Will Eisner V. Craig Thompson

After being introduced to Will Eisner’s work I was really impressed. Will basically was on the front edge of making comics popular and starting the idea of a graphic novel. His whole aesthetic is about body language and how human emotion can solely tell a story without any words. He really was trying to push the capacity of the graphic story. He wanted everyone to view comics like he did. What I mean by that is most people saw comics as a reading material for children, and that nothing in a comic would be something an adult would be interested in.

Although Will and Thompson are very different in the style they approach comic making I think there techniques overlap and have lots of similarities. Before I get into that I wanted to talk about how I could really connect with Will’s approach. In most of my illustrations I want to push the human emotion and make people feel a certain way through the way I draw my figures and compositions. I think that all stories can be told without words, and the most powerful ones are the ones that people that speak all different languages can understand. The way Will talks about how the eyes and how the head is held on someone’s shoulders can tell you exactly how they are feeling without drawing mouth or nose. He says those are just extras to back your point up.

I think Blankets is a great comparison between the two, even though Craig Thompson's has lots of flash backs and experimental imagery. Craig takes his story and makes the imagery almost surreal, but a very linear story. He gives his characters basic features and composes his panels around the craziness he is drawing. I think these two are very similar, because the both believe human emotion is what draws someone to read something. Both are approaching their stories based of the fact they know their reader will be able to understand the body language of their characters and will want to see the development of each one.