Books Controversies Editorial Cartooning

Holocaust Cartoon Book Cancelled

The author and compiler of the cartoon book “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust” is claiming the book was cancelled by the editor/packager and the publisher due to his refusal to include a forward condemning recent actions by Israel and the United States.

Arthur Szyk 1942

From Carl Campanile for The N.Y. Post:

Rafael Medoff, the author of the book “Cartoonists Against The Holocaust,” said he refused to publish what he believed were falsehoods editor Craig Yoe wanted to put in the book contracted to be published by Dark Horse.

It was only after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel that Yoe began demanding that Dr. Medoff denounce Israel as the price to be paid for publishing his new tome “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust,” said Medoff and the Jewish civil rights group StandWithUs.

“The book was canceled. I was canceled,” Medoff, who has written op-eds for The Post, said.

Yoe sent a Sept. 1, 2025 email to Medoff saying he “thought long and hard” about adding a separate “note” in the book to unload on Israel and the US before its planned publication.

As Daniel Adelson at Ynet Global reports:

Dr. Rafael Medoff, author of “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust,” said editor Craig Yoe insisted on inserting political criticism that Medoff considered false and inappropriate for a historical work. Dark Horse disputes that politics drove the cancellation, saying the project was abandoned because of financial concerns and repeated scheduling delays.

Beside having a diametrically opposing viewpoint as his editor and packager Medoff objected to “transform[ing] a historical book into a political vehicle.”

Publisher Dark Horse’s response:

“Craig Yoe, of Yoe Books, failed to make our planned schedule for this book as the project’s packager, so Dark Horse stepped away from it and decided not to publish it last year,” Simon wrote in a June 3, 2026, email to StandWithUs legal director Carly Gammill.

“Dark Horse does not plan to publish ‘Cartoonists Against the Holocaust,’” he added. “It was a decision based on our company’s financial needs and some scheduling issues that had delayed the project too much already.”

From Stand With Us:

Dr. Medoff refused to give in to that demand, which was made to him, in writing, by then-Dark Horse imprint editor, Craig Yoe. Dark Horse subsequently canceled publication of the book.

Cartoonists Against the Holocaust presents 150 editorial cartoons from American newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s, accompanied by Dr. Medoff’s commentaries, to illustrate what was known in America about the Holocaust as it was taking place.

Dr. Medoff explains, “Accusing Israel of genocide is a lie, and requiring a Holocaust scholar to denounce Israel to see his book published is antisemitic bullying.”

Medoff and Yoe have collaborated in the past on Jewish history vis-a-vis editorial cartoons.

A couple things not mentioned in the articles…

The Cartoonists Against The Holocaust book was published a decade ago so this would be a new edition. Would the delay in getting it to the publisher as Dark Horse claims be caused by revising the old edition or just the conflict between the author and packager?

Also publisher Dark Horse has seen some recent shuffling of management and some financial difficulties.

Heidi MacDonald at The Beat from March 2026:

In shocking – yet not surprising news – we’re hearing that Mike Richardson, founder and publisher of Dark Horse Comics, has been removed from his position at the company. 

The move is not a surprise because Dark Horse parent company Embracer Group has been in financial distress for a few years now, with many layoffs and closures across its portfolio of companies.

Previous Post
CSotD: Beneath the Planet of the Comic Weekly Man
Next Post
A Sunday Assembly of Assorted Sundries

Comments 3

  1. Craig is a very religious man and I’ve never seen his philosophies restrain others before now. Declaring Jewish people as a group are responsible in any way for Adolf Netanyahu is like saying all Christians are responsible for the criminal activities of Trump. Suggesting by juxtaposition that the Holocaust must be legitimate because it is now the global Jews paying forward for Gaza is a blatant act of bigotry, and I am very surprised and shocked that Craig demanded such conflation. Personally, I’m still pissed at the Crusades, which is still another thing Jews and Muslims have in common.

    1. Mike– Saying the publisher demanded this book declare “Jewish people as a group” responsible for Netanyahu or Israel is false by both Medoff and Yoe’s statements.

      Quoted here, Medoff said: “Accusing Israel of genocide is a lie, and requiring a Holocaust scholar to denounce Israel to see his book published is antisemitic bullying.”

      How in the world would that be Dark Horse arguing the Holocaust was justified and “legitimate?” If it felt inappropriate to the scope of the book, that’s one thing, but Medoff put all his cards on the table when he said Israel is not committing a genocide. He didn’t say Yoe needed him to argue the Jewish people are committing a genocide, he said he felt Yoe was arguing Israel was committing one. Which it is. Even the UN has acknowledged that at this point. I say this as a Jew– if you conflate Jews with Israel the way so many politicians are, and you argue that anybody saying “Israel” is saying “Jews,” it damns all of us.

      1. Israel is still not commiting a genocide. Dead people does not equate genocide. This war was started by Israel’s enemies, and yet it’s a genocide? Oct 7 was genocidal, but a lot of people who have been screaming Genocide called that Resistance.

        And Israel is still not an apartheid state. Gaza was never an open air prison, and the Palestinians are not in concentration camps. They’re not dying of typhoid. They’re not used as force labor to keep the war machine going against them. There’s a huge difference between the Holocaust and Gaza, but nobody gives a damn.

        If this publisher made that demand then a line was crossed, and the publisher comes off a historical illiterate. But who cares? It’s 15M Jews on a planet of 8B.

Comments are closed.

Search

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get a daily recap of the news posted each day.