Art by Will Eisner. Photo: Abrams Books Graphic novels — that is, long-form narratives done in the style of comic books — have rocked the literary world in recent decades. Works like Maus , Persepolis , and Fun Home have garnered Pulitzers, given birth to film and theater adaptations, topped best-seller lists, and elevated comics art from a disdained medium into an acclaimed one. But who, exactly, invented the graphic novel? Debates over its origins have raged ever since the term graphic novel first came into vogue in the late 1970s. But new research is bringing us closer to an answer. The origin of the graphic novel is a bit of a detective story, and a principal suspect is the man profiled in the upcoming book Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel , written by longtime comics writer, editor, historian, and former president of DC Comics Paul Levitz. Eisner, who died in 2005 at the age of 87, was nothing short of a titan in the world of comics. He was a writer and artist whose influence has been felt since his earliest successes in the early 1940s. Eisner’s unique career included a pioneering newspaper comic strip (“The Spirit”) , helping win a few wars by showing GIs how to take care of their equipment in official military artwork, heading a company, teaching, and even doing the first comic strip to appear in New York magazine, back when it was the Sunday magazine of the New York Herald. We’re proud to present this exclusive chapter from Levitz’s book, a chapter about Eisner and the origins of the graphic novel. *** It’s common to hear Will Eisner called “the father of the graphic novel” for his near-universally acclaimed 1978 work A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories . However, it’s a phrase that is loaded with inaccuracy, emotion, and controversy, even among those with deep respect for Eisner and his work. Taking it step by step, first consider the term “graphic novel.” Eisner himself, in the first … [Read more...] about Will Eisner and the Secret History of the Graphic Novel