This comic left a pretty big impression on me. I haven't "read" a story that contains no words up until this reading, yet the story was still very well told through the compositions and gestures of the characters within each frame. Without the words, not to say that words can't be encapsulating, I was able to fully focus on the meaning of each picture -- The lack of words actually allowed me to stitch together my own dialogue of sorts, which I think is an interesting "feature" of this unspoken art. Through the various expressions and tones of the characters and in the colors, I was able to feel what they were feeling -- The frustration of the our main character as he tries to explain what bread is -- the sadness of the old man who went to war and came back to his home, destroyed -- the terror that the farmer remembered as he explained how he got to the city that our character had to travel to. This story re-emphasized the power of expression and tone in story-telling, which I believe will help me as an artist.
I also appreciated the breakdowns of the events that were occurring as well -- they were forming their own sentences that, without one of their panels, would be incomplete. For example, when our character asks the man pasting advertisements on the wall if he could help in return for... something (I assume money), I didn't understand the interaction that was going on until they shook hands and our character began to place the ads on the wall (albeit upside down).
This story pretty much brings a new meaning to the fact that a picture can speak. [Credits]
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