Si Lewen's Parade

A pioneering, wordless graphic novel detailing the horrors of war in the 20th Century, featuring an overview of the artist’s career.

Si Lewen’s Parade is a timeless story told in a language that knows no country—a wordless epic that, despite its muteness, is more powerful than the written or the spoken word. First published in 1957, TheParade is a lost classic, newly discovered, remastered, and presented by Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Maus. Reproduced in print as a unique two-sided accordion-fold format with an extensive overview of the artist’s career on the verso, The Parade is a celebration of art and the story of recurring war as Si Lewen experienced it over the past 90 years, watching the joyful parades that marked the end of World War I lead into the death marches of World War II and the Korean War. As The Parade unfolds, the reader is taken on an unforgettable journey of sequential images.

“An eloquent and vigorous protest against war’s horror and futility.” —New York Times, from an exhibition review of The Parade, 1953

“Nothing can equal the psychological effect of real art. . . . Our time needs you and your work!” —Albert Einstein, from a letter to Si Lewen, 1951

“The Parade is a powerfully moving free-jazz dirge of a book that depicts mankind’s recurring war fever. It remains sadly urgent and relevant today.” —Art Spiegelman, from his introduction

“A compelling testament to Lewen’s gifts for stirring our souls with the silent grace of painted panel after panel after panel. As narrative, it is music by which to mourn Man’s fate.” —The Washington Post