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Written in Wood: Three Wordless Graphic Narratives
""The delicacy and intelligence of George Walker's printmaking seems to have come to us from a bygone age. Fortunately, we have George with us now."" -- Neil Gaiman
A cold case from 1917, the tragic cost of the events of 9/11, and the rise and fall of a media baron. These are the themes as imagined by George Walker in his three wordless contemporary narratives -- "The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson," "The Book of Hours" and "Conrad Black" -- told in wood engravings.
"The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson " Thomson was a young Canadian artist of great promise. When his body was discovered in a lake in Algonquin Park in July 1917, Thomson had been missing for eight days. Although the official cause of death was accidental drowning, the corpse had fishing line wrapped around a leg and the head showed evidence of trauma. "The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson" re-imagines in some 100 wood engravings the events leading up to Thomson's tragic death and the discovery of his body.
"Book of Hours " "Book of Hours: A Wordless Novel Told in 99 Wood Engravings" is a sequence of visual narratives chronicling the 24-hour period leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center. The book charts the imagined lives of people who worked in the twin towers. Walker imbues his book with the specter of horror that the reader knows will shatter the lives of those involved and forever alter the course of world events.
"Conrad Black " Walker's "Conrad Black" imagines the life of this notorious, intellectually complex and fascinating business figure. Black's life is relayed in a sequence of events and episodes in no discernible pattern. Initial impulses set in motion in the early years tumble forward through the decades, culminating in downfall and catharsis.
A cold case from 1917, the tragic cost of the events of 9/11, and the rise and fall of a media baron. These are the themes as imagined by George Walker in his three wordless contemporary narratives -- "The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson," "The Book of Hours" and "Conrad Black" -- told in wood engravings.
"The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson " Thomson was a young Canadian artist of great promise. When his body was discovered in a lake in Algonquin Park in July 1917, Thomson had been missing for eight days. Although the official cause of death was accidental drowning, the corpse had fishing line wrapped around a leg and the head showed evidence of trauma. "The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson" re-imagines in some 100 wood engravings the events leading up to Thomson's tragic death and the discovery of his body.
"Book of Hours " "Book of Hours: A Wordless Novel Told in 99 Wood Engravings" is a sequence of visual narratives chronicling the 24-hour period leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center. The book charts the imagined lives of people who worked in the twin towers. Walker imbues his book with the specter of horror that the reader knows will shatter the lives of those involved and forever alter the course of world events.
"Conrad Black " Walker's "Conrad Black" imagines the life of this notorious, intellectually complex and fascinating business figure. Black's life is relayed in a sequence of events and episodes in no discernible pattern. Initial impulses set in motion in the early years tumble forward through the decades, culminating in downfall and catharsis.
- GenresArtGraphic NovelsComics
360 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 6, 2015
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Firefly through the First Reads program.
This isn’t just one novel but an anthology that collects three previous works by Walker: The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson, Book of Hours, and Conrad Black. The artwork is beautiful—stark woodcuts that pop out of the center of crisp white pages—and the wordless narratives are like those of Flemish modernist Frans Masereel or the contemporary Norwegian cartoonist Jason…it takes a couple of readings to figure out what’s going on at times. But it’s worth the time investment.
The first section ponders the events leading up to the mysterious death (murder?) of Canadian artist Tom Thomson. I had never heard of Thomson before, but I enjoyed Walker’s contrasts between urban and country life in Canada during World War I; and the work made me more than curious to investigate Thomson’s paintings.
I was equally unaware of the subject of the third section: Conrad Black. Black is a former Canadian, now British newspaperman who was convicted of fraud in the US and spent time in a federal prison because of it. Walker creates a series of snapshots of Black’s life—everything from Catholic school beatings to kissing the pope’s ring to a prison guard locking the man away. According to Walker’s intro, Black himself even suggested some of the imagery. I found it all fascinating, but I would have been even more engrossed if I had been more familiar with Black before reading this book. Shame on me. He did own the Chicago Sun Times for goodness sake.
But for me, the most moving of the pieces is the middle section, which peeks in at the mundane and lost moments of people on the day before the September 11th terrorist attacks. The book is worth reading for this section alone, but the other two enhance the work so much more. And if I were Canadian, I’d probably have to give it five stars.
This isn’t just one novel but an anthology that collects three previous works by Walker: The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson, Book of Hours, and Conrad Black. The artwork is beautiful—stark woodcuts that pop out of the center of crisp white pages—and the wordless narratives are like those of Flemish modernist Frans Masereel or the contemporary Norwegian cartoonist Jason…it takes a couple of readings to figure out what’s going on at times. But it’s worth the time investment.
The first section ponders the events leading up to the mysterious death (murder?) of Canadian artist Tom Thomson. I had never heard of Thomson before, but I enjoyed Walker’s contrasts between urban and country life in Canada during World War I; and the work made me more than curious to investigate Thomson’s paintings.
I was equally unaware of the subject of the third section: Conrad Black. Black is a former Canadian, now British newspaperman who was convicted of fraud in the US and spent time in a federal prison because of it. Walker creates a series of snapshots of Black’s life—everything from Catholic school beatings to kissing the pope’s ring to a prison guard locking the man away. According to Walker’s intro, Black himself even suggested some of the imagery. I found it all fascinating, but I would have been even more engrossed if I had been more familiar with Black before reading this book. Shame on me. He did own the Chicago Sun Times for goodness sake.
But for me, the most moving of the pieces is the middle section, which peeks in at the mundane and lost moments of people on the day before the September 11th terrorist attacks. The book is worth reading for this section alone, but the other two enhance the work so much more. And if I were Canadian, I’d probably have to give it five stars.
May 4, 2016
This isn't comics. It's art, in that it's supposed to be comics but it doesn't even slightly work like that.
His ability to create moody woodcuts of people sitting in canoes doing nothing is unmatched. Probably because nobody cares enough to try.
His ability to create moody woodcuts of people sitting in canoes doing nothing is unmatched. Probably because nobody cares enough to try.
December 20, 2014
very different type of book. Might be more appreciated in the Canadian circles. the artwork was something else though!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews