William Erwin "Will" Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series THE SPIRIT(1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. "The Spirit Section", the colloquial name given to a 16-page Sunday supplement, distributed to 20 newspapers by the Register and Tribune Syndicate and reaching five million readers during the 1940s. It generally included two other, four-page strips (initially Mr. Mystic and Lady Luck), plus filler material. Eisner worked as editor, but also wrote and drew most entries—generally, after the first few months, with an un-credited "Bullpen" of collaborators throughout the publication run of the The Spirit included: Jules Feiffer, Jerry Grandenetti, Sam Rosen, Bob Powell, Dave Berg, Fred Kida, Jack Cole, Lou Fine, Manly Wade Wellman, Klaus Nordling, Marilyn Mercer, Wally Wood though with Eisner's singular vision for the character as a unifying factor.

In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A CONTRACT WITH GOD. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book "Comics and Sequential Art" (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor, and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.