Before starting my annotated bibliography I had a very difficult time in finding a theme which I felt passionately about. I had recently read Shaun Tan’s graphic novel, The Arrival, and although I greatly enjoyed the pictures and creatures within the story and I found the ability to tell a story with no words to be remarkable skill, I was not blown away with the content of the novel.Last year, in our LIS Children’s Literature course, we studied Raymond Briggs wordless novel, The Snowman.I fell in love with that story and was blown away with the depth of the wordless book.Remembering The Snowman got me thinking as to why I had been affected so greatly by one wordless graphic novel and not the other.Therefore, I have chosen to examine wordless graphic novels to explore the differences in styles and to find out how wordless graphic novels can affect people so greatly.
I was not sure how I would go about finding enough graphic novels for my annotated bibliography but I knew I wanted to examine the resources available to me before choosing my target age group. I began my search by looking up resources on the internet. I soon found that most of the resourceful websites pointed out the same few wordless comics (including Shaun Tan’s novel).My most useful resource for listing wordless graphic novels wound up being the website LibraryThing under the heading of “graphic novel” and “wordless.” I thought that I had found a gold mind of resources because the list contained 120 novels for me to choose from.I began to go through the list and cross checked the ones I was interested in on Amazon.com. I did this because Amazon has created it so customers can actually view the inside of books before they buy them. I find this to be a very useful tool, especially for books with illustrations, because I can take a guess at which age group the book is targeted for. After finding a wide variety of novels I planned my annotated bibliography to be on wordless graphic novels for adults. There were enough to do an annotated bibliography on children but a few of the books that I was really interested in viewing were inappropriate for younger children to see.Many also included mature and complicated political storylines.
The next step I took in finding books was to find what was available.This was perhaps the most difficult job for me as neither the public nor the university libraries contain many of the books I wanted. I went back to the list of wordless picture books, this time not looking at what books I was most interested in but in what was available to me.I really wanted to be able to look at the entire book instead of just viewing it online as I feel I personally do not learn as well without a hard copy. The libraries seemed to have a wider collection of wordless graphic novels for children, which I suppose makes sense as there is a pretty good selection of wordless children’s books which don’t necessarily fall into the category of graphic novel. Also, I found that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish which age group a wordless comic is for.Some, especially the books with a heavy political message, were simple to categorize as books for older or young readers.Some of the novels were not so easy to categorize.For example, one of my selections, entitled Robot Dreams, is a light and simple story about friendship, yet, there is a lot of feeling and emotion behind the pictures which adults can appreciate just as much as children. In fact, it was one of my friends, a thirty year old man, who introduced me to this book.Surely this should mean the graphic novel is not just meant for children? After my search I found that I wanted to modify my target age from adults to young adults, which was fine with me as I am more interested in working with such an age group in the future.
After selecting all of the books for my annotated bibliography I carefully looked through them and wrote my comments. I used the University of Alberta’s database Book Review Index Online Plus to find further reviews for my articles.This was a very useful tool in finding many good and detailed reviews and I definitely plan to use it again in the future. For the books which had no reviews on the database I performed an online search for reviews.Although I prefer to use library databases as resources, the online searches were also very useful.
One more comment, before I begin introducing my selections for my annotated bibliography, is that I am surprised at the small collection of wordless graphic novels which our university library owns. Many of the books I selected, and many I could not find, are deep and profound novels and would make superb teaching tools for high school students.The Curriculum Library had a fairly good collection, but even it did not have such books as George Walker’s collection Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels.I only closely examined two of the four stories in Walker’s collection but by the end of each one I slowly let out a deep breath and was amazed by the powerful political messages they illustrated. I could not find a copy of this novel in any of the libraries and could not even find it in the bookstores without having to order a copy.I was lucky that Professor de Vos had a copy in her private collection or I would not have had the chance to read the graphic novel.
Čolek, Marek and Pat Shewchuk. Pohádky. Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly, 2008.
In choosing my wordless graphic novels, Pohádky was perhaps the one which I felt most unsure about in fitting the description of “graphic novel.” The novel is not so much of a story but more like a collection of paintings. My reasoning for having this novel in my annotation, though, is that the illustrations are all connected and do create a story just not one that is easily identifiable.
Pohádky is an enchanting tale and to look at each page causes the reader to sit and stare at the marvelous drawings. The pictures show folk tale creatures from the family background of the two authors.While Marek Čolek and Pat Shewchuk are currently in Toronto, Čolek concentrates on Czech Republic images while Shewchuk focuses on Ukraine.Scattered throughout the book are references to Central and Eastern Europe, such as Ukrainian churches, traditional Ukrainian women’s clothing, Ukrainian Easter eggs, and the notorious favourite vodka drink. Also added are such common folk tale creatures as wolves, skeletons, witches, and devil like creatures. The right hand pages are mainly coloured illustrations and full page pictures which carry the story while the left side pictures or more like stencil black and white illustrations which are very simple.
