In the Shadow of No Towers

Art Spiegelman's Maus is a landmark book in the world of graphic novels. It won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992, is frequently taught in schools, and is one of the books people point to when explaining that comics have "grown up" and are worthy of serious consideration. The weight of this accomplishment left Spiegelman with little energy to work on other comix (that's the term he likes) projects, and it was not until twelve years later and the trauma of the 9/11 attacks that he set to creating another comix narrative.

In the Shadow of No Towers is the fruit of this labor. A unique narrative comprised of broadsheet sized pages that recall the classic newspaper comics of the late 19th and early 20th century, this graphic novel contains frenetic images, bold colors, and nonlinear storytelling to capture what Spiegelman felt in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedies. His fear for his daughter's life as he and his wife streak to her school to retrieve her, his stressful attempts to make sense of what happened, and his frustration that the US government was hijacked by conservative radicals in the years following the attacks are some of the emotions that come to the fore. Spiegelman spoke about creating this book in this interview with NPR.

After the narrative, a short essay about classic newspaper strips is included as well as a handful of representative pages from series such as Bringing Up Father, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and Hogan's Alley. Looking at these, the reader sees that issues of urban blight, fear of immigrants, and concerns about high rise buildings and safety are nothing new.

Reviews I have read all praise this book for its complicated and unique take on 9/11. The New York Times' David Hadju commented positively on how Spiegelman uses nostalgia to make sense of incomprehensible events and create "an approach that is simultaneously contemporary and antique." Salon's Scott Hill gushed that this book is "dark, troubling, and sometimes hilarious" and that it "may be the finest and most personal work of art to emerge from the tragedy." Liz Miller wrote that the book "feels incomplete" but that it reveals "a sad truth: in a reality-based community, little conclusion is possible." Tim Grierson added "Spiegelman's diary of witty, churning comics reenergized a great artist who has the misfortune of turning great tragedies into profound work. We should be thankful we're not great artists." In a review written a little more recently, Niranjana Iyer highlighted the political dissent this book embodies.

Some preview images are available from the books publisher Pantheon.

Happy 64th Birthday, Art Spiegelman!

If you have ever heard of Art Spiegelman, it is likely due to his creating Maus. He won a special Pulitzer Prize for that series in 1992, and the collected graphic novel version is considered one of the great books of the 20th century in any genre or format. This dual narrative of a son trying to get along his father and his father's tale of surviving the Holocaust has touched millions of readers and been translated into 20 languages. He speaks about the impact of Maus in this recent interview with Chris Mautner.

That account is a tremendous presence in the world of graphic novels, and it took Spiegelman more than a decade to draw another comix work. But even without Maus, Spiegelman would be notable in the world of comics for a number of his contributions. Coming up from the underground comix scene of the late 1960s/early 1970s, he and fellow artist Bill Griffith created Arcade, an anthology series that highlighted artists such as R. Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Jay Lynch, and Justin Green.

In the 1980s he and his wife Françoise Mouly published the seminal series RAW, which is where he first serialized Maus. RAW was an influential series as it was a prominent place for alternative cartoonists to publish their work. Later luminaries, such as Chris Ware and Charles Burns, had their early work appear there. Additionally, masterful European artists like Joost Swarte and Jacques Tardi were introduced to US audiences.

In addition to his comix work, Spiegelman also worked for Topps. While there for 20 years, he created or worked on novelties such as Garbage Candy, Wacky Packages, and Garbage Pail Kids. Because of a dispute of creators' rights and the lack of royalties for some hugely successful properties, Spiegelman eventually left the company.

In more recent decades, Spiegelman has been an instructor and lecturer about comics history and design, a cover artist for the New Yorker magazine, as well as a huge contributor to Toon Books, a publishing imprint that focuses on graphic novels for younger readers.

Spiegelman has won multiple award for his work over his career, including the Angoulême International Comics Festival Grand Prix, the Eisner Award, the Harvey Award, and the Inkpot Award. He was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale Volume 2: And Here My Troubles Began

In 1992, this volume won a Special Award Pulitzer Prize, marking it as one of the most celebrated graphic novels ever. Maus II continues the narrative began in Maus I, and nowadays both books are typically published together as a package. Here we see the continuing relationship of Art and his father Vladek as they alternately bicker, share moments, and work on this oral history. Vladek is getting older, and he is trying to put more of his life in order, but he is also being overwhelmed by powerful emotions. The bulk of Vladek's account here is his time spent in Auschwitz, the largest German concentration camp.

Spiegelman calls the place Mauschwitz here to keep with the thematic representation of his narrative, but the real place was the site of torturous labor and death for almost all who entered. This slideshow begins to show what conditions were actually like inside the camp. Today, many of the building still stand, as a dual museum/monument to past events. Through his resourcefulness and luck, Vladek manages to survive his horrible ordeal, and the moments where the prisoners win their freedom are almost more troubling as they are happy.

Reviews of Maus II are almost universally positive. Ty Burr at Entertainment Weekly gave it an A+. There are many 5-star ratings for it on Goodreads. Aside from the Pulitzer Prize, it received a National Book Critics Circle Nomination in 1991, and Spiegelman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990 to foster his artistic ventures.

Spiegelman has gone on from Maus to create a great number of other comix work, most notably of late, In the Shadow of No Towers, his account of the 9/11 tragedy and its aftermath.

Some preview pages are available here from the book's publisher, Pantheon.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale Volume 1: My Father Bleeds History

Originally published as individual chapters in RAW Magazine from 1980 until 1991, Maus is two parallel narratives. One is the story of the strained relationship between Art Spiegelman and his father Vladek. Art is a child of the 1960s, rebellious, troubled, and at-odds with his stubborn, parsimonious, and argumentative dad. The second story is the tale of how Vladek navigated life during Hitler's rise and rule in Europe. This volume covers much of his life before World War II, when he was coming up in the world, wooing women, and making a family of his own.

This volume contains the first 6 chapters of the tale. The story is framed in anthropomorphic terms, with Jews being mice and Germans being cats. The symbolism is immediately evident as a predator/prey relationship, a deadly serious version of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. For those interested in the symbolism, Spiegelman explains his artistic choices in this interview with J. Stephen Bolhafner.

A prolific artist with many works to his credit, Art Spiegelman began doing comics work in the 1970s at the tail end of the underground comix movement. Aside from creating anthologies such as Arcade and RAW, he also worked for Topps Bubble Gum for 20 years where he had a hand in creating such products as the Wacky Packages stickers and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. He went on to draw a number of controversial covers for the New Yorker magazine in the 1990s and 2000s, and with his wife Françoise Mouly he currently runs a company that makes graphic books for children, TOON Books.

Maus is one of the most celebrated graphic novels ever. It is usually the example most used when people argue that comics and graphic novels have "grown up." It is also credited in large part for raising graphic novels into prominence as more than "just glorified comic books." This volume won a 1986 National Book Critics Circle Award and is generally held in high regard by readers, as seen in this range of reviews from Goodreads. Maus is commonly taught and read in high schools and universities as well.

Still, there is also backlash to the story. Some readers see Spiegelman exploiting his father's holocaust experiences for profit. Political cartoonist and controversy lightning rod Ted Rall criticized Spiegelman's work in Maus as facile and one-dimensional in this 1999 Village Voice article. Such criticisms may be few, but they are loud ones.

Some preview pages from this volume are available on this page from its current US publisher Pantheon, a division of Random House.