By Will Eisner (Kitchen Sink Press/W. W. Norton & Company/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-87816-015-0 (HB) 978-0-39332-808-0 (TPB)
This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.
It’s Will Eisner’s Birthday today. He was born on March 6th 1917 and between that moment and his death on January 3rd 2005 was the leading proponent and champion of American comics as an art form. Many consider him the father of the Graphic Novel. For such a prominent and prolific creator, it’s truly remarkable how so many of his stories and books are out of print. Currently, this is mini masterpiece is one of them, but is still fairly available in many of its assorted editions…
First released by Kitchen Sink Press in 1986, The Dreamer is thinly disguised diary (call it a graphic Mise-en-scène if you wish) depicting the early days of the American comic book industry as observed by hungry comics creators looking to make a buck. However, some of the toilers can’t help but see such untapped potential in what they do at their desks…
It might be short on action and page count – some editions come in at between 46 and 54 pages – but the strength of the characters’ aspirations all shine through. Creative people seem to gravitate towards each other, and depression era tales abound with big dreams fuelled by desperation, playing out against a backdrop of comradeship. The politics of revolution simmer in the minds and unfilled bellies of the poor. Characters we all should recognize make their choices and move on to become the gods of popular or even High Culture we all grew older with. Can you spot ’em all?
There is an added impetus for the afficionado of the strips. Not only engaging characters, not merely an insider’s perspective on the beginnings of our beloved obsession, not at last a direct link to history that the rest of world thinks worth remembering, but also a real glimpse inside the minds and hearts of the creative wizards that started it all.
Covering a period rife with daily human drama, and exploring an age where dreams were common and creativity unshackled, The Dreamer is a captivating reverie of how comics were, and how they work, delivered in the best manner of one of comics’ greatest innovators and practitioners.
© 1986, 2004, 2008 Will Eisner.