Southern Cross

by Laurence Hyde, Rockwell Kent (Introduction)

Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas is a stunning wordless novel told in 118 wood engravings about the atomic bomb testing performed by the United States in the South Pacific following World War II. This new hardcover edition is a facsimile of the original edition, published in 1951. Laurence Hyde was infuriated with the United States' continued testing in the Bikini Atoll, following the mass destruction and unthinkable horrors resulting from the atomic bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Hyde's graphic novel involves a Polynesian island and the islanders' idyllic and secure life that is forever lost after American sailors arrive and evacuate the islanders from their homes. During the evacuation, a fisherman kills a sailor who attempts to rape his wife. The couple flees with their child into the jungle to avoid capture. After the other islanders have evacuated, the Americans detonate an atom bomb on the ocean floor. The island
receives the brunt of the bomb's destructive force, which annihilates all flora and fauna. The fisherman and his family are subjected to horrific suffering and pain before dying from the resulting blast and radiation.

Southern Cross includes the original introduction by Rockwell Kent and two essays by Hyde in which he provides the idea for his book, a detailed description of the process of wood engraving, and a short history of the woodcut novel. A new introduction is provided by the woodcut novel historian David A. Beronä.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Art, Comics, Fiction, War

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2007

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1951, this woodcut graphic novel comes way after the work of Masereel and Ward but nowadays gets grouped in with those original classics.

It's a stunning silent movie depicting a fictional island in the South Pacific affected by the USA's continuing atomic bomb testing after WW2.

The drawings are fantastic and I think Hyde helped keep the woodcut tradition alive!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Southern Cross” is Laurence Hyde’s 1951 woodcut novel about the United States’ hydrogen bomb testing on the Bikini Atoll.

I did not realize that was the premise going into the novel. It begins with a happy family on a tropical island. It almost seemed Edenic. I’ve read enough woodcut novels now to expect something much darker than this. Sure enough, it turns into a hydrogen bomb destroying everything. There’s one image of an eyeball capturing all of the destruction that really grabbed my attention.

[Mariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the simplicity to the art. The woodcut look gives it that tribal background to set that distancing mood. I also thought it helped to show how they dehumanize the soldiers to look very demonic almost. The irony is also very hidden, but obvious. For example, the bomb has the dove of peace carved into it. It's ironic because after you see that this tribe was just innocent people that were caught in the cross of how the world was going to use nuclear power to make "peace" is extremely ironic. All the art is very figuratively iconic in this way which is something to admire.

I wasn't focused to much to the back story of what was happening because I was so drawn to the art, but it didn't go unnoticed. How the story takes you through the daily life of this family before the destroyer sails in really helps you to connect with them which in my opinion is really what helps pluck the heart strings. Like when the soldier attacks the women and her husband kills the soldier to save her the reader sympathizes with the natives way more than the soldier which is soooo different from a typical "hero" prospective.



I recommend everyone read this. Especially since it is such a fast read everyone needs this once in their life.

[Tyler]

I read this book not expecting too much but the book ended up not being too bad. It's a panel per page and approximatly 250 pages. The book is written by Laurence Hyde. The story is about the American military testing an Atomic bomb on an island that goes by the name of Bikini Atoll. The inhabitants were evacuated but the story mentions a case of attempted rape by one of the American soldiers and the killing of the soldier when a man tried to defend her. The story continues on to the nuclear test and the aftermath, when the island became uninhabitable. The story ends with everyone and everything dying on the island. Birds, fish, people, all without discrimination because of the radiation left over from the blast. The art is primarily just lines, no real shading but it is done quite well. The American soldier are portrayed in a darker shade, the they are the bad guys which they technically were. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the effects atomic bomb testing has on the people that inhabit the area.

[Jenifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a classic "woodcut" print novel with one panel per page. It depicts the testing of nuclear weapons in the Bikini Islands. It is from a native persepcetive, and thus is almost completely wordless. This is clearly an anti-nuclear weapons story as the natives suffer major repercussions for refusing to evacuate their island. I found this story deeply moving as well as informational. Some of the panels were very hard to read because of the concepts they depict. There is not a lot of "gore" per se, but the reader is forced to face the very real effects of the US's weapons development.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in nuclear weapons, racism, or in the history of the comics medium.

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hyde is fucking brutal. He never flinches from showing not only how much damage the atomic bomb caused Bikini Atoll, but the cruelty that was also inflicted by American soldiers. Required reading.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you initially pick this book up, it looks like some pages of black and white drawn pictures. However, reading the introduction will tell you that the pictures were printed from original wood blocks, each block having been handcrafted by Laurence Hyde and Rockwell Kent. The wordless novel tells the story of the invasion and destruction of a Polynesian island by the US military. The animator Hyde was horrified by the continued atomic bomb testing after the destruction in Japan in WW2 and created this story in response. It’s a fairly quick read (10-15 mins) so it’s worth your time to pick up.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is at least distinctive if not attractive, and the background information provided about the method of production and the history of the style is interesting, but it would have been better to leave out facts of the authors misguided and disastrous politics.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hydes' book is no less important today than it was when it was originally published in 1951.

[AskNezka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly beautiful, poignant, and sad, with very moving forewords written by several people, including Rockwell Kent.

More on this seminal work https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...
Reprint by Drawn & Quarterly https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/sou...

[John Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wordless comic consists of 118 "woodcut" prints depicting the testing of atomic bombs on the bikini island. The woodcut method is used since this is told from the perspective of the natives on the island while they deal with the incoming military evacuating them from their tribes. Viewing this series of primitive styled prints adds to the emotional weight the reader feels while viewing this depiction of the native's perspective. This is a quick read and I would recommend this to anyone with a few minutes on their hands to check out this interesting method of storytelling.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outraged by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the continuing A-bomb tests in the Bikini Atoll, Hyde worked for years on over one hundred woodcuts that tell the story of native peoples forced from the island home so the US could blow it up. With great skill, artfulness, and empathy, the story unfolds from peace to violence, terror, and destruction. Each page is a masterpiece that could be hung on the walls of a museum. Together, they form a beautiful, heartbreaking, powerful testament to the evil done to these people.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly engaging book for having no words. Each turn of the page reveals another dark image, as the pleasant island first revealed at the beginning is invading and then destroyed with a nuclear bomb. I really liked how there would be a suddenly starting image, like a hovering sword of Damocles, among the sharply cut faces of the characters.

[Paul Kaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a neat book that I learned about from its appearance on the front page of Wikipedia a few months ago. It would be hard for me to give it less than five stars based on how much effort and emotion went into the book.

I "read" it cover-to-cover in under an hour. The pictures are impressive and the story is really neat to follow.