sign in sign up
<<
Home , Maus

META MAUS - A LOOK INSIDE A MODERN CLASSIC

----- SAHRA KUNZ

Sahra Kunz has a degree in Fine Arts — Painting from the School of Fine Arts, University of Porto (1997). She obtained a Master’s Degree in Sound and Image at the Portuguese Catholic University in Oporto (2001) and a PhD in Drawing from the University of the Basque Country, in Spain (2011). She has been teaching Drawing and Drawing for Animation at the School of the Arts Sound and Image course, at the Portuguese Catholic University, since 1998. -----

CITAR JOURNAL 82 META MAUS BY my eyes (I’m pretty sure this is a acquired a copy of The Complete Maus I: A survivor’s tale - My common reaction to this book). Maus in English. What a difference! Father bleeds History and Maus Until then, my perception of the Although reading it probably for the II: A Survivor’s Tale - And Here comic book medium was limited tenth time, entirely new nuances in My Troubles Began are graphic to the understanding that the the text emerged. Vladek’s speech novels created by American author topics it covered could be funny or changes completely, his broken and publisher of Raw magazine shocking, but never have the scope English is both endearing and Art Spiegelman (1948). He was and depth this book had. Maus is exasperating, as is his relationship awarded the for this generally considered a seminal with his comic book author son, Art. work in 1992. work in the comic book medium, and led to the publication of other Finally, this monumental and They tell his father, Vladek extremely important biographical ground-breaking work was joined Spiegelman’s, story of survival works such as ’s by a third title – Meta Maus: A look during the second World War, and in 2000. Before its inside a Modern Classic, which of his time in the concentration publication, comic books were provides the reader with an insight camps of Auschwitz and Dachau. considered a type of entertainment, into the creative process behind the They are drawn in a stark black and mainly geared towards children and Maus books. It is accompanied by white line style, and the characters teenagers, and it helped define a a CD-ROM containing most of the are represented as human figures new, adult audience as well as the drafts and original boards for the with animal heads. The Jews are genre of the . graphic novels, and an immense mice, the Germans are cats, the amount of extra material. Reading Poles are swine, the Americans As soon as Maus II: A Survivor’s it, and browsing through the vast are dogs, and so forth. This mode Tale - And Here My Troubles Began image archives makes it clear what of representation is especially came out in Portuguese in 1995, I a gargantuan task Art Spiegelman poignant as it allows for an interplay rushed to buy it, and the experience undertook in writing and drawing of subtle tensions between the was exactly the same as with the Maus I and II. perceived inter-species relations previous book. (cats hunt mice, dogs hunt cats, etc.). The written part of Meta Maus I thought I had understood the full includes several subsections, and is The moments set in the past are scope of this work in reading these mostly based on taped interviews intertwined with present time translated versions, but I recently with Art Spiegelman conducted by moments when Art Spiegelman visited and interviewed his father in order to obtain his story. These moments reveal the tensions and misunderstandings that arise between men from generations so diverse in their experiences.

It is sometimes hard to convey to someone who hasn’t read any of the Maus books, the peculiar feeling they evoke. The images of humans with mouse heads make them somehow more fragile, more relatable than if they were portrayed as actual human beings.

I first read a translated version of Maus I: A survivor’s tale - My Father bleeds History in 1992. I read it in one sitting, at a café in Oporto – what a sight I must have been, sitting alone with a book and alternately laughing out loud and wiping tears from FIGURE 2 | Pages in Meta Maus – A Look Inside a Modern Classic by Art Spiegelman.

