book 21: A Contract With God & Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner

Except for Calvin & Hobbes, I wasn't allowed to read comics as a kid - they were "for boys." I got into comics & graphic novels during college and afterwards tried to uncover what I'd been missing out on. Again and again, Eisner's name came up - the industry's most prestigious award is named after him. When I discovered that he created the first graphic novel, and that's it's very similar to Ralph Bakshi's films, I knew I had to read it.

In early '13 I was living in Milwaukee and my partner had just moved to Nashville, he was driving trucks and offered to bring me to South Padre Island. My idea of a "beach read" is more intense than the usual, so I got a copy of this from the library to bring down. I loved it, and I got some odd looks at the beach which only improved the experience! 

This book had been on the list of books I want to own ever since, but I never found a copy in a secondhand bookstore. Finally I ordered a used copy a few weeks ago so I could read it as part of this project, and I love it even more now that I took that Hebrew Bible class at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.The first part of the story has so much more nuance now that I can understand it! The book was disappointingly shorter than I remember though, maybe I'll watch a Bakshi film tonight to extend the experience.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/861023.A_Contract_with_God_and_Other_Tenement_Stories 

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