He Done Her Wrong by Milt Gross (1930) comic books 1930

Original 1930 edition DUST JACKET ONLY of the famously wordless "He Done Her Wrong, the Great American Novel, and Not a Word in It, No Music, Too" by Milt Gross. Published by Doubleday.

Original 1930 edition (without dust jacket) of the famously wordless "He Done Her Wrong, the Great American Novel, and Not a Word in It, No Music, Too" by Milt Gross. Hardcover, 276 pages, 7-in x 8-in., published by Doubleday. This graphic masterpiece is the result of Gross' 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 naive 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, enjoyed longer lives.