The Plot: the Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Plot

There are lies, damn lies, and then there are the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Perhaps no other single document has been responsible for more bloodshed than the Protocols. A thoroughly nasty hoax and complete forgery the Protocols reputed to be the minutes of a secret meeting of world Jewry that took place in conjunction with the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. The minutes detailed a conspiracy by these "Elders" to take over the world. Despite being revealed repeatedly as a hoax the Protocols have taken on a life of their own and continue to be brought up in areas around the world.

Will Eisner, perhaps the most creative and influential cartoonist, graphic artist, and/or sequential artist (whatever term one finds applicable), of our time spent the last twenty years of his life trying to unravel the origins of this deadly hoax. Bit-by-bit over the last twenty years Eisner read up on the Protocols and did significant amounts of research, including a review of files released in Russia (most of which dated to Tsarist and early revolutionary days) after the fall of communism. Eisner completed this graphic history book one month before he died, at the age of 87. The compelling art and narrative in "The Plot" helps to make Eisner's last work a wonderful epitaph for a creative giant. The year 2005 also marks the 100th anniversary of the Protocol's introduction in Russia in response to the 1905 Revolution. The bloody pogroms that followed bear stark witness to the horrid power of the Protocols.

After a brief but moving introduction by Umberto Eco, Eisner lays out a sequential history of the birth and strange life of the Protocols. The story begins with the creation of a book entitled "The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu" by a French writer named Maurice Joly. Joly's book was a thinly-disguised attack on Napoleon III's rule. The story continues and Eisner takes us into the life and less than wholesome career of Mathieu Golovinski. Golovinski, in conjunction with the Okhrana (the Tsar's version of the KGB) creates the Protocols by plagiarizing Joly's book almost completely. From there we see the Protocols exposed as a hoax by The Times of London in the 1920s. Yet despite that expose the Protocols are then used by both Adolf Hitler and the American car magnate Henry Ford. It is still being distributed today.

A significant portion of the book consists of side-by-side comparison of Joly's Dialogue In Hell and Golovinski's Protocols. The results are both compelling and conclusive. There may be some who feel that this rather lengthy insert is not appropriate for a graphic work such as this. I tend to think it both necessary and effective. Mere claims of fraud are not sufficient. It is important to set it out in black and white. Eisner does this to great effect.

It has been said that a graphic novel may not be the best method for discussing such a serious topic. I disagree. I think that the information provided by Eisner is absorbed very well by the reader. It is not an academic treatise to be sure but it was not intended to be. The information is easily absorbed even if one takes time to admire Eisner's graphic art which is powerful and compelling.

Eisner's last work is a fitting tribute to his life for at least two reasons. First, it provides an excellent overview of a publication that has caused havoc over the last 100 years. As Umberto Eco says in his introduction, "one must fight the Big Lie and the hatred it spawns". Eisner has done this to great effect. Second, "The Plot" provides yet one more piece of supporting evidence for the assertion that the graphic arts is a serious, provocative medium that need not play second fiddle to what may sometimes be referred to as pure `literature' or `the arts'. Eisner's legacy in this field is secure and The Plot serves as a fitting grace note to a long, distinguished career.