Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels by David A. Beronä

Oddly enough, could use more words and fewer pictures
In the early 20th century, a few innovative artists created visionary pictorial novels composed entirely of illustrations. The undisputed masters of the genre were the Belgian woodcut artist Frans Masereel and the American wood engraver Lynd Ward. These two artists, and a small group of followers inspired by their work, created wordless narratives of exceptional artistic and literary quality, which served as the precursors to the graphic novel as we know it today. In this 2008 study of the subject, David A. Beronä examines the work of eleven artists whose books were published from 1918 to 1951. In recent years, no other scholar has done as much to draw attention to and bring deserved respect to these influential works of art than Beronä. If anyone is qualified to write the definitive history of this art form, it’s him. Unfortunately, this isn’t it.

This book contains less than 45 pages of text. Chapter one, entitled “Historical Background,” is only two and a half pages long. Each artist gets about two paragraphs of biographical information, with the exception of Masereel and Ward, who maybe get a page each. 90 percent of the text consists of Beronä summarizing the plots of the books, complete with spoilers. For each work, Beronä’s synopsis is supported by roughly ten percent of each book’s illustrations, from which he makes points about the artist’s technique and choice of imagery. There are a few cases where he makes some insightful comments in regard to historical context, but mostly he’s not telling you anything you wouldn’t figure out from looking at the original works themselves. If you are interested enough in this art form to purchase a book like this, wouldn’t you rather get the reprint editions of these wordless novels and “read” them yourself, rather than be told second-hand everything that takes place within their covers?

You can’t go wrong with a book full of these stunning and powerful images, and they are reproduced beautifully. But the question is, how much of an education on the subject does this book really provide? What enthusiasts of woodcut novels and wordless books could really use is an in-depth scholarly study of the subject, with more concrete information on the artist’s lives, the development of their techniques, the artists and writers that influenced them and who they in turn influenced, the creation and publication of their wordless books, and the historical context in which this art form was created. This should be supported by illustrations that show examples of the art, without giving you so many pictures, taken out of context, as to hinder your enjoyment of reading the actual works. If the purpose of Wordless Books is to inspire a readership of these works, how is this purposed served by telling us which characters live or die? The experience one gets from Beronä’s study is roughly equivalent to trying to learn about the history of American literature through a series of Reader’s Digest condensed books.

Beronä should be commended for his career of work on this subject, but all the promotional copy I’ve read on this book leads one to believe it is a definitive scholarly study of wordless books, which it is not. Instead, it’s like reading a collection of the two-page introductions to the Dover reprint editions of many of these works. So why not just collect the Dover reprints, or seek out the works of these great artists through your local university library?
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Prelude to a Million Years and Song Without Words by Lynd Ward

Two brief, beautiful works by the master of wordless books
Lynd Ward was an artist and book illustrator who is indisputably the American master of the woodcut novel. By combining wood engravings into sequential narratives, he created wordless literary masterpieces—most notably the novels God’s Man, Madman’s Drum, and Wild Pilgrimage—which were influential precursors to today's graphic novels. The two pieces contained in this 2010 edition from Dover Publications, Prelude to a Million Years and Song Without Words, could be considered graphic short stories. The former, originally published in 1933, is comprised of thirty images, and the latter, from 1936, of twenty-one. Though these brief works are less monumental achievements than his lengthier novels, the shorter format proves to have been somewhat liberating for Ward. In these two works he seems less beholden to narrative conventions than usual, and more willing to experiment with abstract, symbolic imagery.

Of the two pieces included here, Prelude to a Million Years has the more concrete narrative structure. It tells the story of an artist who worships beauty, yet nonetheless must deal with the ugly reality of the world in which he lives. When not engaged in the act of artistic creation, he navigates a bleak cityscape, bearing witness to domestic violence, labor unrest, and the rampant jingoism preceding the Second World War. Song Without Words illustrates the fears of an expectant mother as she contemplates giving birth to her child in a world threatened by the spectres of Fascism, Nazism, and imminent war. This piece has less of a straightforward linear narrative than one usually finds in Ward’s wordless novels. It reads more like a portfolio of trippy, dreamlike visions, often employing surrealistic imagery. It contains some of the most shocking and powerful images Ward ever created, some of which rival the creepiest creations of Salvador Dali.

The book features a very good introduction by David A. Beronä, a respected historian of woodcut novels. In addition to some brief interpretation of the works, Beronä offers interesting historical information about the creation and publication of the original editions. Unfortunately, this introduction is only four pages long and leaves the reader wanting more. Dover, a publisher known for their inexpensive reissues of classic works, is to be commended for bringing these works back to life, but the reproduction quality of the illustrations is merely adequate. The book is printed on a smooth matte-coated sheet which allows for the preservation of Ward’s intricate line work, but robs the illustrations of the rich blacks and tonal depth that would have resulted from a softer, uncoated sheet. True fans of Ward’s work should splurge on the Library of America’s two-volume hardcover edition of his complete woodcut novels. Overall the price would probably be cheaper than that of collecting all the individual Dover editions. Those not ready to make such a big commitment to Ward’s work, however, can’t really go wrong by buying this inexpensive edition. These beautiful and moving works are well worth the price.

Works in this collection

Prelude to a Million Years 

Song Without Words 

Left: Lynd Ward, from Prelude to a Million Years, 1933. Right: Lynd Ward, from Song Without Words, 1936.

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Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, edited by George A. Walker

Great works deserve a great introduction

Woodcut novels are a rare and beautiful art form that have been underappreciated for far too long. Thankfully in recent years some of these classic “graphic novels” have been rescued from obscurity and given the proper respect they deserve. This collection features four great works created from 1918 to 1951.

Frans Masereel is the European pioneer of the genre. His art exhibits the jagged simplicity of German Expressionism, and his storytelling is correspondingly disjointed and ambiguous. Lynd Ward is the American master, embodying the true apex of the art form. (The Library of America recently published an edition of his complete works.) His prints are beautifully detailed with intricate line work, and his narrative likewise displays complexity and depth. Canadian artist Laurence Hyde provides the most beautiful art in the book, combining the stark gravity of Masereel with the nuance of line and tone found in Ward’s work. Italian-American artist Giacomo Patri supplies the weakest piece in the collection. His art, in both its conception and execution, is really not in the same league as the other three, but his story provides a valuable glimpse into life during the Great Depression. If there’s a common thread among the four works, it is a stand against social injustice. No less than three of the works feature workers rising up against their oppressors, with mixed results.

The only reason I’m not giving this book five stars is because I was disappointed by the thirty-odd pages of text that accompany the art. The preface and introduction by Walker, and the afterword by Seth provide only a couple paragraphs of biographical information on each artist, with some very general comments on how these novels expressed the political realities of their time and how woodcut novels were the precursors to today’s graphic novels. To this I say, “Duh.” I would have preferred more detailed biographies and more on the history of woodcut novels in general.

Left: Lynd Ward, from Wild Pilgrimage; Top right: Frans Masereel, from The Passion of a Man; Bottom right: Laurence Hyde, from Southern Cross

Stories in this collection:

The Passion of a Man by Frans Masereel

Wild Pilgrimage by Lynd Ward

White Collar by Giacomo Patri

Southern Cross by Laurence Hyde

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