenches a man walking alone at night in a thunderstorm; a fat housewife athletically performs a "heart attack" right after her husband has collapsed with a real one; aerial cityscapes expand; and every possible expression flickers over the characters' faces. This is an important, wonderful book....more
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review "Famed innovator Eisner showed the creators of modern comics what a potentially rich medium they were working with. In particular, he used the term "graphic novel" to sell A Contract with God (1978), a collection of interrelated comics stories about residents in a Jewish tenement section of New York. He returned to that territory in A Life Force (1988), showing one man's uncertain progress, and in Dropsie Avenue (1995), an historical panorama of the whole neighborhood. Printed together for the first time in this volume, the works reinforce each other beautifully. Eisner's virtuoso art always has been admired, but his writing sometimes has been disparaged as thin and sentimental. Over the span of these three books, though, emotions jostle and balance each other; sometimes the stories seem upbeat, sometimes fatalistic. The characters frequently are defeated in the short term but always yearning for more than their surroundings offer. In any case, Eisner's illustrations are superb: water drenches a man walking alone at night in a thunderstorm; a fat housewife athletically performs a "heart attack" right after her husband has collapsed with a real one; aerial cityscapes expand; and every possible expression flickers over the characters' faces. This is an important, wonderful book....more
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Read in September, 2007
I'm continually reading comics by illustrators who have won the Eisner award, I thought it was about time I read something by Will Eisner. Eisner spent roughly 20 years (off an on) working on this graphic novel. His goal was to explain the creation of <i>The Protocols<i> to a general public. I think this was a success. <i>The Plot<i> is a like a cliffs notes version of the story. Generally, I thought the dialog was overly simplified, making it a little silly. A Jr. High s...more
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Read in January, 2006
Shows just what the graphic form can do in elucidating a preternaturally complicated -- and important -- history. The subject matter holds him back from the flights of imagination that make The Spirit stuff so brilliant, but this material achieves great effects in its own right.
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Read this about a year ago. Scary that it's true...really scary!
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Excellent! Excellent! A piece of history few people today are familiar with.
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Read in October, 2008
A very straightforward yet engaging history of the Protocols. Eisner created this work so that the truth that the Protocols are forgeries would reach an audience that wouldn't otherwise know that, and it does its job very well, but no more than that. Straightforward story done with Eisner's fantastic art, nothing more, nothing less.
Read in September, 2007
Now *this* is a comic book. Another one I pawed over at Powell's tonight before deciding to wait and buy it when I'm sure I'll read it. (Too many pots on the boil -- book-wise -- as it is). It looked brilliant and in a way that speaks of pacific wisdom rather than inflammatory genius (ala Alan More).
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A gift from my parents. Eisner's last work. It's a shame he's gone. He was a genius. In a time when this preposterous libel is regaining credibility around the world, what a clever idea to try to counter it using one of the most appealing and easy-to-read media - comics!
Read in January, 2008
First the 9/11 report in comic form and now this. I like it, it explains the history very well and makes the story very readable. It cuts out a lot of history, but that makes the central premise much easier to understand. I may end up using it in class.
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A wonderful conclusion to the work of a man who elevated "comics" to "sequential art." An easy skim to learn how we are manipulated by politics to hate our brothers so that the powerful can stay in power. Brrrrrr.
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Read in January, 2008
A very interesting story, but it's too wordy for a Will Eisner story. I enjoy his earlier works better because they seem to flow much easier and the emphasis is more on the relationship between text and image.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
anybody seeking the truth
You want to know the sad, stupid and almost funny (if the consequences weren't so dire) history of the hoax called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? Read this comic book. Eisner's last work before he died.
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Read in October, 2008
wow amazing so far about the history of the Jews going to the Gulag in Russia! and it's pictures!
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Read in November, 2007
Good book. Interesting way to impart history. Good read and good graphics.
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Read in July, 2008
I don't know...I just felt like something didn't work with this.
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