Eisner's last completed work is an exposure of the fraud that is the Protocols of The Elders of Zion. His illustrations are outstanding (as expected), and he experiments a bit in form, mixing his illustrations with copies of actual documents. Sometimes, though, the storytelling suffers, as there is quite a bit of expository dialogue. ( )

"The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is Will Eisner's illustrated debunking of the infamous made-up book "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

For readers who have not read Eisner's work before, they will be amazed at his illustrations. Each one is emotive and powerful. In other books, his story-telling stands out as well. This book, however, tells less of a story. It is a collection of vignettes associated with specific years and historic figures associated with the fraudulent book.

The vignettes start with French author Maurice Joly's suicide. One of his books was plagiarized to fill out "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." The vignettes end with Eisner himself learning that no matter how many times historians, reporters, and researchers try, the fraud continues.

One of the vignettes focuses on a reporter from The Times debunking the book. In it, selections from a book by French author Maurice Joly are compared side-by-side to what is in "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This portion of the book falls a bit flat because it is presented less graphically than the rest of the book and it drags on for quite a while.

Facsimiles of actual book covers are included throughout Eisner's work as he attempts to show that no matter how much debunking occurs, anti-Semites will still use this fraud as a means to justify their prejudices.

One knock on the book is that his main source, Mikhail Lepekhine, a well-respected Russian historian accessing tsarist archives after the Cold War, fingers the tsar's secret police in France as the origin behind fraud, when the origin is still in some dispute.

The book includes an index, an page for additional resources, and an partial selection of references. This was Eisner's final book before he passed away. ( )

Well, that was quick.

I thought this was going to be my book for tonight, maybe finish it tomorrow. Instead, I'm writing down some thoughts so I can start a new one and stay up a little longer. Still, it was a good read-- at least as good as a comic book about one of the most insidious plots in the history of the world can be.

Obviously, I don't mean the plot of the Protocols themselves. I've known those to be a fake for as long as I've known they existed. [b:The Plot The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion|33478|The Plot The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion|Will Eisner|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348893503s/33478.jpg|476968] isn't even the first book I've read on the subject, though it is the best. I read Eco's [b:The Prague Cemetery|10314376|The Prague Cemetery|Umberto Eco|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327902035s/10314376.jpg|14511050] and found it repetitive and boring, though not without humor and clever devices. Still, I read it because I'm a fan of Eco, and I was interested in the premise. The latter is what led me to this book.

I wasn't aware of antisemitism until I married my wife. Actually, it was years after that I realized the extent of hatred people have for Jews. My wife is Jewish, but didn't really become an active Jew until we moved here to Columbia, South Carolina. Before you laugh, know that Charleston, just an hour or so south, is home to the oldest, continuous Reform congregation in the US. There's a strong Jewish connection. There's also a strong redneck connection, and a (seemingly requisite) history of antisemitism. Sadly, it is probably no worse than anywhere else in the country.

So as my wife became more active in her temple, I learned why there are door chimes that ring whenever someone enters a synagogue: Jewish congregants and temple workers need at all times to know when someone enters the building. Down the street, the gigantic Baptist church hires a cop or two every Sunday to direct traffic. Each time my wife's temple has an event, or the conservative synagogue down the street holds a community service, they hire cops, too. Only in addition to the uniformed officers, they get an undercover detective or two. Not because they're paranoid, but because of tracks like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Someday, if i'm lucky enough to have children, they will be Jews. And there will be plenty of people in the world who will hate them for that simple fact. What makes this graphic novel so powerful is not the actual quality of it-- the dialog sounds like an infomercial at times-- but that it seeks to un-do the damage this tract started a century ago. I am doubtful it will, but here's hoping. What the book makes very clear toward the end is that people keep believing in the Protocols because they want to. It's depressing. ( )

Will Eisner, o grande mestre da banda desenhada americana, concluiu "A Conspiração" no seu último mês de vida, considerando-a a obra mais poderosa de toda a sua carreira. Profundamente perturbado pelo facto de os Protocolos dos Sábios de Sião – um alegado plano de domínio mundial escrito por líderes judeus – continuarem a ser publicados e distribuídos em todo o mundo, Eisner esperava que o seu relato gráfico desta injuriosa fraude pudesse alcançar uma audiência muito mais alargada do que a de qualquer obra académica sobre o assunto. ( )

Riprendo Eisner in mano per una lettura impegnativa, la storia segreta dei protocolli dei savi di Sion. Non è una storia inventata, ma tutta realtà. O meglio falsità, come i protocolli stessi. Infatti, direi narra la leggenda, appositamente creata, esisteva un complotto sionista per rovesciare le sorti del mondo, piegandole agli interessi degli ebrei. Appositamente creata in quanto si tratta di un falso storico, la storia nasce nella Russia degli zar e va avanti nel tempo e nello spazio; ma un ebreo nemico fa sempre comodo. Ed alla fine, come si dice, la menzogna è un venticello. E non basta dimostrare la falsità dei documenti per evitare che le congetture diventino realtà. Passiamo al fumetto. Eisner è un grandissimo; e non è una novità. Cimentarsi con una storia vera, così complessa non è certo semplice. Ma la qualità dell’autore è straordinaria e ne esce un albo perfetto. Dove la storia si coniuga alla fantasia.

Recensione del 19 11 2020
I protocolli di Sion sono uno dei pilastri culturali su cui vari regimi, negli anni, hanno costruito il proprio consenso attraverso l’odio verso gli ebrei. Una serie di approfondimenti da parte di giornalisti e di storici, in particolare di Micheil Lepekhine, hanno consentito di ricostruire la storia di questo enorme falso storico, costruito da Mathieu Glovinskii sulla scorta del “dialogo tra Machiavelli e Montesquieu” di Maurice Joly. L’incredibile diffusione dei protocolli di Sion deriva dalle opportunità che le teorie complottistiche danno ai governi di individuare un nemico facile da identificare e combattere. Il lavoro di Eisner, ben introdotto da Umberto Eco, è al solito stratosferico, nonostante la differenza di registro con i suoi precedenti capolavori. Lo stile non è il solito, perché il tema non è solito, l’irriverente autore si trasforma in storico, anche se con piglio divulgativo ma lo fa con la consueta eleganza. Con un testo importante perché aiuta a comprendere quanto un falso possa oggi, ad oltre un secolo di distanza dalla prima pubblicazione e nonostante la dimostrazione scientifica della inconsistenza storica dei contenuti, ancora essere diffusa da personalità di primissimo piano della politica internazionale per imputare agli ebrei un altro, l’ennesimo, complotto. ( )