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Woodcut Novels Woodcut novels are imaginative and realistic stories told in black and white pictures that focus on humanistic and imaginative ideas. Although woodcut novels have their roots tracing back in the history of graphic arts including block books and playing cards, they were originally published in the early twentieth century. Early pioneers of this genre included Frans Masereel, Otto Nückel, Lynd Ward, Helena Bochořaková-Dittrichová, Willy Fries, Otto Pankok, James Reid, Clément Moreau (Carl Meffert), Werner Gothein, P.K. Hoenich, Giacomo Patri, Laurence Hyde, and Palle Nielsen. When Frans Masereel published the first woodcut novel, 25 Images de la Passion d'un Homme in 1918, there were three prominent influences--the revival of the woodcut as a means of artistic expression, especially by the German Expressionists; the popularity of the silent cinema with heroes like Charlie Chaplin; and the growing development of the cartoon and comic strip in newspapers and journals like Le Chat Noir. The woodcut novel refers not only to woodcuts but also to wood engravings, linocuts, leadcuts, and more recently hard plastic used in relief printing. A woodcut uses the wood cut with the grain and can be a soft wood while wood engraving uses a hardwood like boxwood cut across the grain which allows a finer line.

Despite their short-lived popularity, these wordless books had an important impact on the development of the contemporary graphic novel. In the last few years a number of artists have found the woodcut novel a perfect medium to express their ideas from a personal, imaginative, and social perspective.