One of the notable things about the comics scene, at least in the US/UK realm, is that so many key figures in the development of the medium are dying. You can argue and debate the origins of the form but one of the milestones in its development occurred in New York in the 30s and 40s by predominately young, predominantly Jewish men (as wonderfully recreated in Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which I recommend to one and all) and now, 60 years later, they’re all very old.
To be honest, it’s been getting to the stage where you open a comics magazine that’s not written by idiots and have to wade through pages of obituaries to these guys every month and it’s easy to get a little blase about it, especially if, like me, you’re not really a big fan of golden age superhero stuff. But a lot of these folk did do important work, usually for little financial reward or respect, defining or redefining what could be done with panels on a page. Their work may often look crude to modern eyes but without it we wouldn’t have the depth and range of comics we have today.
Will Eisner, who died yesterday aged 87, was one of these men, but he was also a giant amongst them. His artistic contribution alone is phenomenal (check out this random page and consider it was done in 1947) but his intelligence took him to a legendary status, from his analysis of how the medium worked to his revolutionary notion that comic could be longer than the usual 20-odd pages, and much more besides. Pretty much every positive development in the last 60 years of comics can be traced back to Eisner, whether you’re a fan of mainstream superhero comics or scratchy experimental comics or anything inbetween or outside. He was the man.