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We know a picture is worth a thousand words. That message isn’t wrong: sometimes the most potent things aren’t laid out in words, but in images. When we aren’t told what something means or what something represents, we’re forced to bring our own experiences, ideas, perceptions, and insights to the forefront.
It’s not a surprise then that wordless comics are continuing to grow in numbers and grow in critical and audience acclaim. Comics already provide readers a unique storytelling medium that puts to work several types of literacy. Removing the words from those comics and inviting the reader to understand the story through their own lens further taps into critical literacy skills.
Of course, it’s not solely about literacy skills. Wordless picture books tell damn good stories in their own right. They can be entertaining, frightening, or humorous and sometimes, they’re all three simultaneously.
Wordless comics shouldn’t be confused with picture books. There can be some crossover, including in audience, but wordless comics are a different medium and format than picture books written and designed with children in mind. Wordless comics are a bit like animated shows: certainly, they can appeal to young people, but they’re meant to challenge adults in rethinking their perceptions of what art and illustration can do. The recommendations here include books for young readers as well as books intended for adults.
As part of the 2025 Read Harder Challenge, we’ve developed a task that invites book lovers to try their hands at a wordless comic (or to pick up a new-to-them title if this format is one they’re already familiar with). This is the 23rd task of the year and as we round the corner on this year’s tasks meant to expand your reading world, let’s have some fun with excellent and provocative wordless comics.
It’s worth noting that not every single one of these wordless comics will be entirely without text. A couple of them pepper text in a tiny bit, but they still count. This is an emerging category of comics, meaning this list is not expansive. But it grows bit by bit every year. Getting your paws on some now will put you ahead of the curve as we see more and more hit shelves.
Thought-Provoking Wordless Comics
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
A man gives his wife and daughter one last kiss before climbing aboard a ship. He’ll travel across the ocean without his family in order to find a new place for his them to move and build a new, better life.
Tan’s wordless graphic novel explores the highs, lows, unknowns, fears, and joys entangled in the immigrant experience. Many readers consider this the GOAT of wordless comics.
Crushing by Sophie Burrows
Burrows’s book is a beautiful and gentle comic about modern loneliness and what it means to yearn for connection. Burrows uses a limited and soft color palette to show two young people in a bustling city who feel completely alone, despite the noise and crowds around. Ultimately, they have a chance meeting that turns humorous, allowing the two of them to connect in a really wonderful and resonant way.
This is a timely book, with a powerful look at what it means to be alone…and what it means to be lonely.
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Leaf by Daishu Ma
Using a limited color palate for her wordless comic, Ma depicts the mega metropolis as a gray and blue world. In the city, there is little nature, little brightness, and little joy. But when a young man finds a leaf that is bright and radiant, he returns to the city in search of answers and understanding about his world.
Compared toThe Arrival, this is a fascinating look at the environment, both natural and human, and the ways in which we connect with one another.
In The Sounds and Seas by Marnie Galloway
What is the meaning of life and how do we make sense of the world around us? Those are just some of the themes Galloway’s nearly wordless and poetic graphic novel grapple with. It begins with three figures sitting around a fire and unfolds into something so much bigger as their voices become the ocean and then the whole world.
Mage and the Endless Unknown by S.J. Miller
Don’t be deceived by the childlike illustration of the titular Mage on the cover of this nearly-wordless comic. This is a dark story about a cold, horror-filed world into which our Mage stumbles. It is a mystery what the meaning of all this difficult means, but Mage and their companions press forward. Will their curiosity cause them to lose their lives or will it propel them forward far enough for survival?
Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
One of my all-time favorite books, Varon’s story about an ill-fated friendship between a dog and a robot is at once full of heart and full of sadness. After a day at the beach leaves Robot rusted, Dog abandons him. It’s not a cruel choice, but one made out of desperation and grief. Dog tries desperately to replace that friendship, but each subsequent friendship is full of misadventure, too.
On the beach, meanwhile, Robot is living forever in dreams of better days and adventures.
Varon’s brightly-colored wordless graphic novel is an exploration of friendship, grief, and about how not every tragedy is the result of intentional poor choices. Once you finish reading the book, be sure to catch the adaptation. The adaptation is well-done and deeply evocative.
The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi
Billed as a comic that’s intended to help readers relax, The Walking Man is exactly what it sounds like. A Japanese business man walks through urban Japan and allows himself to pause and dream. There’s a juxtaposition of life as it moves around and through him with the dreams he has of climbing a tree barefoot and playing in rain puddles.
If some of the above titles sound familiar, then you may have read this roundup of wordless/silent graphic novels from several years ago. That post is worth revisiting, as there are several other titles included there that would fit the bill for this 2025 Read Harder Challenge task.
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