The Building back

Eisner is almost as fond of buildings as he is of people, largely because of the people who populate them throughout the course of their lives - the buildings' lives. Individuals leave their imprints, their psychic shadows on them; in short, they share a history. It's something Chris Ware touches on, and more recently Seth with GEORGE SPROTT wherein the buildings evolve as their purposes change.

Originally published in 1987, this fanciful book tells the story of four people to whom this one particular building had a certain significance. They're stories of tenacity, devotion, passion and obsession set in or around a fourteen-storey corner building and its glass-fronted successor, until each protagonist in their very own way posthumously saves the day when an accident occurs and their shades, evidently still very attached to the building, join forces. The most satisfying thing about the finale is how each ghost prioritises according to their passion.

Like so many of Eisner's works, there's also a lot of economics involved, whether it's real estate or job-related, but then people forget that as well as being a pioneering craftsman, Will Eisner had also been a highly successful businessman in the publishing world, making him, off the top of my head, unique as a comicbook creator.