Four Wordless Graphic Novels edited by George Walker This collection brings us back to a fascinating era of wordless novels -- i.e. novels told entirely in pictures -- that had a modest flowering during the first half of the 20th century.  These novels tended to emerge from a socialist  -- and even, dare we say it, communist -- consciousness and often centered on class struggle and/or the clash between labor and capital.  This volume contains four excellent works, each hand crafted by a master of the form between 1918 and 1951: The Passion of a Man by Franz Masereel;  Wild Pilgrimage by Lynd Ward; White Collar by Giacomo Patri; and Southern Cross by Laurence Hyde.  Part of the attraction of politically motivated artists to this form, as George Walker explains in his excellent introduction, is the universality of the image -- it does not need to be translated, and can cross cultural barriers in a single bound, as it were, and so communicate the message of human liberation that the creators were eager to impart as widely as possible.  Somewhat ironically, these class-conscious works that aimed  -- at least in part --  to raise the awareness of the exploitative quality of capitalism and spur the masses into rising up against "the man" were produced by members of more-or-less the middle class and published by companies that put out hardcover volumes priced in dollars that aimed at the middle class, while at the same time just down the street at the comic book publishers, works were being published that sold in huge numbers for a dime and that would ultimately prove to have the greatest impact in shaping the consciousness of the of these very masses that the picture novelists were trying to reach.  This is not in any way to knock these works -- they are excellent and show precisely that compassion for the human condition that super hero power fantasies worked so hard  -- and, one must add, succcessfully -- to obviate.  It is not at all surprising that these works are coming back into vogue at this juncture as the values that they champion are sorely in need at the same time that the public at large is warming to the idea of reading graphic novels, of which, in many respects -- not the least of which in this regard is the enthusiasm of mainstream publishers -- the works collected here may be seen as  precursors if not progenitors.  This collection definitely warrants a look, and, if you like what you see, it really is a great value when you consider it collects four complete works.  The stand out, in our opinion, has to be Lynd Ward's Wild Pilgrimage.  Ward is probably the most well known and widely published of the creators collected here, and his work God's Man has been kept in print far longer than any other work in this genre, but Wild Pilgrimage is probably his most intense work. 

We are quite happy to report that the venerable Library of America has done right by the unique works of Lynd Ward.  From the Art Spiegelman introduction through the choice of texts, and, most crucially, to the quality of the reproduction and presentation, this two volume collection of the works of this pioneering, Depression-era master of the art of telling stories without words has opened the door of the official American literary canon to the graphic novel form.  Please visit the LoA page on this work and be treated to an overview of the work and an exclusive pdf interview with Art Spiegelman about the project, along with a 16-page preview.