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Life on Another Planet

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A thought provoking look at what would happen if life was found on another planet.

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

5 people are currently reading
194 people want to read

About the author

Will Eisner

761 books534 followers
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.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
Profile Image for Jon Nakapalau.
6,494 reviews1,023 followers
November 1, 2025
Watch the Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street at the same time you read this...bet you double check to make sure all the doors are locked! Really good example of how we project our fears on to others; and then look to conquer those fears by forcing others to change. One of my favorite GN.
Profile Image for Greta G.
337 reviews319 followers
January 10, 2018
Life On Another Planet, also known as Signal from Space, is a science fiction graphic novel by Will Eisner.
The story was first published in serial form from October 1978 through December 1980 under the title Signal From Space, first in the Kitchen Sink Press title Spirit Magazine and later on the Will Eisner Quarterly. It has been then republished in colour in 1995 under the same title, and later in black and white with its current title, by Kitchen Sink Press.

It was originally collected as a color hardcover by Kitchen Sink Press as Signal From Space (November 1983), and then later as a black and white softcover, titled Life on Another Planet, by various companies.


This is quite a story! It deals with the social and political consequences of a first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization.
A radio signal has reached Earth from a planet "Bernard" ten light years away.
This sets several, some quite genius, intertwining plotlines in motion.

One of the radio-astronomers at the Mesa Radio Astronomy Observatory is a Russian spy and tries to inform the KGB.
The CIA hires James Bludd, a prominent astrophysicist, to try to understand what is going on.
News of the extraterrestrial message leaks to the outside world, with different consequences. A bum and a waitress build a cult, calling themselves the Star People, which seeks to find a new home on the Bernard's planet.

Multinational, a corporation, decides to invest money into launching a probe towards the Bernard's planet, in order to take possession of the inhabited planet on behalf of the company's interests.

A dying biologist, Dr.Crowben, decides to push on the creation of plant-human hybrids biologically suited to the planet environment.

The international situation further complicates when a small fictional African state, Sidiami, burdened by debts with other countries, decides to "secede from planet Earth" and declares itself a colony of the planet Bernard.

James Bludd finds himself implicated in the ongoing struggle between the USA, the USSR, the Multinational and the "Star People".

Will mankind put aside its differences in the effort to establish contact? Or will the road to outer space be littered with dead bodies and dead dreams ?

The overall tone is pessimistic, the whole plot turning around the greed of the various characters and the struggle between their conflicting interests.



Eisner himself declared that he has never been enthusiastic about science fiction, but wanted to prove that it could work as a graphic novel : "This was … an attempt to produce a graphic novel that was constructed in the same structure as a classic literary work. By taking what would be a science-fiction plot and treating it from a more humanistic viewpoint, I hoped to come up with a book that would deserve adult interest."



My personal guess is that Mr.Eisner was inspired by the WOW! signal detected on August 15, 1977 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_...).

Recommended as a must read for all graphic novel lovers.


9/10


(Yes, I got help from Wikipedia)
Profile Image for Joni.
817 reviews46 followers
January 17, 2018
Lo que aparenta ser una mera historia de ciencia ficción en las primeras dos, tres páginas ya rebela ser algo mucho más grande. Dos científicos detectan señales espaciales y esto desencadena desde un principio reacciones de todo tipo, desde estos mismos dos personajes a una escala global sin límites en la era de la guerra fría. Choque de intereses de todo tipo, cuatro principales posturas por encima, los yanquis, rusos, un dictador africano y una multinacional muy poderosa. Giros dramáticos a cada instante, resulta en una historia compleja sumamente atrapante. Del dibujo de Eisner nada que agregar,,, uno de los mejores de la historia, cátedra en cada puesta de página. Excelente!
Profile Image for briz.
Author 6 books76 followers
December 14, 2014
Nah, not as good as anything else by Eisner that I've read. This one felt like Eisner was channeling Frank Miller: it was dark, cynical, political, tone-deaf to anything beyond white guy stuff (ALL of the 3-4 ladies were either sex objects or shrews), and feeling very dated. It was also very talky, which made it a slog to read. Consider Exhibit A:



SO TALKY.

It's weird that Eisner, who was such a force in advancing the medium of graphic novels/comics/comix/"sequential art" would have, well, not really used the medium well this time. Talk balloons clogged everything, gumming up the whole story and leaving no room for anything but the barest sketchiest art. It was busy, hard to read, a big jumbled mess (with a big jumbled plot).

