New York: Life in the Big City

Will Eisner
W.W. Norton & Company

With an unparalleled eye for stories and expressive illustration, Will Eisner, the master and pioneer of American comics art, presents graphic fiction's greatest celebration of the Big Apple. No illustrator evoked the melancholy duskiness of New York City as expressively as Eisner, who knew the city from the bottom up. This new hardcover presents a quartet of graphic works (New York, The Building, City People Notebook, and Invisible People) and features what Neil Gaiman describes as "tales as brutal, as uncaring as the city itself." From ancient buildings "barnacled with laughter and stained with tears" to the subways, "humorless iron reptiles, clacking stupidly on a webbing of graceful steel rails," Will Eisner's New York includes cameo appearances by the author himself; several new illustrations sketched by Eisner, posthumously inked by Peter Poplaski; and three previously unpublished "out-takes"—a treasure for any Eisner fan, and sure to become a collectible. Introduction by Neil Gaiman.

I'm a recent convert to the joys of Will Eisner. Recent for no other reason than I hadn't come across any. I've read a load over the last two years though. This one is by far my favourite.

'New York: Life in the Big City' is a hardback collection of 5 books - 'New York', 'The Building', 'City People', 'Notebook' & 'Invisible People'. All tell the stories of or are observations regarding or just plain fictions concerning life in that particular city.

The warmth and charm of Eisner's art is easily matched by that contained in his words. He is rarely sentimental, often damningly cynical, but there's an almost desperate yearning for life and love that underlies the book.

I adored this.