The Society Of Illustrators spotlight the works of Will Eisner.

2017 marks what would have been Will Eisner’s 100th birthday. And many places are celebrating that fact with what they are calling a Centennial Celebration. 

The Society of Illustrators in New York opened up a new exhibit to honor Eisner and to share his works with everyone. There was an opening ceremony and many people came out to support it. I recognized some people there like Dennis Kitchen, Mike Gold, and Joe Staton. While the crowd was not huge, the main focus, Eisner’s art spoke volumes.

I’ve previously have mentioned how I was introduced to Eisner and how I’m still a huge fan of his work. But seeing the original art just truly took my breath away. You could see how Eisner’s style evolved through the years. And the process that was involved.

There was one piece I really want to talk about. It was from Eisner’s book To The Heart Of The Storm. It’s an autobiographical account of Eisner’s family dealing with anti-Semitism. In one part of the book, the father of the main character looks for a way to get his son out of being drafted. He finds a Rabbi that would take all an awl to a person’s eye because the army wouldn’t draft someone with only one eye.

If you look at the original sketch, Eisner drew the Rabbi as evil and almost devil-like. But if you look at the final product, the Rabbi has been changed to look kindler and gentler. Very sympathetic. Check it out for yourself:

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It’s things like that that just amazing about Eisner. I almost wish I could ask him as to why he decided to change the way the Rabbi came out.

This is just an amazing exhibit. I highly recommend it for any comic fan or any art fan. You must check it out.

The WILL EISNER: The Centennial Celebration 1917-2017 exhibit will be running from March 1, 2017, to June 3, 2017.

For more information, you can contact the Society of Illustrators at the website: https://www.societyillustrators.org/

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By Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher

An avid comic collector/reader for over 50 years and self-proclaimed professor of comicology, Brian originally started up the site Pendragon's Post to share his voice. Well, that voice has been shared and evolved into The Fanboy Factor. Brian is an advocate for remembering comic roots, and that we don't forget what was created in the past, and encourage everyone to read it as well. When not swimming in geek culture, he can be seen corrupting..introducing his young son to comics, much to his wife's chagrin.

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