Books read in 2019 # 110-111 - Will Eisner

110. Will Eisner: The Centennial Celebration, based on the exhibitions of Le Mussee De La Dessinee and the Society of Illustrators - This is a coffee table book and as most coffee table books, this is a book where you can find all the greatest hits but also certain discoveries like the attempts in the 1970s to update the Spirit and make him more adult for the Kitchen Sink Press material. There's not enough material on Eisner's graphic novels but the panels from Contract With God are still beautiful. This goes up to the final work that Eisner did which was for the tie-in to Kavelier and Clay. Eisner quite liked the book and obviously the book liked Eisner since Chabon referred to the era when one of the artists was telling the stories of the hero from different perspectives and playing with the narrative (one of the reasons why Spirit is still fun to read when many of the Golden Age comics are boring). So this is a beautiful book yada yada. Nothing much else to say.

111. The Lost Works of Will Eisner - for completists only. It's great that these comics were found but beyond the historical curiosity of reading the newspaper strips that Eisner did before The Spirit, there's nothing to recommend them. They are just the foibles of a fat guy who rarely speaks and runs into problems like getting his pants stolen at a restaurant that tells patrons to watch their hats and coats. That's it. That's the joke.

Books Read in 2019 # 112& 113 - African Science Fiction & More Spirit

112. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okarofer - This may be my favorite book I've read by Okarofer. It has much more gravitas than the other books I've read which are more light and funny. This book is a heroine's journey that is merciless in the way that it doesn't flinch away from the Sudan genocide. The book even ends in Dufrar (Darfur) with the heroine seeking to change the Great Book. Apparently the prequel explains that there was an apocalyptic event having to do with colonialism and human experimentation but in this book, the apocalypse is far in the past with rooms of computers to suggest that there was a great deal more technology in the world. Okorafer doesn't explain the past so much as hint at it in order to leave the door open for new books in the same universe. Either way, it read quickly and I enjoyed it (yeah, it's December and I'm not terribly interested in writing professional sounding book reviews at this point).

113.Will Eisner's The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke - This was DC's attempt to revive the Spirit and give the character a new or a retread origin story. Familiar characters from the Spirit show up in the book and get their own new origins. There's the Octopus who only shows up as a pair of gloves (Alan Moore would write a fun twisted Octopus origin story) and there are the femme fatales who are fun. Also love that the Cossack is a villain. I didn't read any Eisner books with the Cossack as the villain but Eisner was Jewish and sorry Cossacks, but Jews are writing the books these days and you guys suck. Maybe your ancestors shouldn't have been so enthusiastic about raping and killing our ancestors.