Leon Kuhn (1954 – 2013 ) was an anti-war political

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

who created topical parodies in the United Kingdom and was listed as an initial supporter of Artists against the War. __NOTOC__ In 1968, when he was 14 years old, Leon won first place in the

Sunday Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

's national political cartoon competition. With Colin Gill in 2005 he co-authored the book ''Topple the Mighty'' "about knocking down statues of unpopular leaders". The book's foreword was by

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...

, who Kuhn helped during the

2005 United Kingdom general election The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect List of MPs elected in the 2005 United Kingdom general election, 646 members to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Labour Party (U ...

. Some of his work was used by

Respect – The Unity Coalition The Respect Party was a left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left, Socialism, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Par ...

from 2005 to 2008 and by the

Stop the War Coalition The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars. The Coalition has c ...

from 2007 onwards. His ''Statue of Liberty'' work was used in the film

Children of Men ''Children of Men'' is a 2006 dystopian action thriller film co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The screenplay, based on P. D. James' 1992 novel '' The Children of Men'', was credited to five writers, with Clive Owen making uncredi ...

Selected works

*''Big Bang for Bureaucrats: Incorporating an Activist's Anti-nuclear Primer'' by Leon Kuhn (11 Nov 1983; Burning Issues Ltd; ) *''Statue of Liberty or how the rest of the world sees America''. Postcard, 2004 *''Topple the Mighty'' by Leon Kuhn and Colin Gill. (2005,

Friction Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction: *Dry friction is a force that opposes the relative lateral motion of t ...

; ) *''Off/On''. Postcard, 2009

Citations

References

* - 11 minute film introducing his political cartoons and activism

External links

Leon Kuhn's website archivedObituary
in

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several far-left newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since ...

. British caricaturists British editorial cartoonists 2013 deaths 1954 births British anti-war activists Socialist Workers Party (UK) members {{illustrator-stub