Tantalizing Stories

In the early 1990s, Jim Woodring brought his singular, wordless vision to Tundra Publishing with Tantalizing Stories, a five-issue series that stands as a landmark of surreal, psychedelic cartooning. The book follows the mute, anthropomorphic Frank and a cast of bizarre recurring characters—including the gluttonous Manhog, the impish Pupshaw, and the tormented Montgomery Wart—through a dreamlike world of silent, often unsettling adventures. Woodring, the series' sole writer and artist, crafted a universe where morality plays and cosmic horror unfold without dialogue, relying on his meticulous, rubbery linework and hallucinatory imagery. Tantalizing Stories matters as a pure, uncompromising expression of Woodring’s unique artistic language, cementing Frank as an enduring icon of alternative comics.