Soul - by Mac McGill (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Meet Mac McGill, leftist cartoonist, and Black activist artist.

Mac was a gifted artist, an illustrator, and a graphic storyteller whose art was always grounded in the struggles of the African American community. A beloved figure to a large community of artists, activists, and squatters in New York City, Mac passed away tragically in 2025.

Mac spent his life making art about the lives he saw around him primarily in the East Village in New York City. His work was published in numerous magazines, newspapers, and books such as World War 3 Illustrated, The Village Sun, and The National Guardian, a left-wing weekly newspaper, where he was the art director for many years. As an important person in the squatter movement of the 1980s, Mac tirelessly fought for the rights of artists and other folks to live their lives in the face of greedy landlords.

This book is a tribute to the power of his visual storytelling. It is a collection of Mac's most powerful pieces of sequential art, from the 1990s until 2024, all done in pen and ink on paper. Many of these pieces were originally published in various left-wing newspapers and magazines. And now, for the first time, these pieces are presented together in one volume in order to bring this important art to the attention of a larger audience.

About the Author

Mac McGill was a fine artist and a comics artist, who spent his life making art about the lives he saw around him from the East Village in New York City to the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. His art is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. His work was published in numerous publications, in magazines, newspapers, and books such as World War 3 Illustrated, The Village Sun, and The National Guardian, a left-wing weekly newspaper. Mac tirelessly fought for the rights of artists and other folks to live their lives in the face of greedy landlords. He lived with his wife Kathy in their East Village apartment in New York City for many years, until he died in 2025.