The story starts like Carl Sagan's Contact: scientists in New Mexico, listening for alien life, hear it (finally!). The rest of the comix is about how this news throws ALL OF 1970s GEOPOLITICS into disarray. There's a Nixon caricature ("Mr. Milgate"), an Idi Amin stand-in (I forget his name, but his "fictional African country" is called Sidiami), there's lots of Cold War Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy shit (which feels soooo moth-balled now), and there's some Age of Aquarius-style New Age hippie caricatures.

It's all, well, very cynical, but also very narrow-minded. This might appeal to your old white grandpa. For me, none of it made any sense to me, none of it felt remotely relatable or real, and I didn't really care.

Eh. Nobody's perfect, even Eisner!
Profile Image for Kushal Srivastava.
159 reviews31 followers
March 9, 2011
Holy mother of awesomeness !! Eisner with this legendary graphic novel proves that he is so kickass and such a big fucking genius that if anyone of us had 1 % of his talent we would be holyfuckingcrazy awesome. He blends scifi, politics, cold war, espionage and demerits of nationalism so well along with the beautiful and memorable character and human fraility that is impossible to come unaffected by this book.

If I were to leave for an unknown planet and could keep only5 books, this one would be there, for sure.
Profile Image for Hannah Garden.
1,053 reviews184 followers
January 13, 2009
I like the 0ther 0nes better, but I think that is mainly c0z I am a peas-baby when it c0mes t0 sci-fi. (Erm, that just means like h0w a baby d0es n0t like peas in THE0RY, EVER, but then s0metimes it eats a bunch 0f peas and is like 0h yum! until it realizes it's eating peas and then it spits the icky peas 0ut! . . . that is me and sci-fi.) Anyway I am g0ing t0 read m0re 0f this little fella, he is a real dear.
Profile Image for Baby Monster #563.
34 reviews
February 4, 2021
I think Eisner is the most prolific in the field . This story much like his others is priceless.
15 reviews
February 17, 2012
Life on Another Planet by Will Eisner is a book that deals with, well, exactly that. The main characters in the book are the "big wigs" of countries such as the United States of America and Russia. The Russians recieve a what they believe to be is a signal from another life form - a set of repeated numbers. All throughout the book the characters within each country debate on what to do about the signal. They all fight over which country will launch first, cults are formed, and murders take place. It's all about the psychological effects of the signal. It causes them to basically go crazy and makes for a really interesting book. I enjoyed it, and it made me question what would happen if the government were to find a signal from another planet? Or if they already have, what would happen if it leaked? It's pretty deep. It's weird to think about how much the world would change if information like this were to leak, or actually happen.

My favorite quote:
...What a sight...
A supine city concerned with mere existence - while civilization on a distant planet is trying to make contact - an impact that could change the destiny of human kind!! Yet, we crawl about doing little things... Are we, after all, only ants on a piece of space debris called earth??


Overall I really enjoyed the book, at first it was a little hard to jump from country to country and remember what country was speaking but eventually I got the hang of it. That might have just been it being the first graphic novel I've read in a while!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
29 reviews
February 2, 2016
Life on Another Planet by Will Eisner is a graphic novel about earth receiving a signal from intelligent life from another planet, and how the people of earth react to the signal. There are several groups who all want different things from this, the U.S. and Russia are in a space race to see who can make contact first; Multinational wants to start a space race between the U.S. and Russia, and a scientist; and an ex-U.S. agent named Bludd wants the world to calm down and work together on responding to the signal. The book didn’t really have an ending, Bludd manages to delay any launches into space, but it is unclear if this will get the world to work together or not. The lack of ending left me wondering what happened next, but I actually liked that. I enjoyed the book because I like to see how people react to strange situations that don’t normally happen. The art style was interesting as for most of the book the panels were weird ad all over the place except for a few calm parts, this shows how graphic novels can do more than normal books to show what’s going on and to affect the reader’s thoughts. I would recommend the book to someone who likes stories about psychology in unusual situations, similar to the book Ender’s Game. Overall it was a very interesting book to read although it probably isn’t the best book to start reading graphic novels.
Profile Image for Batmark.
169 reviews4 followers
February 5, 2016
http://morethansuperhumans.blogspot.c...

Life on Another Planet begins with a scientist locating a signal from outer space that seems to prove the existence of life outside our solar system. Instead of launching into a story about First Contact, however, Life on Another Planet instead explores what might have "really" happened if such a signal had been discovered during the Cold War. What follows is a story of political intrigue and personal greed, which shows that perhaps the human race isn't quite ready for contact with a race of intelligent beings from another star.

Although the story may seem slightly dated in the post-Cold War era, the selfish motives of the various characters involved still resonate in our current political climate. All in all, a satisfying story--and an unusual one from a creator who traditionally focused on the more mundane aspects of city life.
Profile Image for Steve Chaput.
653 reviews26 followers
March 28, 2016
There is a reason that Will Eisner is respected by everyone working in the comics industry. The man continued to progress in his art and writing, never allowing himself to stagnate at a certain stage. Some creators reach a point where they feel successful and allow themselves to become convinced they have reached the pinnacle of what they could do. Eisner never stopped trying to make the graphic arts grow.

