Book of the Month: Maus (And 3 Others in Case You Can't Get It Just Yet)
While I was hoping rekindling this online writing space might be about something more freewheeling and fun, the recent decision by a county school board in a 50,000 person county in Tennessee to ban the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman is important reminder there is still much work to do.
(and it is my 2022 resolution is to breath some life back into this and hopefully share and write more here instead of social media spaces — so fun and freewheeling will come back, too)
If you’re unfamiliar with Maus, it is a two-part graphic novel series that reflects on Spiegelman’s father and his Holocaust experiences. By anthropomorphizing the Nazis & fascists as cats and the Jewish people as mice, Spiegalman shows the possibilities of the medium itself and offers something that is truly extraordinary, emotional, and the barbarism is often uncomfortable. One school board member completely misses the point of Spiegelman’s graphic novel and having the audacity to posit — “It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids, why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff?” — which Spiegelman’s masterpiece wasn’t created to promote these violent acts, but to condemn them in no uncertain terms and challenge readers to look around and when they see such violence being perpetrated by their state to wonder, “Are we the baddies?”
It’s painfully clear the banning is not over the sparse curse words that any teen with an Xbox headset and TikTok account has heard FAR worse, nor the nudity — which if you’ve read the book there is one scene with nudity and it’s certainly not sexual or pornographic. Again, the characters in the book are mice and cats. It’s that equally misunderstand the purpose and intentions of the book. This school board, intentionally or not, undermine their public schools and teachers to have the hard, thought provoking, and challenging conversations about the Holocaust — for which the best way to prevent another on isn’t to ban books, but rather to teach the horrors and warning signs which, ironically, banning books is among the warning signs. Students who read and understand Maus do not grow up to ban books — nor do they vote for school board members who would even consider banning Maus from libraries.
But there is light with this situation, as the word has spread about the banning of the book has mostly sparked renewed interest in the book. It’s back on best seller lists - as of today it’s among the top 100 bestselling books on Amazon. Online book shops I frequent are out of stock on it. And a comic shop in nearby Knoxville, Tennessee, Nirvana Comics, is starting a program so that any student in the area who wants to read Maus can get a copy and read Maus via their shop.
If you’re looking to read Maus, I’d firstly suggest being patient with your local comic shop as they are likely resupplying. If you need help finding your local store and you’d like to support that small business, find your local shop here: https://www.comicshoplocator.com/ — give them a call and let them know you’d like to reserve a copy on their next order.
If you’re still feeling like you just want to have the book delivered to your door, I’d encourage you to order straight from the current publisher here: https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com/book/?isbn=9780679406419
Unfortunately, other than bootlegs, I struck out in finding digital or ebook versions of Maus. If you have a good source, please leave a comment and I’ll update this.
That all said, in my view, Maus is essential reading. So while you’re waiting for your copy or if you’re done and looking for something else, here are three graphic novels or comic books that I’d also recommend.
Berlin
By Jason Lutes
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
Jason Lutes spent about two decades working on Berlin which weaves a series of vignettes, individual stories, and disparate narratives to tell the holistic story of the German capital ahead of the fall of the Weimar Republic, the German government that was seized and destroyed by the rise of Hitler’s Nazis. It’s romantic, it’s frustrating, and because we know the ultimate outcome full of lessons to consider. The book is full of masterful art and layouts and the storytelling is equally perfect. It’s an opus.
Save It For Later
By Nate Powell
Some of you may know Nate Powell for his masterful collaboration with the late Congressman and Civil Rights hero, John Lewis. The series March is it’s own must read, but in Save it for Later, Nate uses a number of comic essays to reflect on his role as a parent and the importance of having the necessary albeit difficult conversations around protest, human rights, tolerance, and the nuances of all of it. With so many of my close friends raising their own kids now — I hope this book helps.
Winter of the Cartoonist
By Paco Roca
Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and World War 2, a group of ideal minded cartoonists set out to take ownership of their work and reclaim their voice in the face of the Spanish fascist-dictatorship and the corporations that were subservient to the regime. This book is great and the artwork staggeringly good — it’s very much a book that will speak to creative folks who have an independent streak. It’s a very bittersweet story of how you can do everything right and still lose.
Additionally, I own most of these books (and I’d bet your local library may have one or all of them well) — but if you’d like to visit me at my art studio in the Sierra 2 Center, you’d be welcome to mask-up and I can lend you my copy for a couple weeks and I’d love to hear what you thought of it when you return it. If you’d like to do that, just reach out.
Please note, comments are turned on, but I will moderate and remove commentary that expresses or endorses intolerant points of view. They are not welcome and are not productive.