Alternative Visions
Alternative Visions |
|
Page 6 of 29  Page from 'The Clock Strikes' (1381). Art/script: Joost Swarte (from The Netherlands) The centrepiece was Spiegelman's own 'Maus', a story which had previously appeared in prototype form in an underground.2 It related the tale of his father's life in Poland before and during the Second World War, and in particular his harrowing experiences of the Holocaust. It was serialized a chapter at a time in each issue of Raw, and showed Spiegelman at his most daring: most remarkably, it recast events in 'funny animal' form, with the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats and the Poles as pigs. Of course, the history being related was far from funny, and Spiegelman's intentions were as serious as George Orwell's was in Animal Farm. It was a very delicate operation to carry off, but somehow it worked, thanks to Spiegelman's attention to historical detail, and understated art. In fact, by anthropomophizing events, the horror was personalized in a way that it could not have been if the characters had been depicted in human form. Maus was later collected as a graphic novel, and published by the mainstream book publishers Pantheon in America and Penguin in Britain in 1986-7. This opened the way to distribution in high-street bookshops, and before long it had become caught up in the 'Comics Grow Up' story in the press. The response from reviewers was generally very positive, and despite some dissenting opinions (The Guardian, for instance, thought the stereotyping of nationalities was essentially fascistic), it sold very well. Spiegelman followed the book with Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began (1992), which followed its protagonist through 'Mauswitz' and the Liberation. If anything, this instalment was even better than the first, and mainstream recognition was sealed when Spiegelman became the first comics creator ever to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1992.  Page from 'Paul' (1983). Art/script: Pascal Doury (from France)  Pages from 'Crash' (1981). Art/script: Javier Mariscal (from Spain) |