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Author: Masereel, Frans
Title: Demain Les Jeunes
Place Published: No place
Publisher:
Date Published: c. 1910's-1920s?
Description:

12 original india ink drawings on paper (some colored with light blue gouache) comprising the wordless novel Demain Les Jeunes. Images: 9.1x7.4 cm (3½x3"); leaves: 13.6x11 cm (5¼x4¼"). Leaves mounted in custom half-morocco and marbled paper-covered boards volume 18.4x14.6 cm (7¼x5¾"), with spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Presented in custom cloth-covered chemise with morocco lettering piece on spine, slipcase with morocco lettering piece on cover. 

An extraordinary unpublished "novel in pictures" by Frans Masereel. Frans Masereel (1889-1972) was a Belgian artist of the Lost Generation whose "wordless novel" would later be acclaimed as the ancestor of the graphic novel. Influencing such early figures as Otto Nückel, Lynd Ward and Giacomo Patri, Masereel's innovation would reverberate through the century inspiring such later artists as Clifford Harper and Eric Drooker. A conscientious objector to World War I, Masereel's expressionist style, rendered in woodcuts and drawings, would articulate a powerful critique of capitalism and state violence. Here, beyond the rot of World War I, Masereel dreamed of a revolution of the youth. Overthrowing the war-mongering business class, the triumphant youth march with sunflowers instead of rifles toward a future equality symbolized in the final scene—"from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Mild wear to slipcase; leaves show varying degrees of toning, and a few minor creases; near fine.