Historical Importance of Wordless Books and How They Influenced the Contemporary Graphic Novel - Essay Example

In tombs, archaeological remnants of old buildings and in ancient scrolls we find that our ancestors relied on images to send across messages to others. (Wildgen, 2004) So, the pictorial images served the purpose of message conveyance. It can be compared to a public notice board of the modern world. Words as a method of human communication are a later development in human history. So, visual imagery can be considered as the base of human communication in the early days and as the original source of the wordless books that came to existence in the 20th century.

(Thorndike, 1931) The literary works of Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward point to this fact. In their creation or wordless books, we can notice the charm of storytelling in absence of words. These works proved that pictures and images had the power of effective storytelling. They paved the path for contemporary graphic novels. Wordless books denote graphic storytelling that uses the elements of painted and coloured images, pictograms and symbols. The most salient aspect of graphic storytelling is that it can transcend the boundaries of race, culture, continental and linguistic boundaries.

Wordless books have a universal appeal as it is free from the difficulties of comprehending a textual language. In these books, words are a medium of communicable language. With the power of strong visual imagery authors like Masereel and Ward could become excellent raconteurs. They can be considered as founding fathers of the modern-day graphical novel. It is a wonder that contemporary graphic novels somehow lack the acceptability and popularity of established literary genres; more so, when our ancestors have been able to communicate successfully with the medium of images.

In fact, early men actually left a historical and cultural legacy to posterity through images inspired by their daily activities. The significance of pictures and images once again comes to the forefront with graphically illustrated children storybooks. The illustrations of both living and non-living things can speak volumes without saying much.