When a signal from space is discovered a number of groups and individuals seek to use it for their own purposes. Eisner uses this basic plot to look at American politics and business in the later part of the Twentieth Century. Brilliant.
Profile Image for Jeff.
509 reviews22 followers
May 19, 2014
I was pleasantly surprised by this graphic novel. The title and theme are a misdirection, suggesting this story has an interstellar component when truly it is a simultaneous criticism of religious fanaticism, corporate capitalism, genetics, globalization, military conflict, mafia, and politics: all in one story.

It seems Eisner was very interested in how humans react not to phenomena, but to being human. Well-drawn novel creates a socio-cultural allegory frustrating our perceptions of Universal arrogance.
Profile Image for Roman Stadtler.
109 reviews25 followers
April 10, 2020
2.5 stars, really, because of Eisner's art; there's some beautifully Noirish splash pages, panels, and sequences. But the story is full of bad science, caricatures rather than characters, and it all feels dated further back than the late '70's, more like the '60's. Eisner wrote this to see if he could pull off a geopolitical spy thriller with a Science Fiction premise, though he didn't care for Science Fiction himself, and while it's great he challenged himself - that's one of the things that made him a Grandmaster - the result is the weakest work of his I've read, so far.
259 reviews2 followers
January 25, 2016
Eisner is Eisner! This is a graphic novel that was published in 1978. It is not out of date!
Profile Image for Joshua.
Author 2 books38 followers
April 19, 2019
I love Will Eisner, but this book is clearly not one of his best, which sucks because the concept is really interesting.

Intercepting a signal from another planet the agencies, governments, and shady con-artists of the world scramble to piece together a massive enterprise to make contact with the planet that sent the signal and after that, the story follows as the powers of the world fight to get there first. Like most of Eisner's work, there's a heavy cynicism about humanity that settles onto the work, and while in other books this cynicism seems to be helping the narrative of the plot, in this book it feels more like an attempt to show cynicism for its own sake. there is an argument in this book about the divisive nature of human beings but at the same time Eisner to want only to remind his reader that people are selfish, violent, depraved, or self0-centered.

Still, despite all this Life on Another Planet is a good book in the way it establishes a scenario and then follows the logical framework of this scenario. Eisner demonstrates an understanding of human greed, politics, and ambition and by the end of this book I felt like I had read a pretty accurate presentation of what would happen if human beings had encountered a foreign species.

There are much better Eisner books out there that I would recommend before this one, but I am still glad that I took the time to read this book.
Profile Image for Romain Blandre.
123 reviews9 followers
November 12, 2020
Will Eisner, L’appel de l’espace, Delcourt, 2011.

Le message n’est pas clair, même pas identifié, mais à peine reçu, il suscite l’engouement et l’hystérie de la communauté scientifique: on vient de recevoir un signal de l’espace qui prouve qu’à des millions de km de la Terre existe une autre intelligence capable de communiquer.

Aussitôt les politiques s’en mêlent, d’autant plus que le récit se situe en pleine guerre froide. Des espions des deux grandes puissances entrent en conflit pour être ceux qui s’approprieront en premier le soutien d’une sorte de république bananière d’où on lancera la fusée qui dirigera des astronautes vers cette planète éloignée.

Corruption, trahisons, assassinats politiques, vengeances personnelles ponctuent cette histoire. Sans oublier la course des scientifiques prêts à tout pour obtenir les faveurs des gouvernements et les illuminés qui voient en un voyage extraterrestre la possibilité d’une élévation spirituelle hors-normes.

Du grand Will Eisner qui dénote totalement des autres de ses récits mais qui reste très lucide sur les travers et fantasmes des sociétés et des politiques.
Profile Image for Elfo-oscuro.
811 reviews36 followers
July 8, 2020
Me pareció algo confuso y de largo el mas flojo de Will Eisner de los leidos hasta ahora
Profile Image for Kitap.
793 reviews34 followers
August 13, 2011
In this case, "another planet" is an Earth which has received its first signal from intelligent life in space. An SF author might have used that as a springboard for ruminations on information theory, xenobiology, and engineering for space exploration, but Eisner was not an SF author. He instead chooses to explore what would happen to those of us here on Earth, or more correctly on an alternate 1978 Cold War Earth with its whacky Sub-Saharan dictators and umbrella-injected ricin assassinations, if intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos were no longer a matter of speculation. Dated, with its emphasis on Cold War cloak-and-dagger stuff, but still insightful, perceptive, entertaining, and well drawn.
Profile Image for Rog Harrison.
2,135 reviews33 followers
January 3, 2025
I got my copy autographed by the author when I went to his lecture at the Glasgow Comics Convention.

I first read this when I bought it in 1985 and have probably read it several times over the years. This is a graphic novel and the story deals with what happens when scientists in the USA believe they have received a signal from sentient beings from another planet. It's a cynical and depressing read but the artwork is great
16 reviews
May 29, 2014
Life On Another Planet is about a couple of scientist that are working with some type of radio system and then they accidentally hear a signal from what sounds like alien life from a whole other planet. This book was pretty good if you do like anything sci-fi then I would read it, also if you like drama and some action I'd also take a chance at it
Profile Image for ComicNerdSam.
623 reviews52 followers
September 24, 2019
It's an alien thriller with no aliens! It sounds kind of lame, but it's not! I'll be honest, the first half of this book is kinda bland. However once it gets going it REALLY gets going. Eisner's storytelling gets a huge boost towards the end, as all the character's fates come together towards one climactic event. I want to give it four-and-a-half stars, but I'll settle for rounding up.
Profile Image for Doyle.
222 reviews7 followers
May 9, 2011
I liked this one more than the other Eisner stories I've read. This one has more action and espionage than Eisner's "immigrants of New York City in the 1920's" stories that he is more popular for, but still manages to create the heartfelt characters that made him the master.
Profile Image for Lasse Laitinen.
58 reviews1 follower
November 23, 2015
Both naive and cynical. Cynism is an integral part of a "comic noir" espionage thriller, but I don't know where the strange science of sendind probes on 10-year voyages to other stsrs etc. came from to the scifi side of the novel.
54 reviews1 follower
December 23, 2024
Great character designs as you expect from Eisner, couldn't always decipher the layouts. A solid concept marred by the main character's motivations not making much sense, and also the position the American government takes (which drives a lot of the plot) not making much sense.

In the opening sequence, a scientist working at a SETI-type project receives a signal from intelligent extraterrestrial life and his first instinct is to keep it a secret until he can figure out how to "capitalize on it". This annoyed me, since being the one to make the discovery and break the news would obviously bring with it great prestige and stature. This segment didn't last very long and I could have overlooked it if there weren't so many problems with the rest of the story.
Profile Image for Bobby.
5 reviews16 followers
February 17, 2020
A kaleidoscopic, at times pessimistic portrayal of a space race to reach a planet that gave a signal indicating possible intelligent life. Much more interested in the bureaucratic side of the issue rather than the sci-fi aspects, its a book that mixes geopolitics, religious cults, presidential candidacy, and corporate intrigue into a relentlessly quick paced read. Eisner's art is pf course stunning especially how he composes panels ro create huge tapestries of detail for the story. Its an ensemble piece but the key players are all fleshed out well, each with little nuances to them either through writing or Eisner's expressive art. I had almost forgotten how great of a storyteller he is.
Profile Image for Artem.
69 reviews3 followers
October 28, 2018
Айснер есть сумма его приёмов. И все его приёмы восхитительны. Ритм выпуклый, всё работает на него. Тебя ведут под ручку по панелям. Уровни абстракции именно такие, какие нужны, чтобы ритму не мешать.
Есть и промахи: биологи, как на новогоднем утреннике, рассматривают клетки в настольный микроскоп, как если бы Айснер писал комикс без внедрения в тему (в 2018 году стремление к реалистичности не щадит никого, а старикам нужно делать скидку); в паре мест панели сбиваются в кучу, в одном — герои проговаривают историю.
43 reviews
June 29, 2018
Clearly, Eisner is a supremely gifted graphic storyteller. Because of this, you'll probably be more than halfway through this book before you realize how many of the characters are two dimensional and that the dreary cynicism precludes any manifestation of Beauty in the mindset behind this story.

Ultimately, the story goes nowhere and turns in upon itself. And the graphic sexuality is as pointless as anything in the book.
Profile Image for Celil.
204 reviews20 followers
November 23, 2016
Andy Weir'in kitabından ne kadar sıkılmışsam artık, bu kitap o kadar iyi geldi ki, tüm Spirit serisini bir seferde okumak ihtiyacı duydum. Eisner'in dediği gibi -klasik bir edebi eser şeklinde kurgulanmış bir Graphic Novel girişimi.
Profile Image for Jay.
455 reviews
December 14, 2023
Intriguing. I expected the story would at least include two-way communication with another planet. But really, this is a tale of human nature brought out by extreme circumstances. The "hero" develops quite a bit throughout, and the final scene is the cover image.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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