Using art to fight fascism

Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance
by Raymond Tyler & Paul Buhle (eds.)

Toronto: Between the Lines, 2025
$34.95  /  9781771136525

Essay by David Lester

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In these grim times, as voters chose authoritarians as presidents and prime ministers, I despair. Is the world this hopeless, this uninspired? Did history not teach us anything? What can an artist do? Then, an email arrived.

Long-time American cultural/political activist Paul Buhle wrote that he was organizing a graphic history about the anti-fascist partisans of World War Two. The book would be published by Between the Lines in Toronto. Paul asked if I’d like to contribute a chapter.

As more of the world seemed to be lurching towards fascism, I felt this book could be a vital tool to inspire activists and citizens. So, enthusiastically, I wrote Paul back to say yes, but I did remind him that my time was very tight with other projects. It was “early days” he said and there would be time to work around any schedule.

I knew Paul over the course of many years, from his review of my first graphic novel The Listener (Arbeiter Ring), to our involvement in books with the Canadian-based Graphic History Collective. Paul has the uncanny skill of connecting people and projects, witnessed by the extraordinary volume of graphic histories he has edited or written. There is no one quite like him. Here he was, at it again.

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Partisans includes chapters by sixteen artists. Paul asked each of us to choose the story we would depict. A number of stories of partisans in Europe were already spoken for, so after much thought I decided on the Greek partisans. Having visited Athens a number of years ago, I was familiar with the activities of the radical activist community there. So doing my chapter on the Greek partisans seemed a good fit. But it still required a lot of research, both historically and visually.

I wanted the art for this story to be bold, gritty, and energetic, to reflect the heroic acts of those fighting fascism. I wanted the reader to experience a visceral sense of the history of a freedom struggle, and with that in mind, I kept my drawings very raw and textured with lots of splattering of paint. This aesthetic approach goes back to my own origins in music as a punk rock guitarist. I found that the splintering sound of a distorted chord ringing out contained every passion one needed to hear in that moment.

I primarily work in black and white, but part way through the process, our publisher wrote to say that full colour was an option. I met them halfway by adding one colour to my black and white art. My 16-page chapter is called Andartiko: Fighting Fascism in Greece. The main image on the cover of Partisans is from my chapter, with the design by Devin Clancy of Between the Lines.

The approach to depicting my chapter in Partisans reflects “history from below,” which is defined as the narratives and perspectives of common people, the oppressed and the marginalized, rather than the ruling class.

The art of “history from below” can be found in the contemporary work of Kim Inthavong (The Cargo Rebellion), Kassandra Luciuk (Enemy Alien); Frank Abe/ Ross Ishikawa (We Hereby Refuse); Rebecca Hall / Hugo Martínez (Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts) and Canada’s Ho Che Anderson (King).

I’ve tried to make artwork as dark and shadowy as possible. Taking influence from 20th century film noir, but also hours spent looking at the 17th century drawings and etchings of Rembrandt. Three hundred years separate Rembrandt and film noir, yet the vibrancy of both remain intact.

An historical thread of time that may explain my interest in social justice is having grown up in a working-class family that included a dad who was a member of the 1970s militant Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), and my grandfather who was a member of the Industrial Workers of The World in the 1910s. My brother was a ‘60s/ ‘70s radical, a poet, journalist and later the manager of punk rock band, D.O.A. Out of this milieu of family and politics, and with a passionate interest in drawing, I was led to the power of comics and history.

Of all the artists, writers, and editors of Partisans, I am the only Canadian. France and Italy are represented, but the majority hail from the United States.

Legendary underground cartoonist, Sharon Rudahl, takes full advantage of colour as she recounts the story of the resistance work of singer Josephine Baker. David Lasky’s painterly Uprising: A Jewish Partisan in Eastern Europe chronicles atrocities against civilians in Belarus. Drawn by Isabella Bannerman, Piccola Stafetta, about resistance against Mussolini, was written by Franca Bannerman and Luisa Cetti.

Yugoslavian resistance is the focus of two chapters. Dynamically coloured, Seth Tobocman’s Tito’s Partisans follows Josip Broz Tito and his battles, while Kevin Pyle’s Spomenik bears witness to Yugoslavia’s 14,000 abstract monuments to the fight against fascism. Making great use of black and white line drawings, is Daniel Selig’s chapter Freedom or Death: The French Partisans. Written by Sander Feinberg, and beautifully illustrated by Summer McClinton is The Hungarian Resistance. In a bold comic style, Gary and Laura Dumm created the art for Raymond Tyler’s Soviet Partisans.

Partisans also includes the last published work of legendary feminist cartoonist Trina Robbins, who died in 2024 at age 85. Robbins wrote Three Dutch Girls: Teenage Partisans in Holland, illustrated exquisitely by Anne Timmons in a classic style.

These stories of resistance need to be shared to help understand the breadth of depravity of fascism and its impact that can evolve under unchecked hate and power. Rather than “fascism” being an abstract word or slogan, it becomes visceral when told as a story using sequential art. This is one of the unique powers of art. While the world is currently witnessing disturbing signs that are historically familiar, books like Partisans and BC artist Gord Hill’s The Antifa Comic Book: Updated and Expanded (Arsenal Pulp) are stark reminders of what it takes to resist and what is at stake. Living in Canada does not mean we are immune from the sceptre of authoritarianism. What seems unthinkable, may well emerge.

The graphic novel (or comics) form has the ability to communicate in ways that traditional history books do not by removing barriers for potential readers who find history boring or intimidating. In the case of wordless graphic novels, readers of all backgrounds, education, and language can engage.

I have spoken to high school teachers who said that some of their students are increasingly unable to read longer texts, like books. But young people do have a sophisticated understanding of visuals and text. Educators have found students are extremely receptive to graphic novels and their use is now essential in the process of teaching. These students will be the future activists, the future union leaders, the future voters. A lot rides on the power of graphic novels.

For me, to be part of an international anti-fascist comic collection is exactly what I had hoped to do with my art. I believe the future of activist art may well be in graphic novels.

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David Lester (with Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle) is the co-creator of the graphic novels Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay (Beacon Press, 2021); Under The Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic (Beacon Press, 2023); and Revolution By Fire: New York’s Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741 (Beacon Press, 2024). Translations of those volumes include editions in Italian, Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Catalan. Lester illustrated the award-winning 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike (published in English, German and French editions). His poster of anti-war protester Malachi Ritscher was exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He is guitarist in the punk rock duo Mecca Normal, cited as an influence on the founders of the feminist social movement Riot Grrrl. In 2025, Rolling Stone’s list of “100 Best Protest Songs of All Time” included Mecca Normal’s song, I Walk Alone.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster