New York, the Big City

Will Eisner's New York, the Big City (2000, DC) is a single-issue graphic novel that collects the master storyteller's vignettes of urban life, originally published in the 1980s. With Eisner handling both writing and art, the book distills his signature blend of gritty realism and humanist observation into a love letter to the city's streets, subways, and diverse inhabitants. It stands as a compact, essential showcase of his late-career focus on the city as a living character, cementing his influence on the graphic novel medium.