'Maus' by Art Spiegelman

The graphic novel (a fancy way of describing a rather lengthy and generally more complex comic book) has, not suprisingly, encountered some difficulty in being taken seriously. What is the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel? Some would say the price is about it. Or as Robin Williams once said, "Is that a comic book? No, it's a graphic novel. Is that porn? No, it's adult entertainment."

I first started to read graphic novels last year when I purchased several Batman graphic novels. I began where most people should, with Frank Miller's 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' (1986), generally considered one of the greatest graphic novels ever written, and I was hooked. 'B:TDKR' is a fantastic story of an aging and bitter Batman who reluctantly comes out of retirement. (After reading many Batman graphic novels, I would also recommend Frank Miller's 'Batman: Year One' and Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke,' which is probably the best Joker story out there.)

But I'm not here to talk about Batman.

I just finished reading Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning 'Maus 1: My Father Bleeds History' and 'Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began.' It is the retelling of Spiegelman's father's experiences living through the Holocaust. Having read much about the World War II era, I can say that 'Maus' is one of the most gripping tales I've ever come across. The books jump back and forth between the Holocaust story and Spiegelman's complex modernday relationship with his father. The setting is that Spiegelman, as a cartoonist, over several years interviews his father, Vladek, who retells his survival story.


ABOVE: Vladek and Anja Spiegelman try and make their way through Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II

Vladek had been a wealthy jew in Poland, and ended up in Auschwitz. With a combination of resourcefulness, the kindness of key friends and dumb luck, Vladek and his wife, Anja, survive the war. The most obvious aspect of the graphic novel is that Spiegelman depicts the different nationalities and races as anthropomorphic animals. Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Americans are dogs, Poles are pigs, French are frogs, Brits are fish, and so forth. In every way they are human, living in houses, wearing human clothing, standing upright with human bodies, but the heads and faces are animal. This creates a wonderful sense of otherness and separation. (A funny scene is when Vladek meets a German and Jewish couple, and their child has a mouse head but with cat stripes). Before Vladek is shipped away to Auschwitz, there is a great part of 'Maus' where he and his nervous Jewish friends try and fit into Nazi-occupied Polish society by walking around with pig (Polish) masks on, but they still have their mouse tails sticking out on the backside.

Spiegelman obviously picked his animals carefully, and he tellingly begins 'Maus II' with a quote from a 1930's German newspaper: "Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed...dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal...Away with Jewish brutalization...Down with Mickey Mouse!"



This may be a comic book, but it is one of the most complex stories about human strengths and weaknesses I've ever read. Through his medium, Spiegelman is forced to be economical with his writing and pictures. The Holocaust story is compelling, of course. But equally engaging is the modern story of the author trying to connect with and understand his difficult father, especially after the suicide of Anja. It is striking how Vladek is compassionate and strong during his youth, but the modernday Vladek is a difficult and almost impossible old man. I would not pass up 'Maus.'

***** out of *****