Masereel is often considered the father of wordless novels with the publication of 25 Images de la Passion d’un Homme in 1918. He published numerous other wordless novels after that, many of which have been republished in various languages. I don’t believe anyone else has been as prolific in this genre.

1957 Woodcut Self-Portrait

“The father of” is a bit misleading. The reality is that a number of publications existed, well in excess of 100 years before Masereel, referencing and using phrases like “wordless story”, “story without words”, etc. Hogarth, in 1732, published The Harlot’s Progress setting out the downfall of a country girl coming to the big city – all done with 6 images and no words (other publishers reproduced Hogarth’s work but added words to their pirated versions). Hogarth was a master of social realism at least on par with (and I would suggest, superior to) Masereel and the artists influenced by Masereel in the 1920s and ’30s.

If nothing else, Masereel is to be credited with establishing the wordless novel genre in the mind of the general public and in particular using the vehicle of woodcuts that was coming into vogue as an artistic medium.

As there are too many of his books to list, for the purposes of this site I will only document Masereel’s wordless novels up to 1920 (and some of their re-publications).

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