Rate this book

Will Eisner: A Comics Biography

Name: Will Eisner: A Comics Biography
Rating: 4.29 (18 reviews)
ISBN: 9781681123578

Steve Weiner, Dan Mazur (illustrator)

Rate this book

Explore the life of Will Eisner, one of the most influential artists in the history of comics through the most appropriate medium: a graphic novel! From his immigrant roots and childhood in New York, starting his own comics studio and business, and the creation and publication of his beloved comic, The Spirit, through inventing the term "graphic novel" to convince a general trade publisher to publish the groundbreaking A Contract with God, you'll follow along in Eisner's life journey.

With the most prestigious comics awards named after him, Will Eisner is forever celebrated not only in what he created but his unerring belief in comics' capacity to be better, to reach higher, to be a full art form in its own right. This is the life of this man of vision who helped to put comics on the map.

GenresGraphic NovelsNonfictionComicsBiographyHistoryBiography Memoir

300 pages, Hardcover

First published July 15, 2025

1 person is currently reading

2962 people want to read

About the author

Steve Weiner

8 books26 followers

Born in Wisconsin, now based in Vancouver, Steve Weiner studied writing and film animation in California. He is a contributor to The Clear Cut Future , a Clear Cut Press anthology. Weiner's first novel The Museum of Love was nominated for the Giller Prize.

"Mr. Weiner's fictional world has an affinity with the work of the writers Ben Okri and J. G. Ballard, the photographer Joel-Peter Witkin and the film makers Guy Maddin and Todd Haynes. But he is, one suspects, less a disciple of these latter-day Surrealists than a kindred spirit. Employing a dream logic that taps directly into the unconscious, he pushes narrative to the outer limits of what it can do."
(Michael Upchurch, New York Times)

What do you think?

Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars

33 (44%)

4 stars

32 (42%)

3 stars

9 (12%)

2 stars

1 (1%)

1 star

0 (0%)

Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

Mylesgorton

236 reviews2 followers

August 13, 2025

prior to reading this I was a big fan of Will Eisner's later work but knew Very little about Will Eisner himself. this book has changed that entirely. and the style of the storytelling and the artwork is very reminiscent of Will Eisner's style. if you are a fan of Will Eisner, you will definitely enjoy this book!

Leo88

1 review

Want to read

August 3, 2025

Julia Pika

1,050 reviews

September 17, 2025

Fantastic!! A great overview of Eisner's life and struggles to gain a foothold in the comic industry. I like seeing how the comics evolved over time and people's perceptions of them.

I especially loved that the author credited the artists that worked on the Spirit in the end.

Highly recommend!

Mike Nemeth

676 reviews13 followers

October 9, 2025

Will Eisner was one of the greats. Or at least that's what I was told when I got hold of an underground comic of his Spirit reprints back in the early 70s. I was captivated further by Warren's magazine-sized series of the character that arrived some years later. In "Will Eisner: A Comics Biography," Steve Weiner and illustrator Dan Mazur flesh out fittingly in graphic novel format the life of the artist and writer. They begin with his family's difficulty in retaining a home because his of his artist father's insistence that he is a set painter not a house painter. They move late at night to avoid the landlord. Rent is a four-letter word. But right away, the story reveals a diminutive Will, or Billy, taking in the sights, sounds and feel of New York City back in the mid 1920s. He appreciates what he sees and accepts their moves as his reality. His mom does not. She complains while dad tries to put a happy face on their poverty. Little Will experiences anti-semitism in his many moves, outlined in a scene in which Irish kids ask them why they weren't at church. Will gets beat up protecting his little brother, who he orders to go by the nickname "Pete." His real name is Julian. Will grows up drawing, and while he knows his father has had little success, he still pursues jobs as an artist. He's successful despite the Depression. He makes inroads but little money and keeps plugging away. His pursuit of getting a job drawing a comic strip for newspapers puts him right into the infancy of the comics business. He starts his own business employing a room full of cartoonists and strangely turns away the pair who create Superman, not liking the adults in tights superhero genre. But he gives Jack Kirby his first big break. Kirby, the King, went on to create a raft of characters alongside Stan Lee and more on his own when he went to DC. But I digress. I got so into the Spirit when I was about 13 or 14 that it influenced a lot of my decision making. I can't say how, but Will Eisner factored heavily into my thinking for years. This was a great biography and in a perfect format. I read it straight through in a single sitting. I didn't realize Eisner was also a pioneer of the graphic novel.

