If you care about graphic novels, you need this book.
-- New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman
Graphic Witness features rare wordless novels by five great twentieth
century woodcut artists from Europe and North America. The stories they
tell reflect the political and social issues of their times as well as
the broader issues that are still relevant today.
Frans Masereel (1899-1972) was born in Belgium and is considered the
father of the wordless graphic novel. Graphic Witness includes the
first reprint of his classic work The Passion of a Man since its 1918
publication in Munich. American Lynd Ward (1905-85), author of the
provocative Wild Pilgrimage, is considered among the most important of
wordless novelists. Giacomo Patri (1898-1978) was born in Italy and
lived in the United States. His White Collar featured an introduction
by Rockwell Kent and was used a promotional piece by the labor movement.
Erich Glas's (1897-1973) haunting wordless novel Leilot, created in
1942, foreshadows the Holocaust, which was not widely known about at the
time. Southern Cross by Canadian Laurence Hyde (1914-87) was
controversial for its criticism of U.S. H-bomb testing in the South
Pacific.
Author George A. Walker draws on his expertise as a woodcut artist to
provide insight into the tools and techniques used to create these works
of art. As well, he examines the importance of the role of artists as
witnesses and critics of their times, and the influence of the genre on
the emergence of comics and the modern graphic novel.
This newly expanded edition of Graphic Witness, which features an
afterword by cartoonist Seth, will appeal to readers interested in
social issues, printmaking, art history and contemporary culture.
