Histoire Sans Paroles
To tell a story entirely by means of a sequence of pictures is not new. Various experimental modern films, for instance, have contrived to keep the chain of coherence without recourse to the links of sub-titles. .
It is impossible not to compare Lynd Ward's novel in woodcuts with Frans Masereel's successful political satire entitled 'Liluli, a wordless marionette play in shadow- pictures. Mr. Ward depicts the allegorical career of an artist, his pact with a masked stranger at an inn, his subse- quent dazzling rise to fame,.his betrayal by his mistress, his downfall, his escape from prison, his new life with a better woman, his happiness interrupted by the reappearance of the masked stranger, who removes_ his mask and is revealed
as Death. - Despite its extreme lucidity and interesting exploitation of a novel method, we have several faults to find with God's Man. As a story . it is admittedly banal ; as a series of woodcuts it is of uneven quality. There is a beautifully lavish use of black, engraved with fine white lines, throughout the book. The endpapers, also, of solid matt black, are most effective. Some of the simplest of the cuts are the best. We would particularly instance the emotional treat- ment of the theme where the artist, fleeing from his treacherous mistress, is pursued by her image wherever he goes, even into the place of worship.
Mr. Ward is not always Happy in his symbolism, but it is in his figures that he really fails. The purely land and sea scenes are all interesting, but in every case his characters are sentimentalized and hopelessly badly drawn. Part IV. is entirely out of tune in this respect. Where Frans Masereel treats his characters frankly as puppets, Mr. Ward com- promises by an unconvincing and self-conscious naturalism. This is surely quite the wrong approach to pictorial com- munication. We have only to contrast, for instance, the artistic values of the poster, " Bubbles," advertising Pears' soap, and the wonderful E. McKnight Kauffer posters for the Underground Railway. To be eloquent in pictures it is necessary to be dynamic, elemental, perhaps even a little nalf—certainly not naturalistic. It is because Frans Masereel's woodcuts are like those of an inspired child that they are so emotionally stimulating. We feel that Mr. Ward could profit- ably study Masereel's work before embarking on his next volume.
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