'Contract with God' and 'Blankets'

The 'Contract with God novel was pretty dark. I read the first few pages of Will Eisner's other graphic novels and they all seem to share that in common. They almost feel like cautionary tales; you know. If you do something stupid/rash/naive you're bound to take it in the ass butt {/literally in some cases}. I had to make sure this guy wasn't an anti-semitic because he sure likes to use Jewish characters. I learned through the great Wikipedia that he was a son of Jewish immigrants and alive during the time Contract with God takes place. So these stories can very well be true events, though we will never know for sure and would have to go by Eisner's promise alone. These stories all seem to share the same dark undertone and they always end on a sour or sombre note. It's as if in the end sin and debauchery ends up prevailing, religion is treated like an accessory, and those with kind and frail hearts are never safe from the cruel and unforgiving world. It felt a lot like this novel was made by a man who has struggled with his own faith at the time.

The style was decent; I didn't have any issues with it. It didn't seem as if Eisner was constantly pulling off the stereotypical Jew for every single character he drew up, though sometimes that did come into question. The stories were interesting and quite intense. If they happened, it's an awful shame, but if they didn't exactly happen the way they were told, then perhaps there was more to the story than meets the eye. But I can feel this struggle from the author himself. In a way, he's trying to shed light on the fact that bad things can and do happen to good people, no matter what they might have faith in. Whether or not that is fueled by his own religious doubts or by his own beliefs in the way things truly are is up to the readers. He could very well be an atheist; I don't know. I didn't read into the Wiki on him too much--just enough to see where he came from and when. I'd rather try and focus on the comic rather than the man behind it at the moment, because in the end the message comes from the story, not the man. And the messages I got were pretty clear enough. The world back then, maybe even now, is a harsh and unfair world. Both the wealthy and the poor suffer through similar indignities and troubles, or at least to those equivalent.

I'll have to admit that I read Blankets a couple of times before this year, so I just sort of skimmed through it this time around as a refresher. It's autobiographical, centered around Craig, the author and artist. I was drawn to his art style originally, which was why I picked up the story before it was an assignment. One part I found unforgettable was the pee fight Craig has with his brother one night--it's the kind of thing you don't just make up unless it really happened to you, and that's why I found it both funny and worthy of being included in Craig's flashbacks. The story itself doesn't have much of a plot, but then again, that's just real life for you. Yet it doesn't get boring. One after another, something is going on that keeps you from losing interest even though you're basically following someone through their life. Of course, it's not every little detail, or else the book would be several volumes long. But we get the meat and potatoes of it all, focusing on the themes of religion, abuse, and love. I like the contrast between the current and the past, as well as the drawings/imagination sequences and reality.