★ sam ★

16 reviews1 follower

August 22, 2025

my coworker gave me an ARC bc she's trying to take me under her wing to do more comics reporting. people tend to take me under their wings and i don't know how to react except to go with it bc it's a nice feeling, most of the time. or it was in this case. was pleasantly surprised to find out that the guy who invented graphic novels was a first-gen NYC yid, stubbornly idealistic, and committed to an artistic format that he got people to take seriously by sheer force of will. pretty simplistic bootstraps narrative, but uplifting despite myself. i read it all essentially in one sitting finishing at like 2 am. i think this is the start of my graphic novels reading arc

graphic-novels jewish

Rachel

2,210 reviews34 followers

Read

November 26, 2025

Will Eisner was known as a master graphic artist, so much so that what have been called the most prestigious comics awards, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, were named after him. His work ranged from superheroes to literary graphic works such as his “A Contract with God and Other Stories of Dropsie Avenue.” It feels appropriate for his biography to take a graphic format: “Will Eisner: A Comics Biography” by Stephen Weiner and Dan Mazur (NBM Graphic Novels) tells the story of his life from his parents’ immigrant background through his death in 2005.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...

Chad

10.4k reviews1,061 followers

May 31, 2025

It makes complete sense to give the creator of the graphic novel, a graphic novel biography. I really enjoyed this one. It mainly focuses on his younger years from childhood up to running his own publishing company and then syndicating The Spirit before World War II. The rest of his life is still covered, just not in the same depth. Anyway, I thought this was really informative and brings one of our most historic comics creators to light. Keep these biographies coming NBM!

2025 edelweiss-2025 netedel-2025

SheMac

453 reviews12 followers

January 22, 2026

As someone who knows Eisner only through his graphic novels, I thought this served as a great introduction to his life and work. Amazing how Eisner crossed paths with so many pioneers in the comic book industry : Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Siegel and Schuster, etc. I wish the author had focused a little more on his early life in the Twenties as the son of European Jewish immigrants. But still an enjoyable read.

cauldronofevil

1,253 reviews5 followers

May 9, 2025

This is actually only the Free Comic Book Day version.

Well, it was pretty brief and it was only the very beginning, but it was well drawn and intriguing.

I wouldn’t suggest buying it off eBay but if you find a deal on the whole book I’ll bet it would be interesting.

I’m giving this 3 stars. The extra star because it was free….

S.Matt Read

108 reviews1 follower

July 23, 2025

Wonderful overview of a comics icon, touching upon milestones from the artist's life and career. An engaging read for adults and very accessible for younger ages interested in Eisner's life. Quick, enjoyable read.

Brandi

469 reviews5 followers

July 24, 2025

i loved reading a biography this way. it was fantastic.

Helen

199 reviews4 followers

September 12, 2025

Interesting account, in graphic novel form, of one of the most influential cartoonists and graphic novel pioneers of the 20th century.

Lauren

342 reviews

September 26, 2025

2.5 stars - story was ok, just didn't like the pacing of it that much

Nick Pratt

163 reviews3 followers

November 1, 2025

Five stars for shedding light on the man (the legend) we have to thank for graphic novels being what they are today. What a visionary with an incredible work ethic.

2025

J Poolner

69 reviews

December 24, 2025

Though I knew some of the story of Eisner's life, this book really colored that picture in. His journey from childhood to legend is made engaging by the storytelling.

biography comics exceptional

Eddie

326 reviews

January 9, 2026

An amazing graphic novel biography, Wil Eisner would be proud that his story was told in this format.

Mariga Temple-West

Author 4 books10 followers

March 6, 2025

Will Eisner grew up in New York City, poor but with big dreams. A talented artist/writer, he rode the wave of the popularity of comics in the 1930's and revolutionized the genre. A great story of the triumph of creativity in the face of failure and adversity.

graphic-novel

Dave Schaafsma

Author 6 books32.2k followers

December 12, 2025

Will Eisner was one of the GOATs in comics history, beginning his career already in high school. Hard-working, industrious, with lots of ideas, he was an important figure in the establishment of comics as a form and as a cultural phenomenon. From strips to comics to graphic novels, Eisner was there to shape the form and influence the growth of the field. This comics biography shows you Eisner's early life of poverty on the lower east side of Manhattan, in part informed by his father's insistence on a life of theater set painting instead of house painting. Always broke. His parents thought Will was selling himself short but doing comics instead of some higher calling.

This volume (2025) by Steve Weiner and illustrated by Dan Mazur feels like the first of what should have been a two-volume work; in other words, the pacing of the early life seems right, about his early comics, his publishing work, his production line for comics, leading to his independent work on The Spirit, his struggle to create a personal life (with women, in particular). The work that many of us today know, such as the classic The Contract With God, the storytelling of the lower east side Jewish neighborhoods, the personal stories, this gets short shrift, imho. Since this is how I was introduced to Eisner, I was a bit disappointed that this later period feels rushed, with little attention to what this work was really about compared to The Spirit and those kind of strips and comics.

Mazur's art style perfectly connects to the intimate and loose and warm work that Eisner was known for. Over all, we get to know a lot about him and his life and that business/invention of the field aspect of his life. Eisner did finally marry and have a bit more of a life outside comics, but the flurry of ethnographic-oriented works at the end still kept coming! This is a very good comics biography, worthy of attention, especially for comics history buffs.

books-loved-2025 gn-bio gn-classic