Customer Reviews

The Idea and Story Without Words

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They're very similar in many ways. Both stories are told entirely in images, black and white with no middle tones, one per page. They're angular and expressive, conveying conveying many shades of feeling despite and because of the blunt imagery. And they both cover the range from elation to despair.

"The Idea" will speak loudly to anyone who makes their living with their creativity. The idea, personified as a foot-tall, elegant female figure, is born from the creator's brow, after a bolt of lightning. The rest of the story follows her career through a harsh, crass, manipulative world. She ends up happily, even if her father does not. "Story without words" is similar. A persistent suitor rings all the changes on his entreaty and eventually succeeds - or does he? Both stories seem more like a series of snapshots than a straight, linear narrative, but convey the jolting emotional ups and downs very effectively.

It's hard to believe that the stories are over eighty years old. The issues and the hard-edged graphics are as fresh and startling now as ever. So I wonder, does that say more about how advanced Masereel's vision was, or how regressive ours has been since then?

//wiredweird