Similarities between Thompson and Eisner

What is striking me as the biggest similarity between Will Eisner and Craig Thompson is the approach of their overall page layout.  Each page is carefully crafted around the art as the primary focus to the story, with dialogue and type as the secondary.  I feel like when I read both of their comics my eyes are more involved with the art and the direction the panels are moving me through as opposed to what's being said.  Although I believe the dialogue in both comics Blankets and A Contract With God are amazingly well-written, I also happen to believe the design of the art in these books is what really shines the most.

In a way reading through Eisner's A Contract With God felt like a cinematic experience, with how the pages were laid out and the low usage of words really gave it more independence to make dynamic layouts that sprawl out of the box or aren't even contained.  The frequent change up between distance shots also gives it a film kind of influence where it could be a page used in the storyboard process, but then other shots that form into a design of an abstract shape are what could not be done in film, for now at least.  It somewhat seems that Eisner and Thompson have a designer's eye along with an a cinematographer's vision for how each page should flow, and in what way the typography should react to the art design.  The word count in both of these books combined very well could be less than an average Action Comic book from around Eisner's time.

The thing that most affected me about both authors is the ability to reach the insecurities and flaws of people, and then the talent to visually navigate us through.  In one of Eisner's shorts in A Contract With God there's the main character in the Super whose untrusted and as he's an anti-semite.  Due to the tenants dislike of the Super as a person, he was cornered into an awful situation through manipulation of his illegal desires into committing suicide.  While in Thompson's book there's more of a breakdown into the inner workings of the main character's flaws in relationships and inner turmoil of life.

I really enjoy both of these books, and this approach to graphic storytelling is something I hope to learn from in the future.