There’s a general perception, somehow, that small town life holds the key to community in this country. That’s where you find the tales of ancestors past, traditions passed from generation to generation, and intimate knowledge of everyone and everything worth knowing. Will Eisner, known as one of the greats of comic art, is also a confirmed city-dweller, specifically New York and all its distinctive burroughs, histories, and neighborhoods. With Dropsie Avenue, he tells us in no uncertain terms that small town America has nothing on one street in New York. All of the petty differences, new ideas, and old traditions mix on the Avenue, forcing some old timers to leave in disgust just as new residents arrive with new hope. Taking us all the way from Colonial New Amsterdam to today’s suburbanite glory, this epic story elegantly proves that old adage, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood
ISBN: 9780393328110
by Will Eisner
W. W. Norton & Company 2006 (new edition)
