[ book tip by Mark Sims ] The phrase ‘never judge a book by its cover’ may be a rusty old saw but the agonised look of Frimme Hershe on the cover of this book should at least give you a good idea of its (and Frimme’s) misery and heartache, if not a warning of how you might feel after reading it. Contract also holds the high accolade of being the first graphic novel ever published, its author regarded as the medium’s inventor, as well as having the comic industry’s biggest annual awards named after him. So he’s worth looking into, then.

It is interesting and encouraging to note that this pioneering 1978 chronicle depicts real people and their problems, as opposed to the collected issues of superhero comics that now dominate the graphic novel shelves (not that they, including Eisner’s own, The Spirit, don’t have their own merits, of course). Eisner’s sketchy, stark and monochrome visual style of borderline-caricatured people creates a heightened reality that enhances rather than detracts from the serious and quotidian nature of his four tales. All of which feature the put-upon and mostly Jewish tenants of a run-down tenement block on Dropsie Avenue, the Bronx.

The block’s occupants include the aforementioned Frimme, dealing with the death of his beloved daughter, an alcoholic singer getting his shot at fame and fortune, a German superintendent (i.e. he supervises the tenement) with tenant troubles and Willie, a teenager dealing with manhood suddenly thrust upon him. With these stories, Eisner encompass the vagaries of life in a neat and fairly compact way, often using only one or two panels to a page, allowing for swift reading that thankfully doesn’t necessitate dwelling too long on the dark nature of the stories that, at best, feature bittersweet endings. Such is life.

Well, some of the time…

[ Favourite quote ] 'NO! Not to me...you can't do this...we have a contract!!'
- Frimme Hershe

[ book info ] Eisner, Will: A Contract With God - and Other Tenement Stories. A Novel. (original language: English) W.W Norton & Co, US, 2006 (1978).