Stories Told in Words and Pictures
Stories Told in Words and Pictures
The zines pulled for this collection embrace the power of visual storytelling, crafting unusual, unsettling, and intimate narratives through words, drawings and collage. While some follow the conventions of traditional comic formats, others push their narratives beyond the panels to another place entirely. Highlighting the wealth of ways that stories can be told within independently published comic and zine formats, these zines open the reader to new worlds of graphic possibilities.
—Emma Neilson (’27), Community Engagement and Access Assistant
Patrick Kyle
2016
In Frog, geometric shapes and free flowing drawings come together to form an abstract exploration of just, and perhaps unjust, consequences. As the titular character, Frog, faces down evildoers like jailbroken beavers, graffiti artists (and their parents), a tragic fable—sharply written and peppered with artistic allusions—emerges.
Adam Waito
2014
The terrifying nature of human cruelty is unmasked in this mini comic by Adam Waito. A man runs through the woods, haunted by the past and his pursuers. What did he do? Where will he go? Why is he chased? Told only in drawings, this gothic story will chill you to the bones.
Elle
2014
Alternating illustration and lyrical prose, Synchronize brings us to a quiet moment in bed. Eloquently capturing the intimacy of breath, it wonders if two people can ever truly become one.
Ava Thomas
2022
A taughtly woven omen emerges from the pages of this two-part zine as Ava Thomas’s simple linework and collage combine to form an unsettling warning.
Noah Van Scriver
2013
When Harvey’s long estranged son comes to meet him in New Mexico, he is reminded of a life left long ago. For Nathan, Harvey represents everything that went wrong with his childhood. For a day, the two attempt to reconnect, but can the past ever truly be let go? With simple crosshatch drawing techniques, Noah Van Sciver illustrates just how hard it is to forgive our fathers.
