Words Without Pictures

by Neil Gaiman, Jon J. Muth, Charles Vess, et al.

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560600314
• ISBN13: 9781560600312
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Eclipse Books
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

short stories

This book contains short stories from different authors in general conected to the comics world. In general the stories are good.

Good collection, worth reading

What an odd, compelling book! The stories are magnificent, there isn't a bad story among them. The stories have themes around sadness, grief, fear, change, love, and sex. I really enjoyed this book! Interesting that the first story, by Alan Moore, was the only one that didn't fully keep my interest, and I had the same experience with The Watchmen.

Hunt This Baby Down!

Words Without Pictures is a nicely designed paperback collection of prose stories and poems written by people known primarily for writing or drawing comic books. With the exception of the introduction (by Matt Feazell of "Zot in Dimension 10 1/2" fame) which reverses the concept of the book by being pictures without words, and spot illustrations of the authors by John Bolton, there are no drawings.The stories range from good to excellent. With the exception of Neil Gaiman's infamous story about V.D. which has been reprinted several times, including in his colleciton Angels and Visitations, none of the stories have been reprinted to my knowledge.All the stories are by people who were at the vanguard of adult comic books at the end of the 80's. Included are stories by Steve Bissette (graphic horror, of course), Jon J. Muth (poetic, of course), Ann Nocenti, etc. The best and longest story, and one that is worth the price of admission all on its own, is by Alan Moore. It is a vey strange and exotic story about a young woman in the orient undergoing a process that will put her more deeply in touch with her unconscious mind in order to turn her into a sort of Shaman. This story should appeal to fans of Moore's Promethea.This book, which serves as an illustration that some in the comic book industry deserve as much acclaim as any other in the field of literature, will be treasured forever and make your friends jealous. It is worth the trouble hunting it down.

Track This Down!

Now here's an interesting obsurity worth hunting for. Basically, it is a nicely designed paperback collection of short stories written by comic book writers and artists who were at the vanguard of ground-level comics in the late 80s/early 90s, but completely in prose (the exception is the cute and amusing introduction by Matt Feazell of "Zot in Dimension 10 1/2" fame that is completely comprised of pictures without words).Included is Gaiman with an infamous story about VD that has been reprinted several times, including in his collection Angels and Visitations. Other stories are by Steve Bissette (graphic horror, of course), Jon J Muth (poetic, of course), Ann Nocenti, etc., none of which I am aware of having been reprinted. But the longest and strongest story, clearly worth the price of admission by itself, is by Alan Moore. I won't attempt to explain Moore's bizarre, exotic plot beyond saying that it is about a woman being subject to a procedure that will allow her to tap into her unconscious mind to a greater extent than the average person which fans of Promethea will likely enjoy.The quality of the stories and poems is uneven and can at times be accused of pretentiousness, but they all range from good to excellent. This book serves to prove that comic writers can be just as good as any other style of writer, and it will be treasured forever by those who manage to get a copy.