The Happiness Manifesto
Martin Rowson
Rotland Press £8.07

THANK GOD — if there is one — that we can laugh. Martin Rowson, whose cartoons are well known to Morning Star readers, believes that we use laughter as a survival tool. If we didn’t laugh, we would go mad facing the grotesqueries of our world.

It is appropriate that the publishers of The Happiness Manifesto, Rotland Press of Detroit, specialise in works of “mordant amusement and exuberant despair.”

In 22 essentially monochrome drawings, Rowson systematically deconstructs the values our society constantly pays lip service to.

Yes, we laugh – but uneasily. There is, to the dark contrast between the familiar captions stating the hypocritical creed, a kind of menacing warning in the accompanying illustrations.

Some make a simple coupling – a familiar depiction of the gross, horned-helmeted QAnon leader of the attack on the US Capitol with the simple “Respect Diversity.” This black humour ironic treatment is meted out to free speech, individual rights, political correctness, fake news, gender politics, religious faith, etc.

“Journalism must continue holding truth to power, fearlessly” is illustrated with a nightmare candlelit vigil, featuring leading commentators in our present media, for Julius Streicher, founder and publisher of the virulent anti-semitic Nazi tabloid Der Sturmer/The Stormtrooper.

If Rowson’s characteristically powerful, baroquely involved art – more than cartoons – is somewhat simplified here, this is possibly owing to the publisher’s US market.

At the price, with a transport cost more than the booklet itself, there are, sadly, likely to be few British takers for a work crying out for a British distributor.

I would recommend that those who will necessarily miss out on this splendid exhibition of Martin Rowson’s superb artistry coupled to his committed message could not do better than buy his brilliant graphic treatment of the more readily available Communist Manifesto.