Body Talk

Both Eisner and Thompson tell amazing stories in their books, and even though there are some differences, there are also some similarities. 

Is Eisner's work "A Contract with God", he writes four stories that are completely different from each other, but all four stories are connected in the sense that it happens in the same building, during the same time.  Eisner's work I believe is meant for a mature audience and wasn't intended for children or even younger adults because of the message he portrays through his writing.  For example, in his third story ("The Super"), there's mention of pedophilia and suicide in it, and doesn't really set the tone that much younger audiences could get into or understand with an open mind.  Eisner also focuses on the message of religion pretty heavily which makes me believe that Eisner was a religious man and wanted to portray that through his work. 

Thompson's work "Blankets" on the other hand seems like a very personal comic about his life.  As for the target audience, it seems like it's aimed towards young adults that may have experienced the same things he went through (such as myself, which I'll explain later).  This story is a personal narrative of Thompson's life through the comic strip, and uses dialog and experiences to connect to the audience. 

What really related to me was Thompson's "Blankets" story, at least in the beginning.  Some parts of it were disconnected from my life (like being freezing cold in the winter, mom being very religious, and the father figure in genera), but a lot of it actually sunk in with me on a personal level.  Growing up, I was the older brother (my brother being two years younger), and I felt it was my obligation to take care of him since we didn't have a dad in the picture.  I was also bullied pretty hard, but we lived in a bigger city, so the insults and bullying wasn't directly tied to my personal life, but towards my physical appearance and ratty clothes due to us being poor.  There were points in my life that I was always annoyed with what he did, and we always fought, which most of the time ended up in physical fist fights, but at the end of the day, he was my brother and I would have done anything to protect him.