Martin Rowson: Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is only apt that in the times we find ourselves in that Communism should be once more a topic of serious debate, that the works of Karl Marx, in the bicentenary of his birth, and that of Friedrich Engels should be considered an alternative to the unpalatable rhetoric that comes with the ever diminishing responsibility that Capitalism has shown to be grateful to shed.

Within our life time it has been predicted that two thirds of the entire wealth of the world will be in the hands of a single percentage of the population’s hands, arguably there has surely never been a more pressing time in which the debate should be had, that the war between ideological standpoints may have been won by a lesser evil at the time, but the fruit, its demonic seed, since has caused absolute havoc and devastation.

To look back at Marx and Engels work is to perhaps see the error of our ways, yes there is inherent issues that need addressing should we not fall into the same trap that befell the Soviet Union as they embraced a system that soon turned sour, mainly thanks to the paranoia and State driven persecution of millions instructed upon by Stalin and those who surrounded him. It is those failures and bankrupt ideals though that we can seize upon and take the fight faced by all who don’t profit from the one percent, whether in the eyes of feminism or those seeking an equal footing across the board, to which the world should now embrace.

Martin Rowson takes The Communist Manifesto, the solid form of its own expression and almost rushed form of deadline looming prose and gives it the Graphic Novel touch to which makes the words easier to digest for many, but adds rather brilliantly the depth of feeling conveyed in art form, often brutal in its delivery, always to the point and never cowed by opinion, the legacy of what both Marx and Engels were able to prove with succinct and calculated thought.

It is in that artwork that Martin Rowson distributes thought with an even handed approach that speaks volumes, that liberates, as it was originally intended, the mind to understand we are merely pawns granted life to serve, that fiefdom and the top of the ladder success have always been there and whilst ambition to prove yourself in this world is what we are here for, it is not, nor should it ever be, at the expense of another’s life or soul.

Regardless of what the future holds, it can surely be recognised that the tipping point of collective monetary pursuit, the need to own everything, is but a damned pointless exercise, that it is inherently evil and that the debate must be opened up again to save us from ourselves.

A splendid adaptation of a book that has outsold every other except for The Bible, The Communist Manifesto in this particular guise, is a deft and succinct work of artistic genius.       

Martin Rowson’s Graphic Novel adaptation of Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto is released via SelfMadeHero on May 3rd.

Ian D. Hall