The difficulty in Pohádky is that if you are not familiar with the cultural background of the authors a lot of the meaning is lost. The interesting part about this book is that it teaches you a great deal about folktale creatures of other countries and uses no language to do so.Ages 12 and above.Recommended.
Further Reviews.
Bruton, Richard. “Pohadky – A Fairytale and Folklore do-it-yourself.” Forbidden
Planet International. June 2009. Web.14 Nov 2009.
Pantaleo,Sylvia. “Pohadky.”CM Magazine.15(21). June 2009. Web. 16 Nov 2009.
Forsythe, Matthew. Ojingogo. Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly, 2008.
Matthew Forsythe’s graphic novel, Ojingogo, is 99% wordless except for a disgruntled “AK!” and sleepy “zzzzz” from a monster and an occasional symbol which resembles Korean characters, although, I do not believe they are genuine script. In the story a young girl gets taken into a world where she goes through several adventurous chapters where she captures a new pet squid (which reluctantly becomes a friend) and meets some recognizable and unrecognizable creatures. The girl searches for her camera which, in the end, she finds has turned into a large monster itself. The story finishes with the squid, girl, and Camera happily holding an unkind creature above the mouth of a hungry crocodile.
Canadian author and illustrator Matthew Forsythe keeps his graphics mainly black and white with the occasional addition of a dull forest green and some shades of grey. Having once taught in Korea Forsythe`s dedicates his story to his past pupils and creates characters which appear Asian and uses an Asian drawing technique. While all of the characters are cute the plot is slightly confusing and many of the character creatures look very similar which might cause further confusion.Ojingogo is an interesting story which young adults interested in Asian culture might find interesting and different from the regular graphic novel.But if you would like to find a wordless comic which makes an impact I would pass Ojingogo for another book. Ages 12 – 18. Recommended.
Clough, Rob. “Static and Motion: Pohadky and Ojingogo.”Jan. 2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
Gross, Milt. He Done Her Wrong: The Great American Novel.Redesigned edition. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2005.
Milt Gross’s wordless comic was first published in 1930 but has been through many subsequent editions.Gross’s black and white ink graphics are truly amazing in showing both comedy and emotion. Although the story is quite humorous there is a very serious side which is evident within the first few pages of the story when a woman, whom is a dancer in what appears to be a small town bar, is almost raped.Fortunately her hero, a strapping fur trader in a racoon hat saves her.The story switches from mountains to large city when the woman is tricked into marrying a thief who soon looses all of his money. The most interesting part of the story is to watch the woman pull herself out of horrible situations and find a way to care for her family. Eventually the story ends where it began, in the mountains, and the fur trader finds his lost love and they live happily ever after with an unexpected amount of wealth.
Included in the 2005 edition are an introduction by Craig Yoe and a conclusion by Paul Karasik. Each informs the reader about the history behind the story and some of the elements Gross has used which are traditional for creating humour. Also in this edition are all of the original graphics.Prior additions had taken some of the pictures out because of the racial intent but the publishers of this edition “felt that Gross’s work should be presented in its entirety regardless of the offensive racial stereotyping. That said, the gag is a bit uncomfortable – but laugh-out-loud funny” (Intro).This novel would be very interesting for older high school students to study about the great depression in the 1930’s.Ages 15 and above.Highly recommended.
Olson, Ray.“He Done Her Wrong.” Booklist.102(12). 2006. 56.
Kuper, Peter. Sticks and Stones. New York: Three Rivers, 2004.
In Sticks and Stones the reader observes the life of a stone giant from its birth from a volcanic explosion and first tentative steps and tumble over its own two feet to its death in a flood similar to the biblical story in Noah’s Ark.The stone giant begins as an innocent creature in an unfamiliar world that misses its mother, the volcano.Another rock tribe, with smaller creatures, offers to make a rock castle for the giant and takes the task on while they offer the giant a throne to sit on.Soon, though, the influence of power makes the rock giant become an oppressive leader and his demands become more suppressive and cruel.When he finds another small community which is filled with happy and innocent families the rock giant makes his own people plunder, capture, and kill many of the people. The end comes with a massive flood which kills the rock giant and all of the people except two.A young boy from the neighbouring village and a rock person from the rock giant’s community who never agreed with the rock giant’s cruelness.
