City People Notebook (Will Eisner Library)

Will Eisner, the Elvis of comics, loved watching the people around him and reporting on their quirks. City People Notebook is a collection of short pieces--call them graphic poems--grouped thematically under the headings Time, Space, and Smell. He captures the essences of these qualities as experienced by urban folk (even smell, a tough literary nut, cracks easily for him). His graphic poems are strongly reminiscent of the free-form pieces from the old Mad magazine, with a greater depth and maturity. Sometimes goofy, sometimes haunting, and usually insightful, Eisner's City People Notebook is a wise guide to the weird world of the urbanite. --Rob Lightner