Intense Backdrop in 'A Contract with God'

I noticed something interesting toward the end of this week's discussion while flipping from page to page in A Contract with God.  Not only does Eisner have a way with letting the backdrop, or lack there of, in each panel speak for the characters or play a role in setting the tone for the story, but it is actually an integral part of the beginning few pages and the last page.  It's a line strung through the "other tenement stories" that ties them together on an interesting visual level.

The first few pages of A Contract with God really emphasizes the weather - the absolute downpour of rain specifically.  I think it has more to do than foreshadow the lightening/argument with God a few pages on.  It illustrates perfectly Fremme's emotions upon losing his daughter.  It's all so overwhelming that it 'floods' his perception and actions the same way the street outside his tenement is being flooded and everyday items (like the fire hydrant) are being engulfed and disappearing.  This 'flood' of complex emotions carries us beyond A Contract with God and into the other stories within the book.

The last frame of the book and Cookaline is also a perfect example of background speaking for the whole graphic novel and not just the story at hand.  There is no text, just a young man peering out into the city.  The city is rather detailed on these last two pages, underling the complexity and interconnectedness of the people and everyday events.  In the context of Cookaline and the graphic novel as a whole is gives a simple message to the audience: city or not people and places are complex, daily events can have an impact, merely living implies a furious range of experience we all might be left to ponder.