Balloon-free comics/graphic novels?

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hi

I'd be curious to check some examples of comics/graphic novels that are ballon-free
(text written out of the image without any ballon) if there are any.

[MDG]

The immediate "classics" that come to mind are the Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, and Tarzan sunday strips.

Some other things that popped into mind:

Most things by Rick Geary
Steranko's Chandler (Also his story in Superman 400)
Vaughn Bode (He uses ballons, but they're outside the actual panel)
Some things by Kyle Baker (The Cowboy Wally Show, Why I Hate Saturn)

I'm sure there will be plenty more suggestions.

MDG

[scratchie]

Steranko's Chandler (Also his story in Superman 400)Is that Fiction Illustrated #3? Has that ever been reprinted?

For a more recent example, Rick Veitch's Can't Get No is told entirely in captions that bear almost no direct correlation to what's going on in the panels they accompany. A fascinating story, although I wouldn't pretend that I understood half of it after one reading.

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MANY THANKS BOTH

prince valiant is conceptually pretty much the nearest one to what I had in mind, thank you for linking that

[Greg Hatcher]

Is that Fiction Illustrated #3? Has that ever been reprinted?


Yes it is... and no, it hasn't. Steranko mentioned at a convention in 1999 that it was GOING to be coming out again, with some new material added and some things redesigned and redrawn; the San Diego program cover was even a Steranko pin-up promoting it, that year. But it never happened. Eventually Dark Horse took the 'advance order' space for it off its web page.

Byron Preiss, who did Fiction Illustrated, was all about experimenting with comics that didn't use balloons or look like comics. Fiction Illustrated #2,, "Starfawn," was also a non-comics kind of comic, though there was a balloon here and there. He did a couple of others, like Empire with Samuel Delany and Howard Chaykin, that were similar to Chandler.

[scratchie]

Interesting. I have FI #1 (the sporadically entertaining "Schlomo Raven" by Preiss and Tom Sutton) but never saw any of the subsequent issues (probably because I stopped collecting comics almost completely immediately after attending my first-and-only comic convention in 1979, where I bought the aforementioned FI #1 and a small pile of back issues of Heavy Metal, which was going to be my primary source for "sequential art" for the next four or five years).

[Lone Ranger]

the sporadically entertaining "Schlomo Raven" by Preiss and Tom Sutton

That's an accuratate analysis of it.

[Bill Angus]

Yes it is... and no, it hasn't. Steranko mentioned at a convention in 1999 that it was GOING to be coming out again, with some new material added and some things redesigned and redrawn; the San Diego program cover was even a Steranko pin-up promoting it, that year. But it never happened. Eventually Dark Horse took the 'advance order' space for it off its web page.

Byron Preiss, who did Fiction Illustrated, was all about experimenting with comics that didn't use balloons or look like comics. Fiction Illustrated #2,, "Starfawn," was also a non-comics kind of comic, though there was a balloon here and there. He did a couple of others, like Empire with Samuel Delany and Howard Chaykin, that were similar to Chandler.

Chandler does exist in 2 different formats, should anyone be looking for it. A large format version, and a smaller (I think paperback-size) version.

Another example, since Greg brought up Chaykin, might be the adaptation he did of The Stars My Destination - I don't remember any balloons in that, either.

[Aaron King]

Birth of a Nation by McGruder, Hudlin, and Baker

I think some of Sienkiewicz's stuff and some of Eisner's stuff, but I can't think of any specific examples.

[scratchie]

Chandler does exist in 2 different formats, should anyone be looking for it. A large format version, and a smaller (I think paperback-size) version.There is a TPB called Chandler that features three Philip Marlowe short stories ("Goldfish" is one, I think "The Pencil" is one, and I can't remember the third).

But I don't think it's by Steranko unless I was particularly out-of-it the day I read it.

The (mass-market) paperback-sized one is probably the original Fiction Illustrated issue.

There's also a TPB adaptation of Chandler's The Little Sister with a cover by Steranko, but the interior art is by Michael Lark.

[Ryan K]

Dave Sim experiments with the style in a couple issues of Cerebus. Jaka's Story sticks out in my mind as the one utilizing it the most.

[Tony Robertson]

There was also a 1980 black and white French edition of Steranko's Red Tide. It looks really good in black and white!

