Will Eisner - Michael Schumacher [176]
R. C. Harvey, a reviewer who knew Eisner and had interviewed him when he was just beginning his work on the book, called The Plot “an unprecedented, pioneering undertaking … an impressive manifestation of this kind of bold venturing … quintessential Eisner.
[I]t is not entirely successful like much of Eisner’s latterday literary endeavor. But, again like most of his work, it dares to go where few, if any, have gone before, and it is therefore typical of the artist’s life-long crusade for the literary status of his chosen medium.
Eisner would have appreciated the care put into publishing the book: a hardcover, dust-jacketed volume, with the introduction by Umberto Eco, afterword by Protocols scholar and Rutgers professor Stephen Eric Bronner, and full notes, index, and bibliography. Eisner had spent seven decades charting unexplored territory in the sequential art, and the last book he would complete continued the tradition.
Then, in 2008, W. W. Norton published Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative, the instructional book Eisner had been working on at the time of his death. As its title indicated, the book went beyond the kind of anatomical study usually associated with art school. A painter needed to understand skeletal and muscular structure, as well as posture and gesture, for his or her work, but the narrative of sequential art placed additional demands upon the artist. There was movement and changes in facial expression, exaggeration of body language typical of actors onstage. “In this whole process of creating a visual story,” Eisner wrote in the introduction to the book, “the artist functions like a theater director choreographing the action.
The expression of human emotion is displayed by behavior articulated by meaningful postures. Often, to achieve a particular expression the gestures may require distortion or exaggeration. To create an idea of individual personality and physical differences, the knowledge of the anatomical structure and the weight of the human body are most important. If he is going to communicate his ideas effectively, an artist must have a complete understanding of the body grammar of the human figure and how to use it.
At the time of his death, Eisner had written the book’s text, roughed out its layout and design, and chosen a large number of illustrations to use as examples for each of his topics; but there was still much work to do. The book lay fallow for a while during the period of grief following Eisner’s death, while his affairs were put in order. Finally, after some discussion between Ann Eisner, Carl Gropper (Eisner’s nephew, who was now in charge of the Will Eisner Studio), Robert Weil (Eisner’s editor at W. W. Norton), and Denis Kitchen and Judy Hansen (who acted as agents for Eisner’s art), a decision was reached to continue the project. Peter Poplaski was hired to finish the book.
Poplaski was highly qualified for the job. A former Wisconsinite who had known Denis Kitchen for nearly thirty-five years, Poplaski was a gallery painter, cartoonist, writer, archivist, and art historian who, as art director at Kitchen Sink Press, had worked extensively with Eisner, particularly on The Spirit Magazine and comic book. He had a large collection of anatomy books to consult, and as both a fine artist and a cartoonist, he understood the distinctions Eisner wanted to make between gallery and cartoon art.
“I wish I had been with him on it from the ground up, because it would have been fun to go over it with him and argue different things. I have an interest in silent movies, so I have an interest in how pantomime and gestures work in communicating a story idea. The biggest omission in the book is he doesn’t really compare feminine gestures with masculine gestures, and because he had these students who wanted to work for Marvel Comics, he starts out with some muscle anatomy to show how to draw superheroes. He doesn’t really get very deep into analyzing the aging process and the whole structure of how anatomy