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