https://www.wnyc.org/story/how-art-spiegelman-and-maus-changed-comics/
created by drak0bsidian on 25/02/2025 at 00:08 UTC
1377 upvotes, 20 top-level comments (showing 20)
Comment by vonnegutsbutthole at 25/02/2025 at 00:15 UTC
256 upvotes, 4 direct replies
For some reason they had his graphic novels in the scholastic book fair in my elementary school and I got them both. Really opened my eyes to be horrors as a kid in 5th grade.
Comment by Amaakaams at 25/02/2025 at 00:14 UTC
93 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Read Maus in high school. Super moving and enlightening graphic novel.
Comment by BlackBricklyBear at 25/02/2025 at 02:38 UTC
63 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I'll always remember *Maus*, but not always for the usual reasons. Some of the banter between the author and his Holocaust survivor father, Vladek, is just so on-the-nose about how trauma can scar one for life even with regards to the most mundane of activities, like one's relationship to food.
Comment by FlyByTieDye at 25/02/2025 at 00:47 UTC
56 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Yes, not only a harrowing recount of his father's time both surviving the holocaust and how it affected his and his sons life afterwards, but also a really effective look at propaganda, how it shapes our perspective on others, and its limitations. It absolutely made the best of its use as a graphic medium.
If anyone wants to read something similar, I recommend Safdar Ahmed's Still Alive. A biographical look into Australia's infamous Villawood Detention Centre and treatment of Asylum Seekers. Basically the author/illustrator was a volunteer doing art therapy at the detention centre. He got insights into the lives of such detainees, insights into Australia's failure to uphold adequate care, as well as incorporation of the art of his contacts in the facility (with their permission) to show the effects of their treatment on their perspectives and lives.
Comment by CleverGirlRawr at 25/02/2025 at 00:27 UTC
51 upvotes, 4 direct replies
I should probably read these.
Comment by Infinite-Excuse-5868 at 25/02/2025 at 01:52 UTC
17 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This dude also created Garbage Pail Kids!
Comment by Individual_Crab7578 at 25/02/2025 at 01:55 UTC
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I finally read these last month. I’ve never been so moved by a graphic novel before, I wish I would have read them sooner.
Comment by bretshitmanshart at 25/02/2025 at 03:26 UTC
15 upvotes, 1 direct replies
My Father Bleeds History is such a powerful title.
Comment by Case_of_TastyKakes at 25/02/2025 at 03:30 UTC
14 upvotes, 0 direct replies
These books are masterpieces, using accessible media to portray horrific truth. Even as an adult though, there are scenes in those books that haunt me... I cannot imagine reading them as an adolescent.
Comment by slyder777 at 25/02/2025 at 04:04 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Both books are free to read online at Archive.org - Support the author and buy the books if you like them....
https://archive.org/details/maus_20231007
https://archive.org/details/maus-part-ii
Comment by account_is_deleted at 25/02/2025 at 07:57 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I had never heard of Maus until they started banning it in US.
Comment by CoffinShark at 25/02/2025 at 03:33 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Read this for a class alongside Grass by keum suk gendry-kim it was difficult to balance such heavy topics that are so well written. Really showed the reality of WW2.
Comment by Cute_Measurement_307 at 25/02/2025 at 11:27 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Comment by yragel at 25/02/2025 at 20:47 UTC*
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Maus isn't my favorite comic (depending on the day, i can even find it a bit overrated), but i like it a lot mainly because Spiegelman didn't sugarcoat at all his dad's failures as a person. Even before the war, Vladek was an opportunist who married Anja for her family's money and social standing. And in his old age he comes across as a bigot, a miser and a really questionable father figure for Art (remember what he tells him in the prologue and you'll know what i mean), partly because of the scars left by what he's gone through, but also due to him being mean from the start. It's a great way to remind us that catastrophes like the Shoah don't make distinctions between good and bad people.
Comment by Ok_Journalist_2303 at 25/02/2025 at 12:06 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is interesting.
Comment by Efficient_Bryan77 at 25/02/2025 at 14:17 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Blend of tragedy and humor is intriguing and has great potential to explore further.
Comment by darknsSs512 at 25/02/2025 at 14:15 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I owe the censorship news for this one. Nothing screams "read this one" more.
Comment by ischwartz123 at 26/02/2025 at 11:32 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Jew here, I've been a huge fan of Maus since I was kid, and I also saw Spiegleman speak in person once and thought he was great. That being said, the issue I have now with Maus is its race reification: human races are social constructs with no basis in biological reality, while different animal species (like cats and mice) are genetically quite distinct. As beautiful and amazing and interesting as Maus is, it perpetuates the myth that Jews and Germans are distinct species.
Another criticism I have is typical of popular Holocaust literature: it was the Soviets who liberated Auschwitz and the vast majority of the Nazi concentration camps, yet the Soviets make virtually no appearance in Maus or any of these texts. More Jews also fought in the Soviet army than in any other army in World War 2; one major reason Hitler went to war with the USSR was his conviction, repeated countless times, that he was saving the Aryan race from Jewish Bolshevism (and indeed, nearly all of the founders of the USSR were Jewish, and Jews in Eastern Europe were some of its strongest supporters throughout its history).
Finally, Spiegleman's newest book about Palestine is pretty appalling, in that Palestinian voices are apparently nonexistent. The book also condemns Hamas for the "crime" of opposing the total extermination of the Palestinian people. Spiegelman was pretty cool for opposing the Iraq War—it's why the corporate press canceled him for so many years, until Trumpsters started banning his books—but he is really doing less than the bare minimum here. People have a right to fight for their country, and they don't have to do so in a way that pleases back-to-brunch white liberals. Spiegelman says, in his new book, that he doesn't want his work to be used to justify genocide, but in refusing to support indigenous resistance, he has effectively transformed himself from a mouse into a cat.
Comment by [deleted] at 25/02/2025 at 07:47 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by CoyoteGeneral926 at 25/02/2025 at 01:33 UTC
-3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I have never read their work. I have read many accounts of that era of terror. And have heard far far more from those who were there as the events happened. This includes those in the death camps and those in the work or factory camps. Those on all sides of the fights. I met an actual "Night Witch!" Romany, Jews, oh hell the list is to long. The published photos are nothing compared to those in private hands.