Global Comics: Silent Comics
José Alaniz
Winter 2025
One way of understanding what graphic narrative (i.e. comics) is, is to see it as words and pictures working together to make a story. But all over the world, people have made comics without words: silent, or wordless, or “pantomine” comics. This course explores the silent comics subgenre for what it tells us about how to define comics; what possibilities for the medium are foreclosed and opened up when we remove words; and whether or not visually-based art forms like comics really constitute a “universal language.” Works examined include Shaun Tan’s The Arrival; Seattle artist Jim Woodring’s Frank stories; Japanese manga; horror comics; and the rich tradition of woodcut novels.
All works and materials in English (or wordless).