B&W wordless superhero comic strips

November 10, 2014 9:03 AM

I'm looking for some black and white superhero comic strips that are wordless. Wordless is the most important part, color strips would be less desirable but ok. Non-superhero comic strips might work too. Additionally, if there is a place online that has super old comic strips that would be helpful too.
posted by Brent Parker to Education (6 answers total)

Spy vs. Spy.
posted by Melismata at 9:19 AM on November 10, 2014 [5 favorites]

The Little King and Henry were usually wordless (Henry, in fact, was often drawn without a mouth), and many of the strips were in black and white. I think you are going to have difficulty finding superhero strips without words, as so much exposition is usually required.
posted by ubiquity at 10:37 AM on November 10, 2014

Best answer: Comics nerd here. I feel like I've read one single wordless comic which could also be classed a superhero comic, but it was years ago and I can't remember the title so I can't even check that I'm remembering correctly.

You might be interested in woodcut novels, which were mostly written before World War II, but which tend less towards heroics than towards melodrama and/or propaganda.

There's also Owly, which is from a visual grammar standpoint brilliant--there's one panel where one of the characters states (in pictures!) that Wormy had asked about being reunited with Wormy's family, and Owly agreed that they would go look for them--but it's really not a superhero comic. I love it; it's sweet and charming, but it's also very very gentle.
posted by johnofjack at 10:42 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think what you need are reproductions of some of the original, inked comic pages, before the letterer and colorist got their hands on them. The art-collector term for this is "original unlettered art."

Try a google/bing image search for "original unlettered art black and white" and variations thereon.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:37 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Additionally, if there is a place online that has super old comic strips that would be helpful too.

Howzabout the Ohio State U Cartoon Image Database? Search for "Yellow Kid" or "Rarebit Fiend" or whatever. Just make sure to choose the XXL viewport — it looks to have been optimized for 640x480.
posted by mumkin at 4:59 PM on November 10, 2014

If I recall correctly, lots of the old Dick Tracy comic strips are sparse on words though not necessarily totally wordless.
posted by cmoj at 10:20 PM on November 10, 2014