Thompson and Eisner (3 points)

 After reading both stories, I can definitely say they were a treat to see for the first time. For starters, Eisner’s work felt a bit refreshing for me not only because of the older type stories that focused more on harsh yet somewhat entertaining short stories, but also because the narrative, while exaggerated, did manage to mirror some real life struggles of people living in the tenements during that time period. In terms of both works, I can see their dedication to detail and character emotion, as evident through their attention to expression and body language. Both stories used methods of using the whole page at times to convey a larger picture, which for me helped to really envelop me into the story and world they were trying to get across. At first, The Contract with God felt almost like a children’s book, similar in style to having one full illustration with a bit of text accompanying the page space. As I read on some more, I could really tell these were not mere children’s stories, and some even left me a bit uncomfortable or shocked at times. While I understand that themes like this could seemingly pass a lot easier than they would in today’s society, it still made me wonder how much of it was normalized in real life and what kind of tolerance levels people had for all of this going on. I think it was nice for a majority of characters to show distinctive flaws in both their actions and their words throughout Eisner’s work, and even after their stories ended sort of abruptly it seemed to pull me in enough to almost make me wonder what was going to happen next for them. (Although I know it must’ve not been too good) In my own personal opinion I was a lot more drawn to Blankets both in story and in style. Like Eisner, the use of the whole page as an illustration really helped to envelop the reader, and in the case style for Blankets I think they pulled it off even better. In some places it felt less like a book and almost like a full blown separate illustration, which in itself made me sink into a different story with my own individual feelings. The use of shapes and swirls all around distracted me a bit to the point where I almost didn’t feel like I really needed any context to the story to fully enjoy the image. All in all, I believe these were both great stories that just so happened to be coupled with equally great illustrative properties to draw the reader in.