The stories in Will Eisner's New York: the Big City keep getting sadder and sadder. The subtle humor once found in earlier stories has slipped away in Invisible People. Take Pincus. Someone at the newspaper has made a mistake and prematurely put his name in the obituary section. Because Pincus is an unmemorable (invisible) man no one believes him when he tries to prove his living-and-breathing existence. Then there is the librarian, a spinster in her 40s who spent her entire life looking after her father. Despite the many sacrifices she has made over the years to care for her dad, once he passes she believes it is not too late to have a life of her own. She tries...except she choses a man exactly like herself, locked into a lifetime of caring for a parent. These are two of the stories of people who are on the fringes of society; the people unobservant folks would never notice until something drastic happens to call their attention. So sad! ( )

This is quite a look at those individuals who are invisible in our society because they are not thought to lack value or they suffer pain which they are unable to divulge to others.

Of the three stories presented, the one I found the saddest was Mortal Combat which is of two single adults, a woman who devoted her life to caring for her dad and a man devoted to caring for his domineering mother. The pain presented at the end of the story was so much that the man had to resume his invisible life in the stacks of books in the children's library. The stories are a commentary of how socially isolated people may become even in congested urban life.

The artwork in this graphic novel is magnificent. The expressions of the characters tell their story even more than the dialogue bubbles do. ( )

3 short graphic stories by Will Eisner about a spinster librarian who realized that at 40 years of age, she'd lost half her life by taking care of her ailing father, a laundry presser who was pronounced dead because of an error by the obituary clerk and the ramifications to every aspect of his life as a result of this error, and a man with healing powers but who couldn't heal his own life. They're all poignant stories about people who pretty much remain invisible to the world. They don't call attention to themselves and they could be people we pass everyday and just not see ( )