And we're back! Been awhile. Does anyone read old-timey blogs anymore? Guess
we'll find out. My last post was about my book KENT STATE. Well, here's my NEW
book, THE DISSIDENTS. Four years in the making and launching on September 15.
THE DISSIDENTS depicts a fascinating, forgotten chapter in comics history,
combined with a suspenseful spy thriller. It takes place during World War 1,
when the US Government essentially put the Bill of Rights on ice. Freedom of
speech no longer existed. Thousands were jailed for “sedition,” a loosely
defined offense that meant whatever the government said it did. Merely
criticizing the thin-skinned and vindictive President Woodrow Wilson would get
you a 15 prison sentence! It’s the true story of a group of political
cartoonists who drew for the provocative magazine,
The Masses. What they
document in their cartoons is a country spiraling into darkness, under attack by
secret private militias, plagued by racist pogroms, and rocked by class war. The
world outside America is in flames. Empires are falling, and millions are dying
in war and revolution. The political cartoons in The Masses, some of the best
ever made, are deemed to be such a threat, that the cartoonists are harassed,
spied upon, blacklisted, and finally put on trial. Two flee the country into
exile. One is imprisoned and tortured! Another is incarcerated by the U.S. Army
and scheduled for execution! THE DISSIDENTS is their story. It’s a tense tale of
courage in the face of authoritarianism, of political passions that changed the
world, of revolutionaries and vigilantes, and of love and betrayal. Available to
pre-order
HERE.
