A Contract with God is a 1978 graphic novel by American cartoonist Will
Eisner (pictured). It is a short story cycle focusing on poor Jewish
characters who live in a tenement in New York City. In the lead story, a
religious man gives up his faith after the death of his young adopted
daughter. The four stories in the novel are thematically linked with
motifs of frustration, disillusionment, violence, and ethnic identity.
Eisner uses large, monochromatic images in dramatic perspective, and
emphasizes caricatured facial expressions. Few panels or captions have
traditional borders. The small press Baronet Books released A Contract
with God in 1978 and marketed it as a "graphic novel", which then became
the common term for book-length comics. It sold slowly at first, but
gained respect from Eisner's peers, and has since been reprinted by
larger publishers. Eisner produced two sequels set in the same tenement:
A Life Force in 1988, and Dropsie Avenue in 1995. A Contract with God
cemented Eisner's reputation as an elder statesman of comics, and he
continued to produce graphic novels and theoretical works on comics
until his death in 2005.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Contract_with_God>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1060:
Béla I the Champion was crowned king of Hungary.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_I_of_Hungary>
1865:
Slavery in the United States was officially abolished when the
Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution>
1917:
A ship in Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada, carrying TNT
and picric acid caught fire after a collision with another ship and
caused the second-largest man-made accidental explosion in history
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion>
1975:
Four members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army took two
people hostage in a house on Balcombe Street in Marylebone, London,
surrendering six days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcombe_Street_siege>
2005:
Members of the People's Armed Police shot and killed several
people in Dongzhou, Guangdong, China, who were protesting government
plans to build a new power plant.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongzhou_protests>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trollop:
1. A woman held by others as retaining a vulgar and discourteous
disposition.
2. (derogatory) A strumpet, a whore.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trollop>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
At the foot of the Cross on Calvary Three soldiers sat and diced,
And one of them was the Devil And he won the Robe of Christ.
--Joyce Kilmer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joyce_Kilmer>