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He done her wrong;: The great American novel and not a word in it--no music too
An acknowledged masterpiece of the form returns!First published in 1930, the famously wordless He Done Her Wrong is Milt Gross' graphic masterpiece, the result of his prior collaboration with Charlie Chaplin on the 1928 silent-era film classic The Circus . Sharing the same goofy, over-the-top comic mayhem that was Chaplin's trademark, and preceding the expressive, cartoony art style of MAD magazine legend Harvey Kurtzman, all of He Done Her Wrong 's hilarious slapstick, tragic heartbreak, heroism and villainy, character development, high emotions and raucous thrills somehow manages to take place, astonishingly, without a single word of text, or conversation, or even a footnote.The story follows the convoluted misadventures of a naïve frontiersman with superhuman strength exploited by a larcenous robber baron who eventually double crosses our hero and steals his girl. The pursuit leads to New York City where a sordid cast of cantankerous salesmen, officious government bureaucrats, bumbling hospital attendants, a lusty widow with a defensive Chihuahua and one angry barber wreak more havoc in our characters' lives than a hundred Little Rascals in a Marx Brothers film.Born in the Bronx in 1895, Gross would go on to spend his teenage years working as an office assistant at the Hearst publication The New York Evening Journal . He befriended the paper's renowned comic strip bullpen that included such early 20th century comics legends as Tad Dorgan, Cliff Sterrett, Harry Hershfield and Tom McNamara, who allowed Gross to cut his teeth drawing background and dialogue lettering jobs on their strips. He eventually won space on the paper's sports page for his first large daily strip titled Kinney B. Alive , making its debut in 1916. The strip only lasted for one week, but subsequent efforts such as Frenchie, White Feitlebaums in the South Seas, Count Screwloose of Toulouse and the best-selling books Hiawatta Wit No Udda Pomes and Nize Baby asserted more staying power. Gross' stylized cartooning won the public devotion of such noteworthy fans as President Calvin Coolidge and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. According to The Comics Journal , Gross's skillful work displays a "Fast-action style… Furiously tangled line work… A freewheeling onslaught of immensely droll squiggles apparently done at top speed… Inspired slapdash like nothing else in the cartoon art of his time… [Gross] was a master of graphic invention and a one-man comic riot."He Done Her Wrong is a classic comics work, legendary among aficionados, and arguably the 20th century's first graphic novel. Fantagraphics Books is proud to put this back into print in a facsimile edition, unabridged, with newly designed covers.
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
November 10, 2007
What the hell? Why don't people do us a favor and tell us about this amazing stuff? After God's Man - another book I'd never heard of until now - this was the second "wordless novel" produced in the U.S. Yes, no written word sullies the page. The explorations of how to use the page are fascinating ... as is the look of 1930's cartooning turned to the end of conveying a story over several hundred pages/panels. It's got the crazed feel of early silent film ... that kinetic slapstick and manic plot movement. Not to be missed.
October 17, 2011
An early (1930) graphic novel by Milt Gross, He Done Her Wrong is a completely wordless turn of the century melodrama, inspired by and playing a tongue-in-cheek tribute to early adventure serials from the silent era of film.
Although Gross was apparently well known in his time, I confess I'm not familiar with him. Can't say that the art grabs me, either--it's done in a satirical, caricature-ish style, vaguely reminiscent at times of Don Martin, but rougher.
But the story's entertaining enough.
The characters are not named, and there's not a lot of character development, but it isn't needed. We have our Hero, the manly outdoorsman, the Girl, who is done wrong, and the Villain, who done it. The Hero is unworldly, but manly enough for ten. The villain is dastardly, taking advantage of the Hero's naivete then stealing the Girl away to The Big City, where he leaves her penniless. The Hero pursues. Fate intervenes; many mishaps are had; paths are crossed and re-crossed; and it all works out as it should in the end.
Entertaining, and a quick read.
Although Gross was apparently well known in his time, I confess I'm not familiar with him. Can't say that the art grabs me, either--it's done in a satirical, caricature-ish style, vaguely reminiscent at times of Don Martin, but rougher.
But the story's entertaining enough.
The characters are not named, and there's not a lot of character development, but it isn't needed. We have our Hero, the manly outdoorsman, the Girl, who is done wrong, and the Villain, who done it. The Hero is unworldly, but manly enough for ten. The villain is dastardly, taking advantage of the Hero's naivete then stealing the Girl away to The Big City, where he leaves her penniless. The Hero pursues. Fate intervenes; many mishaps are had; paths are crossed and re-crossed; and it all works out as it should in the end.
Entertaining, and a quick read.
August 10, 2025
Certainly a classic silent comic. I like the older cartoon style that brings to mind New Yorker cartoons being applied to a long story like this. Goofier but as respectable as the silent masterpieces its spoofing (Lynd Ward's Gods' Man).
October 9, 2023
Recommend for anyone studying comics for its expert use of wordless storytelling.
