City People Notebook (Will Eisner Library

The New York Tetralogy #3

by Will Eisner

Character sketches and timeless snapshots of the eccentric denizens of the American city that perfectly capture Eisner’s genius and powers of observation.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Bande Dessinée, New York, The United States Of America

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

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

[Dustyloup]

Je ne sais pas combien de temps j'ai relue cette trilogie. Mais la première fois était vers 1994.

[Joni]

Siempre me pasa algo con Eisner: hasta cuando siento que estoy leyendo una obra menor suya, no puedo dejar de pensar que sigue siendo Will Eisner. Es medio injusto medirlo con la misma vara que al resto porque muchas de las cosas que hoy nos parecen normales las inventó él o ayudó a convertirlas en el lenguaje del cómic. Entonces, sí, algunas páginas pueden sentirse un poco envejecidas vistas desde 2026, pero también hay que acordarse de que, cuando las hizo, no había un camino marcado. En buena medida, fue él quien lo abrió.

En City people, Eisner afina su ojo radiográfico y, como en gran parte de su obra, recrea el barrio, la ciudad donde nació, New York, Brooklyn, para ser más específico.
Hay historias personales, de flujo citadino, tragedias, engaños, frustraciones.
Algunas historias prescinden casi de texto, otras apenas una página, un dibujo.
Es un deleite, es siempre un artista que vale apreciar, no solo por la voz narrativa, la explosión gráfica que supuso, sino también porque sigue siendo más que un precursor, es una manera de entender y crear historietas.

[RSC_Collecting]

This book is full of what Will Eisner does best. Real people in real settings. He is a master at watching people and capturing their lives. A master at portraying city living. Putting life in a big city into three categories. Time, smell, and space. Showing how quickly time seems to move. Giving us multiple examples of how the time of day can make people feel differently about the city. How many different smells the city has. And how each part of the city has its own unique scent. And showcasing the many spaces of the city. A beautiful book with wonderful art from one of the best to ever draw comics.

[Parker]

Great book; one of the best portraits of city life. So accurate. Even though this is about New York, this perfectly captures my impression of living in Boston for two years, although I didn't have the light take that Eisner seems to have on all the negative things about city life. I couldn't find the humor in those. But anyone who wants to know what it's like to live in a city should read this book. It's a fun, light read, full of great moments. It's really a book of moments.

[Jodie]

I love how Eisner draws rain! City People Notebook is a loving tribute to humanity, its best and its worst parts. If you're from a big city or simply spend a lot of time in one as I do you'll see a bit of yourself and your peers in the illustrations. I particularly enjoyed "Time Frame," "Borrowed Time," and "Space."

[John]

Big City outtakes are mostly the great things about Big City, perhaps a little more mean-spirited or at least more pessimistic about the human condition. Still, the execution is exquisite, both in the line work and the layout.

[M]

Beautiful illustrations and funny!

[ComicNerdSam]

Recently I've realized that Eisner was much better at short vignettes than he was with longer-form comics, maybe a holdover from his Spirit days. This book is pretty funny, pretty good. It's cute.

[Sonia]

2,5/5 ⭐️

[Daniel Calina]

A very, very pleasant experience and you can go through it in a single sitting. The stories are fun and the drawings exquisite. Can't wait to forget the details and revisit it in the future.

[Ming]

I already dislike cities; this makes me dislike them more 🫠

[Curtis]

--3.5 stars rounded down--

A nice little portrayal of city life packed full of sharp observations. There are also a few good chuckles. Aside from a few issues of The Spirit, this is the first Eisner I've read and it's a pretty promising start. The section on Time was particularly good. Overall, a short read and one I'll probably flick through again one day.

[Tays]

Simply poetic. With but a few lines and artistic sketches of the city and it's lifestyle, this book was a good enough laugh and erratically poignant.

It's great because the imagery is true. Another thing that's so good about this book is that, Eisner completes a story with little words and more images. The lessons and a few life advices he wanted to tell the world are simply captured within his great city landscapes and humorous sketches that puts a smile on your face while you go through it. It's artistic and revolutionary in it's own way. Everyone who fancies art much more than literature would appreciate this but all the same, those who favours literature more would succumb to the same feeling as the former after picking this up. Imaginations, such a powerful thing it is.

[Mycala]

Thought-provoking. If you are reading like a regular comic, you might be disappointed. As a cartoonist and writer, I found the underlying messages to be timeless (ironically a lot of them are about time and a fast-paced society) and brilliant. How often does the average person consider some of the absurdities of urban life and really question them? Human nature doesn't change all that much, sadly. I wonder what Eisner would think today about people wandering down the streets looking at their phones.

[Kushal Srivastava]

City People is good, Eisner draws portraits of animate and inanimate objects which constantly encircle the city life. Once you read it you get a feeling that with an artist at your disposal and maybe lots of free time you may have written this novel yourself. Nothing great about it.

[Hannah Garden]

This guy is damned great!

[clarenina]

Both beautiful and unnerving, Eisner's "City People Notebook" is a vivid depiction of the hustle and bustle of life in a big city.

[Irwan]

Graphically poetic!

[Steven]

This collection of Eisner out takes was really disappointing - sort of the best of the rest that I didn't think we're worth publishing at the time... and you were right first time.

[Cherish]

Very interesting and I adored the building sketches he created.

[Lily]

* 2,5 grâce au trait de l'auteur mais les histoires ne m'ont pas trop emballé cette fois ci... *

[Brian]

Better than New York: The Big City but not nearly as good as The Building. And really only the art is better than NYTBC, as the stories are about on par.

[Luke Shea]

What can I say, the guy could draw city people!

[Halina Hetman]

Збірка графічних оповідань Айзнера про його рідне та дуже дуже любиме місто. Мені його стиль малюнку неймовірно імпонує, більшість історій зі збірки було цікавезно читати.

[Ula]

so simple & so true!

[Sylvester]

A look at New York's streets. It was sort of average with no real emotional drama.