This week, we look at Will Eisner's last work, The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Produced over the course of twenty years, this is Eisner's attempt to sum up the various research debunking one of the most persistent anti-Semitic tracts in modern history. Just a few quick things to note:
- The history is impeccable, the fiction not quite as much. Primarily because Eisner seems more interested in making his argument than in creating three-dimensional characters. This is hardly a flaw in the overall work -- The Plot succeeds because it uses the techniques of graphic fiction (dramatizing scenes, laying facsimiles of text side-by-side with commentary) to make an otherwise complicated explanation much simpler. But the narrative "thrust" of the book -- which seems to ask when we'll see the end of the Protocols (answer: no time soon) -- makes for a weakish ending.
- Using Philip Graves -- a British reporter who wrote a series of articles on the Protocols -- as a central character is an smart tactic (and aging him throughout the remainder of the story is a nice touch). Am I the only one who thinks that he winds up looking a little like Eisner's old Commissioner Dolan by the end?
- It's interesting that Eisner engages in some of the same tactics as the Protocols themselves, putting words in the mouths of historical figures. It doesn't detract from his argument (argumentive dialogues are an old, honored technique), but it does set up a few resonances.
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