Researcher- Nico Afonso

Maus
Art Spiegelman
Pages 72-127
Illustrious Artist

In this book, Maus, author Art Spiegelman represents himself, and the rest of his family as mice while the main character, Art asks his father about his experience in World War II.  This book is created as a synonym of the Spiegelman family’s experience during the Cold War.  Although the book’s main character is Artie, Artie’s dad tells the war story on his point of view.  The whole book is in fact, based on the life of the Spiegelman family.  Art was born in 1948 just a bit after the war had ended.  He was born into a Jewish Polish family, but was born in Sweden, and because of that, his father served the Polish army before the invasion of Poland by Germany.  In 1951, the family moved to the US.  In 1960, Spiegelman began drawing and selling comics similar to his favorite cartoons, MAD. Art Spiegelman became very known for his cartoons in the 70’s when he moved to San Francisco and joined Underground Comix.  After that, he moved on to larger comics and created two chains of books, one called Raw, and the other Maus.  Maus was written in 1991 and is what Art Spiegelman is most commonly known for Maus due to the fact that it was the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.