The wordless novel uses captionless pictures to tell a story, most often using woodcut and other relief printing techniques. The genre flourished primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in Germany. The typically socialist work drew inspiration from medieval woodcuts and used the awkward look of that medium to express angst and frustration at social injustice. The first such book was the Belgian Frans Masereel's 25 Images of a Man's Passion (illustrated), published in 1918. Other artists, such as the German Otto Nückel, followed Masereel's example. Lynd Ward brought the genre to the United States in 1929 when he produced Gods' Man, which inspired other American wordless novels and was parodied in 1930 by cartoonist Milt Gross in He Done Her Wrong. Following an early-1930s peak in production and popularity, the genre waned in the face of competition from sound films and anti-socialist censorship in Nazi Germany and the US. The graphic novels of cartoonists Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman and the wordless graphic novels of Eric Drooker and Peter Kuper were inspired by the wordless novel genre.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordless_novel

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1258:

Hulagu Khan and the Mongols sacked and burned Baghdad, a cultural and commercial centre of the Islamic world at the time, ending the rule of the Abbasid caliphate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258)

1862:

American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroyed the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Elizabeth_City

1906:

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched, representing such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906)

1962:

Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Mickey

2008:

The Namdaemun gate in Seoul, the first of South Korea's National Treasures, was severely damaged by arson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Namdaemun_fire

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

no fear: 1. Don't worry, no worries. 2. (UK, dated) No way; absolutely not: TOAD: You should take up swimming! — RABBIT: No fear, toad! (The Animals of Farthing Wood). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no_fear

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Don't put no constrictions on da people. Leave 'em ta hell alone.   --Jimmy Durante https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimmy_Durante