Babylon / Limited to 120 numbered/signed copies

1st ed. 4to. ¼ leather, marbled/batiked boards, publisher's black cardboard slipcase. 111 pp. Limited to 120 signed copies, this being no. 26. [Numbers 1-20 contained an original drawing. Another 25 lettered copies were published for distribution to the author.] Introductory essay in German; captions in English

110 b/w full-page drawingson a variety of themes concerning society, culture, sex and subjugation.

Familiar to many as an award-winning author of children's books, Tomi Ungerer's 1970s-1980s work was political, ribald, and cynical, Babylon, recently reprinted by Fantagraphic Books: "This" may be his most sobering collection. Drawn entirely in pencil, these images rival the satirical vitriol of his anti-war posters of the previous decade, radiating repulsion at what human beings can do to one another in the guise of "civilization." Taking on a political and social hue, his contempt for the ruling class etched on virtually every page, Ungerer depicts the bourgeoisie as vassals of the ruling class --members of a voyeuristic tribe who accept their position as the natural order of things and take glee in the subordination of those beneath them and the exploitation of those who make their position possible. Trendy spiritualism and religious quackery are skewered. Several drawings show people desperately trying to improve their appearance by putting lipstick on or having plastic surgery, clearly a transparent attempt to hide their inner ugliness. This denouncement of bad behavior is as sadly relevant today as it was in 1979 when this book was first published, as we have proved over these last four years. It is another uncompromising moral statement by Ungerer in the form of a series of masterful images. "There's one thing I can tell you for sure," he once said. "There's no such thing as a sheltering sky." And Babylon proves he means it. This collection of drawings and one-page cartoons by the internationally infamous cartoonist (and beloved children's book author) is a universal condemnation of human rottenness.

SCARCE: This limited edition rarely comes on the market.

CONDITION: A fine, pristine copy in VG slipcase, with moderate surface wear but no damage.