Shorter Notice
Low's War Cartoons. (Cresset Press. 6s.)
Low is without question the finest cartoonist of our time. He is an intelligent political and diplomatic correspondent and at his best a black-and-white artist of the first rank. The majority of English cartoonists lack the reporter's mind ; but Low with his savage wit and dramatic sense can sum up a situation in a few pen-strokes more concisely than most leader-writers ; he can also horrify. This latest book contains some of the finest cartoons he has made. His defeated Mussolini is one of his best subjects, and the set of the back of Hitler's coat gives a remark- able impression of a man who longs for domination but is never at ease. His sense of caricature lies not only in the likeness of his victims but in boiling down the whole character into an essence, so strong an essence that one wonders why he so often labels his figures with the names on a hatband or a coat-tail. His characters need no reference of this kind. It is unfortunate that the book is printed on such bad paper. One wonders how soon it will brown at the edges and crumble like biscuits, and it seems a pity that one of his cartoon-books should not have been published with the cartoons in the correct order of dates of pub- lication. It would be interesting to see the progress of the war through Low's eyes step by step.
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