Those Three: Forty-Four Cartoons
London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., ND (ca 1944). First edition. Softcover. Oblong octavo. Unpaginated. [48]pp. Original illustrated wrappers and title page.
"Those Three" (Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo) is a splendid collection of 44 anti-Axis cartoons by Catalan artist Mario Hubert Armengol (1909-1995), published with a foreword by Catalan historian and founder of the Anglo-Catalan Society, Dr Josep Maria Batista I Roca.
In this work, Armengol displays the bombed out German cities as chimney teeth and window eyes rugged against the sky. Mussolini is depicted as Hitler's puppet, always taking orders from the Fuehrer.. and always failing. Other cartoons show Pétain hunched in greatcoat and French military trousers with senile wrinkles and bedraggled moustache walking with the squinting, squit-faced Laval in his jet black coat and pinstripes. Both clutch their coat flaps together against a cold wind as they stumble past the ruins of France. Behind them is an angry, scowling Marianne. Her face is despair hardening into hatred and Laval and Pétain dare not look back at her. Mario Armengol's masterpiece, though, is "The Fakir wants Comfort." It shows Gandhi looking ambiguously at a bed of nails marked "Made in Japan" which has just been delivered by Japanese general and premier Tojo in uniform. Behind Gandhi is a clean white bed with bright white headboard marked "Made in England". The background is black but streaming down like stalactites of blood. It is, of course, an echo of the greatest of Britain's war-leaders Winston Churchill's famous description of Gandhi in 1930 as: posing as a fakir…. striding half-naked….. to parley on equal terms with the representative of the king-emperor.
Wrappers partly rubbed and creased along edges. Pages slightly rippled throughout. Four pages disbound, but present. Wrappers in overall good-, interior in good to very good condition. g- to vg. Item #40374
Price: $650.00