Paul levitz will eisner biography

Writing a Will Eisner biography is no easy task. For one thing, there’s no lack of information out there chronicling the life of the cartoonist.

As author Paul Levitz, former president of DC Comics, now a professor, comics writer and Boom! Studios board member, notes in the introduction to his new biography, “Eisner is the subject of many articles, two biographies, two documentaries, and innumerable scholarly papers.” And then, of course, there’s the issue of scope.

The pioneering artist’s history is really a history of the graphic novel itself, the story of a creator whose work arguably did more than any other to elevate the comics medium from newspaper fish wrapping to high literary art.

It’s a balancing act reflected in the book’s full title, Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel (Abrams ComicArts, Nov.). Ostensibly a coffee table