Just take a look at 100 Bullets. That thing just drips with his influence, in both my work and Eduardo's too. He was the first and there's never going to be another one like him. I guess once you're into it, the rest of the people would say that Jack Kirby was 'it', [but] I think Eisner was. I remember when I was a kid, Warren was republishing The Spirit, [and] those things just amazed me.

Brian Azzarello (writer; 100 Bullets)

When I was in college I had Will Eisner as a teacher. Although he was a brilliant instructor , not having any interest in sequential art, I never really knew how intrumental and important he was to the field. As I fell into the comic industry many years later I had a whole new set of artistic heroes to worship. It wasn't until after many a conversation with my idols that I realized what I had been missing. Each and everyone one of them sighted Mr. Eisner as their greatest inspiration! Needless to say I kicked myself for weeks followed quickly with a trip to my local book retailer. Thank you Mr. Eisner, thank you for all the inspiration you gave me and continue to give me!

Oh, and I'm sorry I flunked your class.

Joe Quesada (Editor-in-Chief, Marvel Comics)

It must have been frustrating for Jack Kirby to have Will Eisner one-upping him. Jack Kirby is pretty much acknowledged as one of the guys who created the language of comics, [but] Will Eisner showed you how sophisticated that language could be. All the angles and fancy little tricks, the panel arrangements that we take for granted in comics today, they were pretty much introduced to comics through Will Eisner. He came along and redefined how you look at the comic book page. If you see somebody who takes the time to turn the title into a part of the drawing, or [using] almost storyboard like action, a lot of that is Will. He held it out there and showed us that there is more to comics than 6 panels per page. I think Will Eisner was probably the first artist who looked at the comic book page as a complete unit rather than a series of units held together by a narrative thread.

Plus, he was the master of the splash-page, that goes without saying.

Keith Giffen (writer/artist; Vext, Legion of Super-Heroes)

I'd like to be just like him when I grow up.

Dave Gibbons (writer/artist; World's Finest, The Watchmen)

Will Eisner is the first comics pro I ever met. We were in Germany at the time and he was in Frankfurt promoting the film Comic Book Confidential. We arrived to a store early before Will's signing and asked where we could get a poster of the film. They sent Laura and I to the theater where we found Will and his wife waiting and looking slightly lost. When they heard us speaking english they brightened up and we immediately hit it off. Our own private audience with a legend! I even had samples of my first work, Dead Air, which he critiqued and gave me invaluable encouragement.

Later, at the incredibly crowded signing, Will picked us out and greeted us again with such enthusiasm that the lines of people were in awe of us! They must have wondered who we were and why Will was so happy to see us. That was 1989 and it's been a pleasure to see Will alost every year since and mark off the progrees I've had since then.

Not only one of the friendliest men, I've ever met but certainly one of the biggest inspirations as well. His innovations for the comics medium are legendary, but his prolific output should be noted as well. Just look at the recent Spirit library that DC has started collecting. At eight pages a week - Six months work makes a thick hardcover collection! Not a sloppy page in the bunch. Thinking on that always keeps me going and reminds me that it's not about work--it's about the thrill, the joy of making comics!

Mike Allred (writer/artist; Madman)

I grew up on The Spirit. My father wouldn't have a copy of the Daily News or the Journal American -- both of which he considered "right wing rags" -- in the house, and the New York Times didn't carry comics. Luckily he also bought a wonderful left wing newspaper which was named variously the PM and the Compass, and which printed some of the best comics of the 20th century, including Barnaby, Pogo, and, best of all, on Sundays -- the Spirit section! My big sister and I would fight over that section, and she usually won, which meant I had to have the patience of Job while she took her time mooning over The Spirit's ill-fated romances with Satin, Ellen Dolan, and Sand Sarif.

That Will Eisner is a great artist is too obvious to mention, but it's what he does with that drawing talent that makes him immortal: he tells stories, wonderful stories -- and in seven pages! Will Eisner influenced me -- not to draw comics (although God only knows I used enough of what cat yronwode calls "Eisner's cheap tricks", all those rainy scenes!) but to tell stories, because he is one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century. So Will Eisner didn't make me a cartoonist, he made me a writer.

Trina Robbins (writer; GoGirl!)

There's no simple platitude to describe Will Eisner's work and contribution to the art of Comics, no way to say in a handful of sentences what his legend and legacy means. My grandmother, who is rapidly careening towards 90 years old, and about as bitter as they come, may have offered the highest praise I've heard; she has never cared for comics, but on a whim I bought her a copy of A Contract With God.

My grandmother grew up on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. She lived with Eisner's characters. Hell, she might have even thrown onions at Will himself from her tenement window.

She read A Contract With God, and she called me, tears in her voice, and she said, "I remember it, and it was just like that."

That's Will's magic, and God bless him for it.

Greg Rucka (writer; Whiteout, Detective Comics)