Backderf Chronicles The Dissidents
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Derf Backderf has written a historical graphic novel, with a character of his own making thrown in, to tell the story of a group of socialists fighting the authoritarian government of their time.
The Dissidents: Autocrats! Vigilantes! Communists! And Cartoonists! by Derf Backderf is scheduled for a September 2026 release from Abrams ComicArts. From the publisher’s page:
The Dissidents follows a group of real and influential political cartoonists who worked for the magazine The Masses—Art Young, Boardman Robinson, Cornelia Barns [emphases added], and others, dominant in their day but now forgotten—as well as a fictional young German immigrant from Cleveland, Joe Hertle, who has come to New York to make his name. They rub elbows with the great opposition voices of the day, such as journalists Max Eastman and John Reed, and the radical provocateur Emma Goldman. What they document in their cartoons and illustrations is a country spiraling into darkness, under attack by German saboteurs and private militias, plagued by racism, and rocked by class war. For the crime of documenting the times they live in, these cartoonists are indicted for sedition and put on trial by the U.S. government—with twenty-year sentences hanging over their heads. Two others are forced to flee the country into exile. Another is incarcerated by the U.S. army and scheduled for execution!
From cartoonist Derf Backderf:
It’s the era when modern comics are born. The daily comics page has just been invented, as have animated cartoons. Comics are suddenly everywhere and quickly become a national obsession. Renowned cartoonists are celebrities, on par with the first generation of film stars.
From their Greenwich Village enclave, the Masses cartoonists rub elbows with the greatfigures of the 1910s, such as legendary journalists Max Eastman and John Reed, Charlie Chaplin, and the radical firebrand Emma Goldman, who young J. Edgar Hoover calls “the most dangerous woman in America.”
What they depict in their cartoons is a nation tearing itself apart. Millions of workers rise up & demand decent pay & working conditions. The rich men who own the factories & mines respond with armies of hired goons. The workers fight back. Class war spills out of the factories & into the streets…
The Masses cartoonists are charged with sedition and put on trial by the U.S. government—with twenty-year sentences hanging over their heads. Two are forced to flee the country into exile. One is imprisoned and tortured. Another is incarcerated by the U.S. army and scheduled for execution!
THE DISSIDENTS tells the true story of their ordeal.
The Masses editor Art Young is among the famed cartoonists as well as Boardman Robinson and Robert Minor.
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