Will Eisner Quiz

William Eisner is a world renowned graphic artist and story teller. In his book, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, Eisner explains how effective stories are told and how a reader perceives stories based on their elements. There is no doubt that Eisner is a great graphic artist, but the way he tells stories through his illustrations prove he is highly esteemed in the craft.

Eisner states, on page, one chapter one of his book, stories are a way to teach lessons throughout a community. Stories are born by ideas. Ideas are created from a premise.  The “what if” statement, as stated in chapter eight, page seventy five, is a prime example of creating stories from premises. By having these ideas, storytellers are able to create anecdotes that not only teach morals and values to a community, but also “challenge the basic and fundamental human concerns of fear and curiosity.” Everyone is different. When someone picks up a book and reads, they might have a different experience reading it as compared to someone else. However, every good story always has an element that will connect to the reader in a special way. For example, on page thirty three of  Eisner’s book, he talks about the genre of story called “slice of life”. This form of story “extracts an interesting segment form the human experience and examines it realistically”. This connects to everyone in some way since we’re all part of the same community. We all have flaws and strengths that would be highlighted in the “slice of life” story form. The author could add to these stories is emotions such as empathy, a trait that is “the most basic of human characteristics” Eisner says, in chapter six page forty seven. Empathy helps people connect to what is happening in stories to encourage emotions from the reader in order to keep their attention.