June 24, 2024
He Done Her Wrong is a wordless novel from the cartoonist Milt Gross, which serves loosely as a comic parody of the early wordless novels from pioneers like Frans Masareel and Lynd Ward. Importantly, this work also serves as a major precursor to the modern graphic novel. The narrative here centers on a young man who falls in love with barroom singer and his attempts to keep her interested while a jealous reprobate takes the singer away to New York. Gross uses a lot of the slapstick artwork he's known for to illustrate the various misadventures the protagonist goes on to reunite with his love, ultimately leading to the pair settling down while the villain is lead into a life of dissatisfaction and unhappiness. It's an entertaining affair as Gross manages to convey a lot without the use of structured panels and words, and instead leaning heavily on comedic staging, gag timing and caricaturing. Illustrations are serialized mostly from page to page, so it feels quite different from the more modernized version of wordless comic strips, but the timing is still captured quite innovatively by Gross. It's easy enough to spot just how innovative this would have been for the time, but execution wise there have been much sharper stuff both before and after this one. An entertaining piece of comic history for sure, even if the story is fairly simplistic and forgettable.
November 28, 2017
Lots of "product of a time and place" racism and misogyny. Supposedly it's historically relevant, but I can't claim to fully understand the whole significance. The art style is fast and loose; fitting for the genre but occasionally the characters faces were not distinct enough to be clear.
March 18, 2019
Typical melodrama and hugely influenced by the comedies of the silent film era. Definitely a product of its time, although I can understand why it is considered a very important work.
October 10, 2017
I’d was reading the introduction to a collection of Lynd Ward’s woodcut novels when I learned that Milt Gross published a parody of Ward’s heavy-handed but beautifully rendered graphic novel GODS’ MAN. It’s called HE DONE HER WRONG, and I had it on the shelf, another of the many books I obsessively bought in preparation for this day, I guess. While this day has come and gone, and I’m glad it did, for now I’ve read Milt Gross’ great American novel with no words, and it’s even greater than that! The drawing is hilarious and hectic, as if he scribbled it on a whim and tossed the pages into a printing press. What came out, though, isn’t haphazard as much as a well-choreographed comic masterpiece. The guy is bursting with jokes, like the early Mad comics, decades before they existed, and the pace is frantic as the tone is irreverent. The guys was a whirling dervish of creativity, having produced comics, stories, animation and more in his short life, as well as doing as much as the Marx Brothers in bringing Yiddish and Ashkenazi humor to the American vernacular. His nonsense has become our standard. Look, I can appreciate and respect, even love, the art of Lynd Ward, but Milt Gross makes me plotz!
April 27, 2020
This is some kind of silent masterpiece, particularly if, like me, you love bigfoot or screwball comic art. The melodrama is part of the charm. This is an immediate response to wordless illustrated or proto-graphic novels by Lynd Ward and Frnz Masereel, only this one is tongue in cheek. Gross is also a master of language, and Yiddish American dialect, but here, uses the language of the comics sans word balloons. There are some sound effects and pantomime pointers to print language, but it works.
Recommended.
Recommended.
January 12, 2020
Wow. A Major Find
I had never heard of Milt Gross until recently. As a fan of graphic novels, I was thrilled to discover him. But I was not prepared for the brilliance of He Done Her Wrong. A simple tale, to be sure, but it's the drawing, the pathos and the humour that clobbered me over the head. It's a product of its time, so I had to force myself through the racist and sexist stereotypes. But the laughter and the virtuoso inkwork kept me going. This is a major find.
I had never heard of Milt Gross until recently. As a fan of graphic novels, I was thrilled to discover him. But I was not prepared for the brilliance of He Done Her Wrong. A simple tale, to be sure, but it's the drawing, the pathos and the humour that clobbered me over the head. It's a product of its time, so I had to force myself through the racist and sexist stereotypes. But the laughter and the virtuoso inkwork kept me going. This is a major find.
April 3, 2024
This is actually a great piece of history and quite surprising when you realize this book was made almost 100 years ago. I liked the set and the narrative, however, there were few very racist gags that today we can acknowledge as wrong. For example when the protagonist chases the "bad guy" who falls into a giant bowl of manure only for the protagonist to not recognize him among bunch of black people. That point in the book kinda dropped the rating from 5 to hard 3.
January 25, 2019
It’s like watching a silent movie. I liked how varied the art was throughout. Gross makes it look effortless but there is clearly a lot of intentionality in the choices made to present the material on each page.
January 10, 2026
Apart from an appalingly racist joke, this is quite fantastic. Halfway between a silent film, and a Popeye cartoon, this was clever and hilarious. And now that it's in the public domain, anyone can print it without the racism!
April 13, 2020
An influential work for its time but no longer delivers as a contemporary read.
April 17, 2022
Funny, entertaining, exciting. Not much else though. Gross is a madman, and I'm sure this was something very special at the time. But now, it's an entertaining piece of history.
October 4, 2024
i nearly threw up laughing
October 3, 2025
Personally, I would have liked some words. The story is vaguely followable, but needed to either drop a hundred pages or add some title cards like a silent movie.
March 21, 2010
When discussing the work of late cartoonist Milt Gross in academic circles, the word “genius” is tossed about so lightly so as to lose all meaning. Milt Gross, we are told, was brilliance incarnate for his pseudo-Yiddish/English creations and comic productions.