CITAR JOURNAL 83 English Literature Professor Hillary tightens it up, makes the art look notion of how extensive the losses Chute. In the first chapter Why( the more crisp and ‘professional’. were for this family (as undoubtedly Holocaust?) the author explains Reproducing one’s mark - offering for countless others). how his interest in the subject up a facsimile of one’s own emerged, and how he conducted handwriting - makes it more like The book goes on to present his research leading up to the looking into an actual journal, like a transcript of the interviews creation of Maus.That chapter is Anne Frank’s or maybe Alfred conducted with Vladek followed by a small section (Family Kantor’s notebook drawings of Spiegelman, the author’s father, Album) which records the reaction Auschwitz.” Finally, he widely based on his recollections of his of Spiegelman’s family to Maus (His discusses his influences as a comic time before and during World War children Nadja and Dash, and his book author, influences ranging II. It concludes with interviews of wife Françoise). from ’s MAD people who knew Art’s mother magazine to Little Nemo in Anja Spiegelman during the War This is followed by the chapter Slumberland by Winsor McCay and in the concentration camps. Why Mice?, where Art Spiegelman (1905-1914), as well as other relevant While Vladek spent his time in proceeds to explain how the idea works such as ’s Spirit Auschwitz and Dachau, Anja was to represent Jews as mice came (1940) or George Herriman’s Krazy imprisoned in Birkenau (a part of about. He speaks of his reaction Kat (1913-1944). the larger Auschwitz camp). to Nazi propaganda found during research: “The most shockingly One of the more touching It also broaches the tense subject relevant anti-Semitic work I found testimonies found in Meta Maus of Anja Spiegelman’s notebooks. was The Eternal Jew, a 1940 German is the graphic representation of She committed suicide in 1968, and ‘documentary’ that portrayed the Spiegelman’s family tree. On Vladek threw them away because Jews in a ghetto swarming in pages 228 through 231 he presents they reminded him too much of her. tight quarters, bearded caftaned us with two versions of this family This moment is depicted on the creatures, and then cut to Jews as tree. The first, charting family final page of Maus I (page 161). Art mice - or rather rats - swarming in members at the start of World asks his father: “Did you ever read a sewer, with a title card that said War II counts more than sixty any of them?... Can you remember ‘Jews are the rats’ or the ‘vermin of people. In the second one, at the what she wrote?” to which Vladek mankind.’ This made it clear to me end of World War II, only thirteen replies “No. I looked in but I don’t that this dehumanization was at the people remain alive. This visual remember...Only I know that she very heart of the killing project.” He representation brings home the said, ‘I wish my son, when he grows also proceeds to explain how the other nationalities were transformed into different types of animals for the books, and how the overall visual style of Maus came to be. Although he repeatedly states that he cannot draw, it is hard not to admire his concise and simple graphic style, truly the mark of a great draftsman.

In the chapter Why ? Spiegelman justifies how he came to realize that the comics medium was the only way to tell the story he wanted to tell. He also explains his process extensively, from the first ideas up to the final drawings: “I decided to work the same size as publication: the drawings that you see in the book are exactly in a one-to-one ratio to the size they’re drawn (...) Drawing large and reducing the art for publication FIGURE 3 | Pages in Meta Maus – A Look Inside a Modern Classic by Art Spiegelman.

CITAR JOURNAL 84 up, he will be interested by this”. Maus I: A survivor’s tale - My Father Art walks away calling his father a Bleeds History - first published by murderer. in 1986

The documental work of the book Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale - And Here is complemented by a massive My Troubles Began - first published amount of visual information that by Pantheon Books in 1992 can be found on the CD-ROM that accompanies it. The Complete Maus - first published by Pantheon Books in 1996 Part 1 comprises the complete final boards fromMaus I and Meta Maus - first published by Maus II, and each square is linked Pantheon Books in 2011 to the preliminary sketches the author created. This allows for an incredibly comprehensive understanding of the development process for these two books.

Part 2 contains a vast amount of research material for the books, including the audio versions and unedited transcripts of the interviews with Vladek; facsimiles of the notebooks that eventually lead to Maus; a collection of post- war Polish pamphlets assembled by Anja Spiegelman; more than 7500 panel sketches and drafts; and a few diverse essays on the subject, both by Art Spiegelman and other authors.

This work is not only monumental as far as the insight it permits into the creation of Maus I and II goes, but also because it offers a look into the mind and working methods of one of the world’s most relevant contemporary comic book artists. A casual reader that starts his acquaintance of Spiegelman’s work with the reading of Meta Maus is bound to turn to his other works relatively quickly, as the mind revealed by this companion volume is a complex and fascinating one.

CITAR JOURNAL 85