Once first grader Lynd Ward discovered that his last name spelled "draw" backwards, he knew he had art in his future.
Ward went on to become an influential graphic novelist and his variety of work was the topic of a lecture in 103 Paterno Library on Wednesday afternoon.
The talk was meant to accompany an exhibit of Ward's work on display in The Special Collections Library, entitled "Storyteller Without Words," on display through May 7.
Steven Herb, head of the Education and Behavioral Sciences library at Penn State, gave the presentation and focused on both Ward's great influence as an artist and on the larger revolution of children's literature that his work heralded.
The lecture included details about Ward's life, such as tidbits on how he studied in Germany and that his first novel was originally published the same week the stock market crashed, but the majority of time was devoted to explaining Ward's influence.
Ward's distinctions include being the first person to have a novel-length story made entirely of wood engravings published in the United States, having won a library of congress award, and having created illustrations to be published with "Frankenstein."
Christine Cannon, an avid fan of today's graphic novels, said she enjoyed getting some insight into where the art form got its start.
"It was really cool to see how some of the first graphic novels looked like," Cannon (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.
Cannon also said she appreciated the intricacy that Ward put into his work.
"Seeing somebody so dedicated to their work is really an inspiration," Cannon said. "Woodcutting doesn't exactly seem like an easy thing to do, and he made an entire novel of them. That's impressive."
Jay Patel also found himself astounded with the artist's work.
Patel (freshman-premedicine) said while he doesn't consider himself much of an art fan, Ward's work still managed to catch his attention.
"I honestly didn't think this would be that interesting," he said. "But some of his work is pretty cool. It doesn't look like a lot of other stuff I've seen out there today."
