Hello!
I’m trying to get into comics and I’m looking for something that’s almost entirely visual if possible. I don’t hate reading, I love it actually, but I am coming from the perspective that the unique aspect of comics is their ability to show things that are hard to describe in writing. Visual flair is really important to me and I appreciate things that take a meaningful/stylistic approach to illustration rather than a strictly narrative one. Any recommendations?
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We3
What about Shaun Tan’s The Arrival? If I recall it is pure graphic narrative with no text at all. Sumptuous art, too!
Here, by Richard McGuire. Not action but very good.
This looks incredible thank you.
The classic Japanese comic series Lone Wolf and Cub has very minimal amounts of writing and is a masterpiece of visual storytelling.
This looks beautiful and seeing as there are additional films this is looking like it’s meant for me LOL
The comic is really powerful, if you’re into that kind of stylised martial arts philosophy.
Lone Wolf and Cub is such a fun read =)
How about a classic wordless comic called Spy vs Spy?
Best thing to come out of the cold war
Jeff The Landshark!
https://www.marvel.com/mu-22landshark
:)
Or, if you want something more adult, I can’t say enough good things about Peter Kuper’s “The System”.
“The System” looks really interesting I’ll definitely be checking that out. Thank you!
One of my favorite comics growing up was a rando Green Lantern I got that was just a big fight between Lantern and some alien. The only text (other than onamonapias) in the entire comic book was at the very last panel, where we are shown a long-ass line of aliens and Lantern saying “Next!”
I don’t remember the title of the issue tho…
Marvel did an event in 2002, where every active title produces a full text free issue. The event was called Nuff Said. That link also contains a full list of issues.
The official reason was Songbird’s powers went into overdrive and sucked all the sound up for a day, as seen in (and just before) Thunderbolts #59.
Also, while looking for that, I found this, which is interesting and has a few not mentioned here yet: https://comicbook.com/comics/news/the-10-best-silent-issues-in-comics-marvel-hawkeye/
I haven’t read any myself, though I’ve certainly read graphic novels—on the more literary side of comic books—that have sections that have very little text.
But a quick search turns up a Reddit discussion here where people list some recommendations (again, note that this is graphic novels rather than only comic books).
https://www.reddit.com/r/graphicnovels/comments/172kopy/graphic_novel_without_textdialogue/
To summarize what’s there (and linking to Wikipedia if someone’s made an entry, and Amazon as a fallback if not):
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The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
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Here by Richard McGuire
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Step by Bloody Step by Si Spurrier
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Age of Reptiles by Ricardo Delgado
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Weathercraft, Congress of the Animals, and Fran by Jim Woodring
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Cinema Panopticum, The Number, and Dark Country by Thomas Ott
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Park Bench by Christophe Chabouté
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Arzach by Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud
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Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte
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Flood! by Eric Drooker
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Hedra by Jesse Lonergan
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Love: The Tiger, Love: The Fox, and Love: The Lion by Frédéric Brrémaud & Federico Bertolucci
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About Betty’s Boob by Vero Cazot and Julie Rocheleau
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Sshhhh! and Almost Silent by Jason
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The Flower by John Light and Lisa Evans
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The Longest Day of the Future by Lucas Varela
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A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance by Rick Remender and André Lima Araújo
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Various works by Martin Vaughn-James
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The Great War by Joe Sacco
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Tyrant by Stephen R. Bissette
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Bad Island by Stanley Donwood
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Tale of Sand by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl
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Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
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Monsters! and Other Stories by Gustavo Duarte
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Cave-In by Brian Ralph
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The Ark by Stephane Levallois
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He Done Her Wrong by Milt Gross
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YKK
Also called Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
It sounds as iyashikei or healing media but I found it to be a quite nice read. Very chill, lot of focus on the scenery and art rather than the writing.
This sounds like exactly what I’m looking for! Beautiful illustration from what I’ve seen.
I had a thinky-thank on this and circled back because I had an idea sitting there in the back of my head and I couldn’t bring it to the front. It hit me just a second ago, I think Dash Shaw has dialogue but has large swaths of visual chaos and movement. You can check him out here and consider grabbing his work if you can. Outside of that, there’s surely others but I am drawing a blank. I think there are books in general that I have loved that aren’t void of dialogue but express quite a bit in their panels. Not Simple by Natsume Ono is one of those novels and just seeing the little bits of it mean quite a bit. It’s a dramatic ride though, just an fyi. Also, please consider grabbing it if you’re willing. I am baffled as to what that woman can do with line.
While this is a dialogue rich novel, Asterios Polyp was quite an amazing read. While I no longer own it, I think fondly of it (and did so even a couple of days ago). It’s just a big chunky boy, and it’s hard to keep with - so I gave my copy to a friend who loves it =)
Hope you might like any of these =)
I strongly recommend Age of Reptiles. It’s an amazing comic with great storytelling and it has no dialogue, only art.
I’d actually recommend The Invention of Hugo Cabret
GI Joe issue 21. All visual storytelling with no dialogue or captions.
https://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2013/06/1984-gi-joe-21-silent-interlude.html?m=1
