Contract With God by Will Eisner - Review

Will Eisner's Contract With God certainly took me on an interesting ride through such complex, yet simple short stories of the people living in the tenements. The first thing that hit me while reading this is how overall depressing and tragic each of the stories are. I believe three of the four stories ended up with the main character dead. Parts of the comic almost brought me to tears because of how sympathetic I felt for these characters. What made them feel so real perhaps is how human they act; the way they show their feelings is terrifyingly relatable. None of the characters were perfect, and the way Eisner drew them especially reflects that part of them. There was the young, thin, and beautiful flapper woman who had an unquenchable thirst for sex and money. There was the chubby, nagging housewife that lived with a grumpy cheater of a husband planning to leave his children for his mistress. So many characters were cheating on one another's lovers and so many of them had no other feelings other than the want for more in their life. The first story followed a good man who slowly turned corrupt with money. Another story followed a landlord who gave money to get a peek at a little girl, who stole all his money and killed his dog, his only best friend in such a dark world, which only resulted in his suicide when he was confronted by the police. What really hits hard the most is how all of these stories were claimed to be true. This comic displays the people as animals living in the dark zoo of the tenements.