The First Successful Graphic Novel, Signed
Contract with God
Publication: New York: Baronet, 1978. First Edition.
Notes: Contract with God is not, as it is sometimes described, the first (American) graphic novel. It is rather the first such book to find commercial and critical success. The publisher's marketing of it as a "graphic novel" brought the term into common use and the book's influence gave a new impetus to this nascent genre of American fiction. Contract with God does not just bring together words and pictures with a new level of mastery. By telling an autobiographical story set in the Jewish tenements of New York in the early 20th century, Eisner transforms the trope of comic book hero origin stories into an American origin story.
In the introduction to this book, Eisner struggles to describe his artistic purpose for Contract with God because there wasn't really a word for it (although the term graphic novel had been coined in the 1960s, it was not in common use). "I must confess to a certain sense of uneasiness at trying to explain what I am about to present," Eisner writes. "If I have been successful at this, there will be no interruptions in the flow of narrative because the picture and the text are so totally dependent on each other as to be inseparable for even a moment."
This small press paperback edition was published simultaneously with a numbered hardcover limited edition. Despite its inauspicious beginnings with a small, short-lived press, the book is still in print, now with W. W. Norton, which has four different versions for sale (standalone, omnibus, Centennial Edition, and critical edition).
Edition + Condition: First edition (states "First printing, October 1978"), wrappers (paperback) issue. A fine, tight copy with a tiny stain and scuff to the top edge. This copy is inscribed by Eisner to comics scholar and fanzine publisher Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr., "To Jim great to meet you in Palo Alto. Will Eisner, 1987." Signed copies of this first edition are uncommon; nice copies may be even scarcer.
Provenance: Bud Plant, Vadeboncoeur's bookselling business partner for two decades.
Item No: #366175
Price: $400