(5) A Contract With God 신과의 계약

        “A Contract with God” is one of the first graphic novels that have been published by Will Eisner. Even though the term “graphic novel” was never used before, it is a fitting name for Will Eisner’s works. My first impression on “A Contract with God” was that it is “extremely dark” with its contents and the way it represent it. The work was not “comical” even though it was filled with dark humor. The character’s actions and way they talk are not overly exaggerated, but realistic and sarcastic. While reading it, I felt like I was reading a well-written novel, instead of a comic book.

        “A Contract with God” is composed of four stories happening in an old neighborhood in New York. My favorite stories with in this book are “A contract with God” and “The Super”. The first story is about a Jewish guy who made contract with God yet fall into a depression after the death of his adopted daughter, Rachele. This story contains a deep sorrow and bitterness that successfully drags audience into the world of Graphic Novel, not a comic book. I personally thought it this story to be simple, but impactful. It was something totally different from the other reading that I have done in this class. This depressing dark story continues when it gets to “The Super”. In “The Super”, Mr.Scuggs, also known as Super, gets into trouble for chasing after a girl named Rosie, who kills Mr.Scuggs’s only companion dog and steal his money. Everyone in the neighborhood takes side of Rosie thinking that she is the victim, while Mr.Scugg is an actual victim of stereotypes. This story ends with Mr.Scugg committing suicide while Rosie is counting the money she has stolen. This kind of dark humors represented in this entire book truly shocked me. I wasn’t able to take this work as a casual “comic book reading”.