Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas

Laurence Hyde’s Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas is a single-issue graphic novel published by Ward Ritchie Press in 1951, a wordless epic told entirely through stark, expressive woodcut illustrations. A haunting tale of survival and cultural collision on a remote Pacific island, the book stands as a landmark of American graphic storytelling, demonstrating the power of visual narrative decades before the term “graphic novel” gained currency.