10 People Who Changed The Comic Book Industry Forever
4. Will Eisner
Will Eisner Studios
If you've been following the industry for a while, chances are you've heard of the coveted 'Eisner Award'. Handed out yearly to comic book creators and journalists, the Eisners is the most prestigious event in the comic book calendar for professionals, and its namesake - Will Eisner himself - is a legend of the medium.
The creator of The Spirit, the graphic novel and a pioneer of the industry all around, Eisner's influence is almost impossible to overstate. The Spirit formed the basis for dozens of vigilante comics after his 1940 debut, and Eisner went on to define his career as a pioneer thereafter. Having created pamphlets for the army during WWII, Eisner's post-war resurgence came in the seventies where he produced A Contract With God, an opus that told the story of New York's immigrant communities during the early 20th century.
Later works came in the same decade and after, with The Building, To the Heart of the Storm and Fagin the Jew all intimating the quality of Eisner's bibliography in their own way.
He was a true leader of the art-form, and a true presence on the industry and off.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