While the front cover of Sticks and Stones shows the giant in colour the rest of its stencil illustrations are in black and white.The portion of the story about the small and happy community is in colour, portraying the life and energy in the community.When the giant plunders the village it also becomes black and white.Sticks and Stones is a serious graphic novel containing a solemn political undertone.This story would be excellent for high school students to read and discuss about the danger of power in politics. Age 14 and over.Highly recommended.
Weiner, Steve.“More Than Words Can Say.” School Library Journal.51(2). 2005.25.
Patri, Giacomo.“White Collar” Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels. Ed. George A Walker.Ontario:Firefly Books, 2007.
Similarly to Milt Gross’s He Done Her Wrong, Giacomo Patri’s wordless graphic novel explores the misery of the depression of the 1930’s.Unlike Gross’s humorous tale of a dark time, Patri does not use humour in his story.In his 124 page novel, Gross illustrates a sad tale beginning in 1929. A determined young man sets his dreams on a new career in a white collar society where he wants to be successful and have the money to take care of his new, and growing, family. As the 1930’s loom ahead, though, the economy crashes, so too does the young man’s dreams.Money is so tight that the wife cannot afford to have the child she is pregnant with, nor can they afford an abortion. The story is very political and very heart wrenching, yet ends with a picture of the angry dying middle class who have no money, marching together determination etched onto their faces.
I found “White Color” in Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels.The pictures are all made from wood cut engravings.George Walker, a Canadian wood cut engraver himself, selected the four classic stories to reintroduce the once popular style of drawings. “White Collar” does an exemplary job at demonstrating how serious and educational graphic novels can be and would be an excellent learning tool for high school students. Ages 14 and over. Highly Recommended.
Slade, Christian.Korgi: Book 1. Georgia: Top Shelf, 2007.
Korgi is an adorable graphic novel which any dog lover will melt at the sight of all the wide eyed dogs and pups.The graphic novel resembles a fairytale with the only words being at the beginning of the story in an introduction of the characters.In the novel, the Korgi dogs and the fairy like creatures, called Mollies, live together in the woods in a utopian like society working together.The ninety page novel follows a particular Molly, named Ivy, and her Korgi as they go through an adventure involving a particularly nasty troll like creature.The story is innocent, fun, cute, simple, yet, magical.
The black and white pictures fill the pages and include great detail and the warmth and emotion of each character is revealed by their expressions. Korgi is perhaps the simplest novel within this annotated bibliography.While the story is probably aimed at younger readers and it is not multi-layered with hidden meanings, it is the graphic novel which I think would capture the interest and imagination of all ages.All ages.Highly recommended.
Further Reviews:
Davey, Douglas P.“Slade, Christian. Korgi.”School Library Journal.54(3).2008. 227.
Trondheim, Lewis. A.L.I.E.E.E.N. New York: First Second, 2006.
After briefly skimming through and reading the introduction of A.L.I.E.E.E.N.I was prepared to settle in to read a wordless graphic novel suitable for ages 10 and above.I was thoroughly disappointed!Trondheim’s graphic novel looks at different alien creatures in short chapters overlapping aliens in each short story.In the first page the aliens look cute and happy but the story changes immediately.One of the monsters is jabbed through the eyes by the branches of a tree and blood gushes everywhere.Going to an alien doctor the jabbed alien is tied to a table and is further tormented by other aliens stabbing it with their tongue and having an alien enter its body.The stories continue with a variety of grotesque acts, such as aliens beating each other to death and more killings by stabbing.The story ends with one of the aliens having so much diarrhea that a river of poo is created and the majority of aliens are washed away.
Although a wordless comic, A.L.I.E.E.E.N. does have some symbols which are meant to be an alien dialog.The colour of the book is very bright and adds detail to the graphic novel.Unfortunately, pretty colour does not give this novel the extra push it needs to be called a good graphic novel.As to why the University of Alberta even has a copy when there are far better books, I am not sure.I think this book demonstrates why parents should be aware of what their young children read.From looking at the front cover I was certainly deceived.Maybe I am being a tad harsh on this book and maybe there are people that would like it.I do know that I would not have finished the story if I had not been looking at it for a class. Ages 15 and above.Not recommended.
Varon, Sara.Robot Dreams. New York:First Second, 2007.
Sara Varon writes an emotionally tugging wordless graphic novel about a lonely dog finding a best friend in a robot he buys and builds.After an unfortunate swim at the beach, the robot rusts while taking a nap which leads to the dog leaving his best friend behind.The 200 page novel spans the time of a year in which the robot is left on the beach, at times covered in snow or left in the rain, thinking about what his friend is doing and wondering if he has been replaced by a new robot.In the end the robot is replaced but a new best friend comes into the robot’s life replacing the dog, yet, not replacing the memories of his past friendship.
