Author: Glenn Hauman

On this day in 1917, Will Eisner, American comics pioneer and creator of The Spirit, was born. He would have been 94 today.

To celebrate, Google has devoted its Doodle to him today, and Scott McCloud (his Understanding Comics is the intellectual heir to Eisner’s Comics And Sequential Art) writes up a tribute at the Official Google Blog.

It’s tough to say Eisner is having a renaissance when he’s never been away in the comics world– from the current retrospective at MoCCA complete with a birthday party and film screening tonight (I don’t think they’re showing either adaptation of The Spirit, but I could be surprised) to the Eisner Awards handed out at San Diego– but it’s nice to see the master getting the respect he deserves in wider circles. One hopes that it comes through when the film version of A Contract With God is completed.

As for me, I plan on celebrating by curling up with a Spirit Sunday strip or seventy.

In comics, we always have to keep an eye on where our next generations of readers will come from– and it’s just become a bit harder, as earlier this week Congress and President Obama eliminated funding for the literary organization, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).

CEO Carol H. Rasco made this statement:

RIF’s ability to provide 4.4 million children with free books and reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 17,000 locations throughout the United States is in jeopardy. RIF programs are in schools, community centers, hospitals, military bases, and other locations that serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, homeless children, and children without adequate access to libraries. For 44 years, RIF has provided millions of children the opportunity to choose free and high-quality books to read and keep for themselves.

But it’s okay– it’s not like comic sales are going down or anything. Besides, you don’t actually have to know how to read to read comics. Amirite?

via Reading Is Fundamental Funding Eliminated – GalleyCat.