Graphic novels without words are the silent movies of the printed page. Now, the inestimable and erudite
vacapinta first directed us to the father of the genre, one
Frans Masereel. Up to recently, the most notable of Masereel's successors was
Lynd Ward, whose most famous work was
God's Man, subtitled
A Novel in Woodcuts. Here are some more
plates from
God's Man for sale. Yet more plates can be found, along with a bad midi, at the Texas based
Woodcuts - Lynn Ward: Gods' Man. And here are some
illustrations from Georgetwon University's Lauinger Library September 2001 exhibit
Lvnd Ward as Illustrator. Here, also, is
Graphic Witness: visual arts & social commentary - Lynd Ward. And here is his
Madman's Drum in its entirety. But now we have a contemporary working in the same vein--
Eric Drooker.
More inside
posted by y2karl
on Aug 4, 2006 -
22 comments
The Renaissance saw the publication of many great romantic epics: Ludovico Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso in 1516; Torquato Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered in 1581; and Edmund Spenser's
The Faerie Queene in 1590 and 1596.
But perhaps the most ambitious and mysterious of them all was the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili published in 1499 by
Aldus Manutius (previously discussed
here). The
Poliphili has usually been attributed to an Italian monk named
Francesco Colonna, although recently some have claimed that it was the work of architect and humanist
Leon Battista Alberti, even though he died in 1472.
The
Poliphili has long fascinated scholars because of its amazing
typography, the
cinematic style of its woodcuts, and the
strange messages seemingly hidden in this multi-lingual text. Written in Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean, and even some hieroglyphs, it has only recently been translated into English. This strange text has inspired
a great deal of research and even
a New York Times best-selling murder mystery.
posted by papakwanz
on Feb 4, 2005 -
18 comments
Carlos Cortez, Rest in Peace. Carlos Cortez--
poet,
woodcut artist,
veteran wobbly,
WWII conscientious objector, longtime contributor to
The Industrial Worker newspaper, longtime board president of
working-class publishing house Charles Kerr Publishers, passed away last week. In a time of
dime-silly protests,
we lost a great man (Chicago Tribune) who
leaves behind a simple, powerful example of sustained resistance.
posted by juggernautco
on Jan 24, 2005 -
8 comments