The Complete Maus

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The Complete Maus

• by Art Spiegelman

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Spiegelman

• Born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948.
• Emigrated to USA with family in 1951.
• Raised in Queens, NY.
• Rejected parents wishes that he become a dentist
  to become professional cartoonist.
• Studied art and philosophy at Harpur College.

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Spiegelman

• Creative consultant for Topps Candy from
  1965-1987.
• Taught history and aesthetics of comics at the
  School for Visual Arts in New York from
  1979-1986.
• Founded RAW, an avant-garde comics
  magazine, with his wife in 1980.

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RAW and Maus

• Maus originally appeared in serial format in RAW.
• Maus A Survivors Tale won the
  Pulitzer prize in 1992.

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In the Shadow of No Towers

• First graphic novel since
  Maus.
• Reaction to the terrorist
  attacks against the World
  Trade Center towers.

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2004 NPR Interview

• Link to audio

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Maus I - mid 1930s-44

• 1933 - Hitler appointed Chancellor
• 1935 New Polish constitution adopted that
  severely limited rights of Jews
• 1935 - Nuremburg Laws instituted which were
  designed to isolate the Jewish people legally,
  politically, and socially
• 1935 - Nazi government announced that the
  Nuremburg Laws apply to all Jews, regardless of
  nationality
• Maus I Chapter One - 1934-1937

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Mid 1930s - 44

• 1938 - Hundreds of Jews in Dabrowa, Poland were
  injured during anti-Jewish attacks
• 1939 - Hitler invaded Poland and begins World War
  II
• 1939 - German authorities began confining the
  Jews of Poland to a ghetto area of each town in
  which they live
• 1939 - Nazis began deporting Jews from Austria
  and Moravia to Poland
• Maus I Chapters Two Three- 1937-1939

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Mid 1930s-44

• 1940 - By the end of January, Germans have driven
  78,000 Jews out of their homes in Poland
• 1940 - In October a wall was built around the
  Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. In November the ghetto
  was sealed. More than 280,000 Jews lived there
• 1941 - Between January and June, 13,000 Jews died
  of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto
• Maus I - Chapter Four

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Mid 1930s-44

• 1941 - More Jews were herded into the Warsaw
  ghetto - almost 400,000 Jews lived there
• 1941 - Order issued stating any Pole selling food
  to a Jew outside the Warsaw ghetto would receive
  three months hard labor
• 1941 - From May on, 2,000 Jews a month were dying
  from hunger and disease in the Warsaw ghetto
• Maus I - Chapter Four

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Mid 1930s-44

• 1941 - Any Jews in Poland found outside the
  ghettos would be executed automatically
• 1941 - The Final Solution had begun
• 1942 - The killing center at Auschwitz began
  operation
• 1944 - D-Day (6/6/44) - The Allies landed at
  Normandy
• Maus I - Chapters Four and Five
• Maus II

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• Maus grew out of a comic strip I did in 1971 for
  an underground comic book a three-page strip
  that was based on stories of my fathers and
  mothers that I recalled being told in childhood
  . . . In 1977 I decided to do a longer work,
  and I set up an arrangement to see my father
  more often and talk to him about his experiences
  . . . Although I set about . . . to do a history
  of sorts, Im all too aware that ultimately what
  Im creating is a realistic fiction. The
  experiences my father actually went through are
  not exactly the same as what hes able to
  remember and what hes able to articulate of
  these experiences. . .

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• Then theres what Im able to understand of what
  he articulated, and what Im able to put down on
  paper. And then of course theres what the
  reader can make of that . . . Its important to
  me that Maus is done in comic strip form, because
  its what Im most comfortable shaping and
  working with. Maus for me in part is a way of
  telling my parents life and therefore coming to
  terms with it . . . Its not a matter of choice
  in the sense that I dont feel I could deal with
  this material as prose, or as a series of
  paintings, or as a film, or as poetry . . .

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• In looking at other art and literature thats
  been shaped from the Holocaust . . . that
  material is often very high pitched . . . I feel
  a need for a more subdued approach, which could
  incorporate distancing devices like using these
  animal mask faces. Another aspect of the way
  Ive chosen to use this material is that Ive
  entered myself into the story. So the way the
  story got told and who the story was told to is
  as important as my fathers narrative. To me
  thats at the heart of the work.
• Quoted from Oral History, Journal. Spring 1987.
  in the University of Minnesotas Center for
  Holocaust and Genocide Studies

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Sources

• Art Spiegelman Author Biography. Pantheon
  Graphic Novels. www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/grap
  hicnovels/spiegelman.html. 6/10/08
• The Holocaust Project. www.humanitas-international
  .org/holocaust/. 6/11/08.
• Intersections Of Maus and Spiegelman.
  NPR.org. 1/26/04. www.npr.org. 6/11/08.
• Profiles Art Spiegelman. Read Yourself RAW.
  www.readyourselfraw.com/profiles/spiegelman/profil
  e_spiegelman.htm. 6/10/08.
• Spiegelman. University of Minnesotas Center
  for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
  www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/witnessLeg/sec
  ondGen/spiegelman/. 6/10/08.