Maus I & II

I have said it before and I will say it again, I really like the graphic novel genre. I really got into Art Spiegelman’s stories “Maus I and II” when I first read them a couple of years ago. I have to admit that Will Eisner is an amazing writer and illustrator, but I did prefer Spiegelman’s Tale better.

His whole idea was so clever. I really liked how he chose to represent each different group of people as different specie of animal. The Jews as mice being hunted by the evil German cats. Any individual raised on Tom & Jerry can see the irony in Spiegelman’s choices. (My favorite choice had to be making the French frogs.)

On a deeper level, this truly was an amazing text. The duel storyline of the father’s story of his time in the concentration camp, as well as his own inner struggle he faced due to the success he created on the lives of those who died. He even illustrated the piles of these dead individuals under his drawing desk.

It was even interesting to see how Art suppressed himself through the story. He seems to be a human with a house mask on. This seemed to represent to his readers that he is hiding who he really is, the man under the mask.

All this could not have been depicted so well in just words alone.