The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Will Eisner
WW Norton and Company
Finished a month before his death earlier this year, comics legend Will Eisner’s heavily researched story about the origins of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fitting final work for the man who led the way in showing that comics could have literary and educational value. While the overly didactic dialogue comes off sounding like a “Canadian Heritage Moment” at times, Eisner uses all his skills as a master craftsman to relate how this anti-Semitic work came to be created in the late 19th century as a tool for the Russian Secret Police. He reveals that although the work was proven fraudulent many times over the past century, it continued to be reprinted to inspire hatred and violence against Jews.
Neil Fraser
type: graphic novel
category: best of 2005
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.