regretful. A Contract With God was notable for its bleakness. The dark drawings - dense black lines crowding the page - chimed perfectly with the tragic content. This was a vision of an impoverished city, a place where love and faith held no value, where crime and confusion were king.

A Contract With God was Eisner's masterpiece, but now Norton are publishing Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City, a compendium of four far lesser graphic works. The Big City (1981) and City People Notebook (1989) are loose collections of vignettes. Here Eisner's drawing is at its brightest and most delicate. He homes in on the airshafts, subway trains and bins of the city, illustrating the myriad stories involving these silent characters. As Eisner concocts several short stories involving, for instance, a fire-hydrant, the tone verges on playful.