the sound of silence

an interesting by-product of the first half of the twentieth century was the publication of black and white woodcut novels. the works — particularly passionate journey by the artist frans masereel — eschewed all text in favour of imaginative visuals. masereel had a massive influence on a number of artists, one of whom happened to be lynd kendall ward. with his first book titled god’s man, published in 1929, ward inadvertently became one of the founders of what we now refer to as the graphic novel.

the spirit that moved ward and masereel makes a welcome return with hush, the first release from independent publisher manta ray. described as a mini-graphic novel, it is written by pratheek thomas, illustrated by rajiv eipe, and based on a story by vivek thomas.

putting aside the need for speech blurbs, the creators use all of three tones to tell a short, but still affecting, tale. the 26x17 cms panels, spread across 34 pages, plot a non-linear narrative of how a young girl reacts to abuse. does it work? yes, but only to a point. the illustrations are fabulous; it’s the tale they are meant to service that isn’t exactly new.

as a first step towards pushing the envelope in india, keeping the genre in mind, this is more than welcome. also, for the price, it is absolute value for money.

— hush, pratheek thomas and rajiv eipe, manta ray comics