Sadness, loneliness, misery, and a lot of humour are all portrayed in Sara Varon’s novel. A dog as the main character is perfect for this story. A dog never speaks and, in human language, they are wordless. But when people look into dog’s eyes they cannot help but be captured by their emotion.This book will amuse and please both boys and girls and men and women. Age 10 and above. Highly Recommended.
Further Reviews:
Bush, Elizabeth.“Robot Dreams.” Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.61(3),
2009.155.
Acosta, Sheila. “Robot Dreams.”Library Media Connection.26(3).2007. 82.
There is definitely more to Flotsam then one might believe when glimpsing the book for the first.David Wiesner’s wordless graphic novel is about a boy and a camera he finds washed up onto a beach.After the boy has the film developed he discovers that the camera is a glimpse into the past.Multiple children have found the camera in a similar fashion, taken a picture, and then returned it to the ocean for the next child to find.The delighted boy takes his own picture and continues on the tradition by tossing the camera back into the sea.
At my first glance I thought Flotsam would be far too young to be included in a young adult’s annotated bibliography but upon closer inspection I changed my mind.While the pictures and story would still be wonderful for children, I think that teenagers and adults can still enjoy Wiesner’s story. Keeping the reader guessing as to the secret behind the camera, people of all ages can enjoy finding the many hidden delights in the pictures.Plus, the pictures give clues as to where the camera travels.In one picture the art style is distinctly Japanese and in the distance you see a small Mount Fuji. Ages 8 and above. Highly Recommended.
Hyde, Laurence.Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas.Montreal: Drawn and
Creator, 2007.
Laurence Hyde was born in England in 1914 but lived in Canada most of his life in Toronto. He passed away in 1987.Hyde contributed a great deal to Canadian culture through his work in The National Film Board of Canada.In the 1950’s at least one of Hyde’s designs became a Canadian postage stamp.Throughout his life, Laurence Hyde felt strongly against using atomic weapons in war and was “furious with the death toll in Japan and the continued proliferation of atomic weapons” (Drawn and Quarterly par 3).His feelings against nuclear weapons are clearly shown throughout Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas.The story occurs in the time of The Cold War and is about American soldiers coming to “protect” the natives of a Polynesian island by removing them so they will not be hurt by the blasts of atomic bombs.One of the soldiers attempts to rape one of the women and is then killed in a fight with the women’s husband. The family hides and, after a thorough search, the Americans leave with the uprooted Polynesian tribe.Atomic bombs are then released near the island and the family left in hiding dies from the radiation.The last frame is of one of the little boys in the family crying with no one to protect him.
Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas is an important contribution to the collection of wordless graphic novels in several ways.First of all it is one of the best examples which I read which demonstrate the important messages graphic novels can provide.This book is also a valuable contribution because of the art form Hyde uses for his pictures. All of the pictures in Southern Cross are black and white wood-cut engravings. Creating stories with wood-cut engravings is not a simple task and is a very long process. Each picture is engraved into a piece of wood and must be very carefully cut because it is very simple to make an error but almost impossible to erase the mistake.The black and white pictures are also quite startling and as George Walker states, “the effect is like our colourful world [being] torn down to its base so that we can read the underlying message” (Walker 13).Walker further explains that without different shades of black or grey the black and white starkness creates a much more powerful meaning in the wordless novel. Each page contains one black and white rectangle engraving and the rest of the page is bare white. The simple pages allow the reader to focus right onto the picture with no further distractions.The story sequence is simple, easy to follow, and very powerful.In the past ten years Southern Cross has been republished a couple of times which is important because it is reintroducing an art form which is not often used anymore.Reprinting this novel is an excellent contribution to graphic novels because it shows the depth wordless stories can reach.
I chose to do a close examination of Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas because this story made me feel the most emotional out of all of the wordless graphic novels I have read.I decided to look at Southern Cross because I wanted to find out how wordless novels create so much emotion and the simple, yet, powerful pictures of this book demonstrate their ability to influence feelings. I enjoyed almost all of the books I examined for this project but I think Laurence Hyde’s graphic novel is superior in presenting its message. The multiple editions of this novel also demonstrate the enduring value of Southern Cross.It is a novel which people should not forget.
Works Cited:
Lorah, Michael.“Southern Cross on Newsarama.com.” Drawn and Quarterly. June 2007. Web.16 Nov 2009.
Walker, George A. Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels.Ontario: Firefly books. 2007.
Further reviews:
Lorah, Michael. “Southern Cross on Newsarama.com.” Drawn and Quarterly.June 2007. Web.16 Nov 2009.
Pantaleo, Sylvia. “Pohadky.” CM Magazine.14(12). Feb 2008. Web. 16 Nov 2009.