He Done Her Wrong, perhaps his best-known comic (read: cartoon) novel, is a testament to the man's humour and pathos. Drawn (and, of course, written - although spoken words are non-existent in this cartoon romp) in 1930 by Gross himself, He Done Her Wrong reflects the age of the melodrama, complete with characters nearly culled from the screen era of the silent movie. The tale itself is basic: A friendly woodsman comes to the aid of a dainty femme, falls in love, and has this love taken away by a fiendish character who squanders his riches, leaving the poor woman impoverished and alone with several children. The hero of the tale comes to life when he seeks out his lady love once again, as comedic chaos ensues all the while.
What is rarely said about the novel, though, is that the pages themselves are somewhat grating. That is, the book does read like a common comic strip, but with a single panel on each page – or two. Only in a couple of cases are there more that one drawing on a single page – and this effect is used to speed up some action. In other words, the book is thick enough to look impressive on a bookshelf, but can be breezed through in about forty-five minutes. It is the process of flipping pages which manages to distract from the story, rather than to add anything to the comedic timing and/or mild suspense.
It is an amusing read, but not one which warrants an entire book dedicated to its publication. An unpopular criticism of such a renowned creator as Milt Gross? Perhaps, but valid nonetheless.
He Done Her Wrong, perhaps his best-known comic (read: cartoon) novel, is a testament to the man's humour and pathos. Drawn (and, of course, written - although spoken words are non-existent in this cartoon romp) in 1930 by Gross himself, He Done Her Wrong reflects the age of the melodrama, complete with characters nearly culled from the screen era of the silent movie. The tale itself is basic: A friendly woodsman comes to the aid of a dainty femme, falls in love, and has this love taken away by a fiendish character who squanders his riches, leaving the poor woman impoverished and alone with several children. The hero of the tale comes to life when he seeks out his lady love once again, as comedic chaos ensues all the while.
What is rarely said about the novel, though, is that the pages themselves are somewhat grating. That is, the book does read like a common comic strip, but with a single panel on each page – or two. Only in a couple of cases are there more that one drawing on a single page – and this effect is used to speed up some action. In other words, the book is thick enough to look impressive on a bookshelf, but can be breezed through in about forty-five minutes. It is the process of flipping pages which manages to distract from the story, rather than to add anything to the comedic timing and/or mild suspense.
It is an amusing read, but not one which warrants an entire book dedicated to its publication. An unpopular criticism of such a renowned creator as Milt Gross? Perhaps, but valid nonetheless.
May 11, 2015
Gross's early instance of a graphic novel (dialogue-free, though words do appear occasionally on signs and so on) is rather clichéd and meandering plot-wise (hero, pure maiden deceived, moustachioed villain, Perils of Pauline-style dangers, including the sawmill routine—literally; side trips into visual gags that don't advance the plot), but it's rendered with style and exuberance. Historically more important than artistically, perhaps, but still a worthwhile read.
July 16, 2011
AMAZING. It takes someone really talented to weave such a tight and complex (not to mention gag-filled) plot. Gross's art is frantic and wonderfully scratchy, with strong composition and panels that range from hilarious to honestly beautiful (and serious when they need to be). Great characters, great sets, and full of detail. It's worth reading and rereading.
December 26, 2014
Some of this was pretty clever -- a winding years-long romance with twists and turns. Then we got the blackface and the stereotypical Plains Indian in the Northwoods. No. Just no. I can understand this getting published in 1930 but not 2005. I understand why it was kept in, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or recommend it.
April 11, 2008
This may be the first graphic novel. Milt Gross describes it as "The Great American Novel And not a word in it -- no music, too.
Originally published in 1930. A hilarious, imaginative, and heart-warming tale of love and life in the Far North.
Originally published in 1930. A hilarious, imaginative, and heart-warming tale of love and life in the Far North.
June 27, 2020
Una aventura cándida y entretenida, que acarrea tufos de racismo y misoginia producto de su época. Su valor es de índole didáctico en lo referente al arte secuencia y la narrativa visual. Probablemente solo lo encontrarán relevante los interesados en animación, cómics y cinematografía.
November 2, 2022
Перший німий американський комікс з доволі простою історією та малюнком, характерним для газетних художників 1930х років. Було цікаво подивитися на витоки одного з двох моїх улюблених піджанрів графічних романів.
April 2, 2008
Milt Gross at this best. Excellent wordless graphic novel.
July 7, 2008
The classic tale of the beautiful lady, the tough woodsman, and the greasy city slicker. Not an original tale, but originally told.
Also I should be reading more Milt Gross. Oh yes.
Also I should be reading more Milt Gross. Oh yes.
June 26, 2011
Fans of the adventures of Dudley Do-Right and Snidely Whiplash won't want to miss this one. For all others, it's fairly dull.
September 13, 2011
A wordless masterpiece of vaudevillian villains and heroes and helpless maidens. Thank goodness for reprints of old stuff.
March 18, 2012
An absolutely wonderful masterpiece.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews