Will Eisner vs. Stan Lee

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.