DANCETTE, Vincent. The Beast is Dead – The World War of Animals.

(No place): Editions G.P. Paris, 1946.  The first UK edition of La Bête est Morte. Translated from the French by Isabel MacDonald.  Elephant folio.  79 pages.  Two parts: When the Beast Goes Mad and When the Beast is Floored, in one volume.  One of the first illustrated works devoted to the history of the Second World War and the first mention of the holocaust in a comic book and probably one of the first mentions in a work of fiction regardless of art form.  The book is a history of WWII presented in allegorical form through a world of humanized animals. Hitler and the Nazi’s are portrayed as wolves with devil ears, the French are Rabbits, Russians are polar bears, British are “Churchill-esque” bulldogs and the Americans are bison. Charles de Gaulle and the free French are elegant swans, Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels is a weasel and Luftwaffe Commander Herman Goering is a fat pig all fantastically illustrated by CALVO in a style reminiscent of Disney.  A good copy only lacking the outer covers.  Rare.