Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Variety: Eisner Documentary Review
Tribeca
Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist
(Docu)
By ALISSA SIMON
A Lloyd Greif presentation of a Montilla Pictures production, in association with Comic Book Artist magazine, Schackman Films. Produced by Andrew D. Cooke, Jon B. Cooke. Executive producer, Kris Schackman. Co-producers, Ben Tudhope, James D. Lee. Directed by Andrew D. Cooke. Written by Jon B. Cooke.
With: Will Eisner, Denis Kitchen, Jules Feiffer, Art Spiegelman, Ann Eisner, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Michael Chabon, Kurt Vonnegut, Denis Kitchen.
Narrator: Art Spiegelman.
The remarkable career of comics pioneer and graphic artist Will Eisner (1917-2005) gets a surprisingly flat recounting in Andrew D. Cooke's feature docu bow. Film incorporates a surfeit of materials, not all of equal interest or strength, and fails to find a visual style worthy of its subject. Still, without reaching the level of genre classics such as "Crumb" and "Comic Book Confidential," this docu still reps a solid introduction for the layman. Eisner's legacy and huge fan base should make the pic popular on DVD and attract attention from specialty fests and broadcasters.
Asserting that Eisner's entrepreneurial, literary and drawing skills turned sequential art (i.e. comics) from a pulpy visual format, meant to entertain kids, into a bona fide means of self-expression, docu uses a mix of interviews, artwork and talking heads to trace his 70-year career.
The son of Jewish emigre parents -- a dreamy painter father and practical mother -- savvy Eisner managed to combine aspects of both to succeed in art and commerce. He founded his own comicstrip production company while still in his teens, and went on to negotiate an unprecedented deal to retain ownership of his most enduring character, "The Spirit."
Read the entire review here!
Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist
(Docu)
By ALISSA SIMON
A Lloyd Greif presentation of a Montilla Pictures production, in association with Comic Book Artist magazine, Schackman Films. Produced by Andrew D. Cooke, Jon B. Cooke. Executive producer, Kris Schackman. Co-producers, Ben Tudhope, James D. Lee. Directed by Andrew D. Cooke. Written by Jon B. Cooke.
With: Will Eisner, Denis Kitchen, Jules Feiffer, Art Spiegelman, Ann Eisner, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Michael Chabon, Kurt Vonnegut, Denis Kitchen.
Narrator: Art Spiegelman.
The remarkable career of comics pioneer and graphic artist Will Eisner (1917-2005) gets a surprisingly flat recounting in Andrew D. Cooke's feature docu bow. Film incorporates a surfeit of materials, not all of equal interest or strength, and fails to find a visual style worthy of its subject. Still, without reaching the level of genre classics such as "Crumb" and "Comic Book Confidential," this docu still reps a solid introduction for the layman. Eisner's legacy and huge fan base should make the pic popular on DVD and attract attention from specialty fests and broadcasters.
Asserting that Eisner's entrepreneurial, literary and drawing skills turned sequential art (i.e. comics) from a pulpy visual format, meant to entertain kids, into a bona fide means of self-expression, docu uses a mix of interviews, artwork and talking heads to trace his 70-year career.
The son of Jewish emigre parents -- a dreamy painter father and practical mother -- savvy Eisner managed to combine aspects of both to succeed in art and commerce. He founded his own comicstrip production company while still in his teens, and went on to negotiate an unprecedented deal to retain ownership of his most enduring character, "The Spirit."
Read the entire review here!
Labels: Alissa Simon, Andrew D. Cooke, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist
WizardUniverse.com: Eisner Documentary Review
WHY ‘A CONTRACT WITH GOD’ SEISMICALLY
ALTERED MORE THAN COMICS
Andrew D. Cooke’s ‘Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist’ closed at Tribeca on Sunday and opened up a wealth of perspectives on the creator and his work, but its portrait of the first graphic novel will change many readers’ understanding of its significance to Eisner
As “X-Men” opened the floodgates for spandex-clad heroes to lay golden eggs like factory farm chickens in Hollywood, interest in the creators who reshaped genres and changed the course of comics bubbled up in art theaters and DVD markets. “Crumb” and “American Splendor” pried open movie theaters’ eyes to peer at two figureheads of underground comics, R. Crumb and Harvey Pekar, respectively. Now, with its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, director Andrew D. Cooke’s “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist” blows open nearly a century of history to frame the life of the man who created the Spirit, coined the term “graphic novel” and effectively invented the splash page, cementing his place as one of comics’ creative godfathers.
What comics did for Eisner, however, and where the importance of his landmark graphic novel A Contract With God lies in Eisner’s personal history, his body of work and the history of comics, sculpt the centerpiece of this hugely personal and important look at the life of Will Eisner.
Read the entire review here!
ALTERED MORE THAN COMICS
Andrew D. Cooke’s ‘Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist’ closed at Tribeca on Sunday and opened up a wealth of perspectives on the creator and his work, but its portrait of the first graphic novel will change many readers’ understanding of its significance to Eisner
By Brian Warmoth | Posted May 7, 2007 3:00 PM |
As “X-Men” opened the floodgates for spandex-clad heroes to lay golden eggs like factory farm chickens in Hollywood, interest in the creators who reshaped genres and changed the course of comics bubbled up in art theaters and DVD markets. “Crumb” and “American Splendor” pried open movie theaters’ eyes to peer at two figureheads of underground comics, R. Crumb and Harvey Pekar, respectively. Now, with its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, director Andrew D. Cooke’s “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist” blows open nearly a century of history to frame the life of the man who created the Spirit, coined the term “graphic novel” and effectively invented the splash page, cementing his place as one of comics’ creative godfathers.
What comics did for Eisner, however, and where the importance of his landmark graphic novel A Contract With God lies in Eisner’s personal history, his body of work and the history of comics, sculpt the centerpiece of this hugely personal and important look at the life of Will Eisner.
Read the entire review here!
Labels: Andrew D. Cooke, Brian Warmoth, Tribeca Film Festival, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, WizardUniverse.com
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