[Kirk G]

I can recommend at least part of "A Rememberance of Green" as having al lot of exposition on captions... and for a graphic novel with almost no words at all, I highly recommend "Critical Error" by John Byrne. It's fantastic!

[Bill Angus]

There is a TPB called Chandler that features three Philip Marlowe short stories ("Goldfish" is one, I think "The Pencil" is one, and I can't remember the third).

But I don't think it's by Steranko unless I was particularly out-of-it the day I read it.

That's true, but that's not what I was talking about. I've got that one too, and except for a Steranko cover, it's a whole other animal. I forget who did contribute... I'm pretty sure David Lloyd did one of them...

There's also a TPB adaptation of Chandler's The Little Sister with a cover by Steranko, but the interior art is by Michael Lark.

That one I don't have, but I've seen both the colour TBP (with the Steranko cover) and the b&w hardcover of that one as well.

The (mass-market) paperback-sized one is probably the original Fiction Illustrated issue.

Both versions I was talking about were branded Fiction Illustrated - I have the large TPB version, and a friend of mine has the mass-market paperback-sized one. I assume they were published simultaniously... but I don't know for sure.

[MDG]

Both versions I was talking about were branded Fiction Illustrated - I have the large TPB version, and a friend of mine has the mass-market paperback-sized one. I assume they were published simultaniously... but I don't know for sure.

I was actually at a NYC convention when Steranko was publicizing Chandler, and I think there were three versions: the digest (not paperback), the larger TPB version and a limited signed version. (I thought the limited edition was hardcover, but there's a Wikipedia entry that just mentions a signature plate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler:_Red_Tide

I'm pretty sure that neither of the other Fiction Illustrated titles had TPBs

MDG

[Greg Hatcher]

I'm pretty sure that neither of the other Fiction Illustrated titles had TPBs

MDG

The fourth, following Chandler, was called Son of Sherlock Holmes (http://cgi.ebay.com/Son-of-Sherlock-Holmes-The-Woman-in-Red-GN-FINE_W0QQitemZ300108547612QQihZ020QQcategoryZ35777 QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohos ting) and was ONLY released in trade paperback.

There was a fifth in the works, Dragonworld, by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves, but it eventually ended up released as an illustrated prose novel. I'm pretty sure it was more succesful than all the others combined.

[scratchie]

Both versions I was talking about were branded Fiction Illustrated - I have the large TPB version, and a friend of mine has the mass-market paperback-sized one. I assume they were published simultaniously... but I don't know for sure.Interesting. Thanks for the clarification.

Amusingly, the non-Steranko Chandler TPB and the Lark The Little Sister TPB both feature the same Steranko painting as cover art (on the back cover of the former and the front of the latter). Now that I take a closer look, the book I have is actually titled Raymond Chandler's Marlowe, not Chandler (like the Steranko comic).

[Rob Allen]

Now that I take a closer look, the book I have is actually titled Raymond Chandler's Marlowe, not Chandler (like the Steranko comic).

I thought the Steranko comic was titled Red Tide: a Chandler Novel.

[scratchie]

I thought the Steranko comic was titled Red Tide: a Chandler Novel.Wikipedia calls it Chandler: Red Tide at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Steranko and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler:_Red_Tide . The cover scan on the latter makes it look like the title is simply Chandler, though.

This page refers to it as "RED TIDE (AKA Chandler)"
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/steranko.html

Interestingly, the detective's name is Chandler (not Marlowe), so it's an homage and not actually an adaptation of a Raymond Chandler story. Ironically, almost ten years later, in 1986, TV playwright Dennis Potter would write The Singing Detective, which featured a mystery writer named Philip Marlow as its main character. I wonder if he knew of the Steranko book?

[Bill Angus]

The cover suggests the title is Chandler, but the title page refers to it as Red Tide. That's likely where the confusion comes from. I'm not sure what's in the copyright indica, though (I'm at the office, and unsurprisingly, my copy isn't).

[Tony Robertson]

We just completed creating a Chandler:Red Tide by Steranko website at The Drawings of Steranko. Jim still plans on completing the revised version. There are some sample pages at the website.

http://www.thedrawingsofsteranko.com/RED_TIDE/chndlr_hmpg_.html