French Revolutions for Beginners

As we've just been painfully reminded,  France has a long tradition of provocative cartooning. This is my homage to Charles Philipon, who was jailed for making and publishing caricatures of the last French king.

I've been wanting to post some images from the new book I've illustrated from For Beginners Books, French Revolutions for Beginners.

Author Michael LaMonica did a great job bringing the history to life and showing how ideas fought over then are still vital and contested, and how political struggles they introduced are still unresolved.

As you might expect, I drew lots of severed heads in the early chapters.

This history spans the runup to the revolution in the 1780s, on through the massacre of the Communards in 1871. It's a story I'd long wanted to know more about. I was grateful for the excuse to delve a little deeper.

The "Flight to Varennes," when the royal family failed to escape the country.

British cartoonists named this man, "Little Boney."

"Louis the Large," first king of The Restoration.

A famously witty and oft-quoted callous asshole.

If you're curious like me, you'll want to check this out. Actually, to do that, you'll need to request that your local library acquire a copy (not a bad idea). Or maybe get one for yourself or for a comrade.