Will Eisner Week Celebration

Friday, March 4, 2016, 12:00 p.m.

SBA 190

The Portland State University Comics Studies program join with the Will & Ann Eisner Family Foundation to recognize Will Eisner Week 2016, the annual series of events that celebrates graphic novels, sequential art, free speech, and the legacy of Will Eisner, one of the most innovative figures in the history of comics and graphic novels.

Film Screening: Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist

Friday, March 4

12pm

School of Business Administration 190

631 SW Harrison St

Free and open to the public

The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion of “Eisner the Dreamer” at 2pm.

Panel discussion participants:

Heidi Kaufman

Steve Lieber

Matt Wagner

David Walker

The event will be moderated by Brian Michael Bendis

Will Eisner (1917-2005) grew up during the Great Depression in the tenements of the Bronx. He was a pioneer in the creation of comics during the “Golden Age” of the 1930s and ’40s, achieving fame with his noir crime-fighting superhero, The Spirit. At one time or another, many comics greats worked with Eisner including Jules Feiffer, Wally Wood, Jack Kirby, Al Jaffee, Mike Ploog, and others. After The Spirit ceased publication, Eisner devoted himself to producing educational and instructional sequential art, a term he coined. In 1978, Eisner once again reinvented himself, and the medium, with his graphic novel A Contract with God. Other notable Eisner graphic novels include To The Heart of the Storm, A Life Force, Last Day In Vietnam,Fagin The Jew, and The Plot. Will Eisner’s graphic novels and textbooks are still in print in 15 worldwide languages.The prestigious Will Eisner Awards, the “Oscars of the Comics Industry,” are presented at San Diego Comic-Con, the world’s largest comics convention.