Now A
Contract with God I could write about and its interesting way of portraying
tenement life during the 30s. But what really interested me was Stan Lee’s
interview with Will Eisner. They really bantered each other; it felt like one
of them was about to slap the other. For me it was hard to really side with one
against the other. They both brought up several points about comics that I
agreed with. For one thing I did agree that comics can be a higher art form
which both Stan Lee and Will Eisner stated. But Will Eisner really does see
comics as a driving force of story, that they shouldn’t be limited that they
were in need of better story. Not just stuff for kids. I can agree to that, but
Eisner just felt as though he had no wiggle room for stuff for kids. Because
Lee was right in a way that kids are really do look into comics. And that
doesn’t mean a comic is a low form because it is geared towards a younger
audience. I agreed with Lee that it’s the writing that makes the story good, no
matter what audience its for. Eisner seemed to feel that perhaps stuff for kids
was just too black and white. But hey Stan Lee wrote Spider-Man and killed Gwen
Stacy, something that truly shocked the comic book world. And that was geared
towards a younger audience. That’s where I got a little irritated with Eisner;
I understood that he felt that there needed to be something for an adult
audience. But that doesn’t mean you get to look down upon a younger one. Stan
Lee and many other comic book writers that wrote for a younger audience didn’t
write down to the younger audience they were being relatable with their
characters. Thus creating a good story for any audience. And that’s what both
Eisner and Lee somewhat agreed on is that story if its good should be
appreciated and not seen as a lowly form. Both men want to see comic books
appreciated as being an art. But Lee tends to be I would say more open to
varying audiences and super heroes. While Eisner is a realist and wants to see
life in comics, he wants to see something besides another super hero. So you
put a realist and an idealist in a room, well of course you’re going to have
tension.
But in the end I end up in the middle,
and I think most comic book readers do now. I started reading X-Men when I was
young, I felt like someone understood what it felt like to be an outcast. I
then moved on into Spawn which is more mature but still superhero based, but I
liked the idea that life is like a bed of roses, there are thorns underneath.
Then lastly I moved onto a wide genre of comics in the online world and onto
Eisner. Onto what in some ways he considers a higher form. But as Stan Lee said
I started out in comics when I was young, if you handed me an Eisner comic when
I was my younger self I would’ve loved the art but I would’ve not understood
the material. If you handed me a copy of X-Men though I would read it ten times
over. That for me is what it comes down to, is story and whether or not it is
good, I don’t give a shit about its intended audience. I just want a good
story.