The party
(Graphic Novel)

Originally published in 1969.

"Two years after he published 'The Underground Sketchbook' in 1964, Tomi Ungerer conceived 'The Party', a take-down of the super-rich as savage as anything George Grosz or Ralph Steadman put on paper. The premise of the book is a party in the Hamptons attended by a coterie of fat cats: captains of industry, tycoons, magnates, and moguls, luxuriating in their tuxedos, evening gowns, and prattling small talk. The party was given by Mrs. Julia Van Flooze, summer resident of East Hampton Long Island. Known for her charity works, she gave the party to celebrate the return of Senator Leonard Rockfenter from a fact-finding trip in the Orient. And so, it begins: Ungerer takes acid pen in hand to depict a succession of smug, bloated, drooling, lascivious, ostentatious monsters. The reader encounters one grotesquerie after another as bigwigs and power couples cavort through the haze of booze and caviar, revealing their base natures and hedonistic libidinal impulses. Each Ungerer drawing is a masterpiece of hideousness, accompanied by a marvelously droll caption. In 'The Party', Ungerer unleashes one of the most caustic moral imaginations of any cartoonist, each slashing ink line dipped in scorn. Featuring an introduction by the fiery political cartoonist Mr. Fish."--Provided by publisher.