Young, Art

"Art Young was one of the most renowned and incendiary political cartoonists in the first half of the 20th century. And far more--an illustrator for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Colliers, a magazine publisher, a New York State Senatorial candidate on the Socialist ticket, and perhaps the only cartoonist to be tried under the Espionage Act for sedition. He made his reputation appearing in The Masses on a regular basis using lyrical, vibrant graphics and a deep appreciation of mankind's inherent folly to create powerful political cartoons. To Laugh That We May Not Weep is a sweeping career retrospective, reprinting--often for the first time in 60 or 70 years--over 800 of Young's timeless, charming, and devastating cartoons and illustrations, many reproduced from original artwork, to create a fresh new portrait of this towering figure in the worlds of cartooning and politics. With essays by Art Spiegelman, Justin Green, Art Young biographer Marc Moorash, Anthony Mourek, and Glenn Bray, with a biographical overview of Young's life and work by Frank M. Young, To Laugh That We May Weep is a long-awaited tribute to one of the great lost cartoonists whose work is as relevant in the 21st century as it was in its own time."--Amazon.com.

Hell was once a desolate place of fire and brimstone wherein all were miserable. And then the capitalists came and supplanted Satan's rule with the almighty power of the dollar. Now, only the poorest of sinners suffer, while rich hellions live in relative comfort and luxury. Modern conveniences now placate the masses, swanky hotels and thrilling amusement parks entice tourists and Hell has become more hellish than ever before. In 1934, the celebrated political cartoonist Art Young conjured a vision of Hell that in its greed, inequity, and misery reflected the all-too-real hellscape of Depression-era America, and stands as one of the most searing indictments of capitalism ever published. This stunning re-issue of the classic illustrated novel presents Young's lush pen-and-ink drawings as facsimiles of his original pages; the artwork appears as it did on his drawing board, with visible brushstrokes and pencil annotations. This edition also includes a foreword by curator Glenn Bray and an introduction by acclaimed graphic designer Steven Heller plus the original 1934 essays by Young himself and his "friend, admirer, and attorney" Charles Recht.