MINOR MIRACLES
" ... and not an ounce of chicken-fat."

Writer and artist: Will Eisner
Original Graphic Novel
Published by: DC Comics, 2000
$12.95

Reviewed by Ian Gould

Will Eisner was in danger of becoming an institution, a revered elder statesman whose new work was seized on uncritically as part of the canon regardless of its merits.

Perhaps best known as the creator and principal writer and artist of THE SPIRIT, Eisner launched a new phase in his career in the early 1980s with the publication of A CONTRACT WITH GOD -- his first major new comics piece for about twenty years.

CONTRACT, with its simple, well-observed stories of life in 1930s New York was a major departure from the bombast and histrionics that then dominated the field. Eisner delivered incontrovertible proof of the potential of the medium and acted as patron saint and standard-bearer (along with Underground survivors such as R. Crumb and MAUS's Art Speigelman) for much that was to come.

In an irony that would be appropriate in one of his own works, Eisner has found that new perspective in a return to the milieu of his earlier works, like CONTRACT. MINOR MIRACLES takes place in the Eastern European Jewish community of New York's Lower East Side in the 1930s. But if the geography and the characters (small-time shopkeepers, overbearing mothers, cheating wives) are familiar, the tone is not.

There's a Yiddish word that has passed into common use: "schmaltz".

"Schmaltz" is, literally, animal fat -- more specifically, chicken fat. But, schmaltz is also the term for excessive and overstated emotion. Eisner's work has always been "schmaltzy". This is not intended in a derogatory sense, but Eisner's art draws heavily on caricature and "iconic" representations. And his writing -- favoring as it does short stories rather than extended narratives -- has tended to subdue the finer nuances of character beneath the storytelling imperatives of the story in question.

This is pure speculation, but Eisner's approach to drama may have always been influenced by his background as the son of an artist who painted theatrical backdrops. Eisner himself has said that the much-vaunted "cinematic" elements in his early work actually derive more from the stage. Similarly, it seems, Eisner's characters seem intended for the Stage, not for the closer gaze of the television screen or the comics page. They seem in constant danger of over-acting, a danger though to which they seldom succumb.

MINOR MIRACLES is CONTRACT WITH GOD with the schmaltz replaced by a hint of vinegar. In the opening story, an impecunious but overbearing man takes merciless advantage of a relative's generosity. As one might expect in a story of this type, the rise of one is paralleled by the decline in the fortunes of the other. If this story had been included in CONTRACT it would have ended with Irving, the bully, receiving his come-uppance and cadging a few dollars from his former victim -- a humourously tinged ending with a suggestion of reconciliation between the two men. But this is not the case at all.

In another story, a couple is brought together through shared adversity, they separate but are reunited. But, there are no heart-found declarations of renewed love.

In the same story, a jeweler appears who is also a student of the Kaballah and is rumored to Possess magical powers. However, his involvement in the story departs from the simple, clear narrative that Eisner has always employed in the past. If he does indeed work magic, it is a magic of a subtle and dark-tinged kind.

Read MINOR MIRACLES and encounter a minor miracle in the way in which a giant in the comics field has re-invented himself in a glorious affirmation of talent that would distinguish a creator a third his age.

Recommended.

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