Which 1978 graphic novel by Will Eisner is widely credited with helping popularize the term “graphic novel”?

Will Eisner’s 1978 work widely credited with popularizing the term “graphic novel” is A Contract with God.

A Contract with God is a collection of four interconnected stories set in a fictional Bronx tenement. Eisner drew on immigrant life, religious doubt, neighborhood conflict, and the emotional pressures of urban working-class communities. The stories are not a single continuous adventure but share a setting and social atmosphere.

Eisner marketed the book as a “graphic novel,” helping establish a label that distinguished substantial book-length comics from the shorter comic books and newspaper strips then most familiar to American readers. The phrase existed before 1978, so Eisner did not invent it, but his work played a major role in making it widely recognized.

The book’s importance is also artistic. Eisner used expressive lettering, cinematic page layouts, and detailed environmental drawing to show that comics could sustain mature literary and autobiographical subjects.