Respected Canadian commentator Jeet Heer weighs in on Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse, the new documentary about Art Spiegelman, the cartoonist behind Maus, the 1986 Pulizer Prize winning graphic novel of his parents’ experiences during the Holocaust of Nazi Germany.
From the article in The Nation:
What finally brought Spiegelman some peace as the creator of Maus and the container of his parent’s memory was, strangely enough, Donald Trump. With the rise of what Spiegelman sees as a new fascist threat, Maus clearly holds lessons not just about the past but also our present. Like many of us, Spiegelman has learned Faulkner’s great lesson: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” One could add that fascism is never dead, nor even past, and continues to be an enemy to fight.
In 2022, Maus was banned by a school board in McMinn County, Tennessee. This threw Spiegelman into the thick of battles against the new wave of censorship aimed not just against his work but also other works, particularly graphic novels, that challenge racism and gender conservatism. With the resurgence of the authoritarian right, the meaning of Maus has changed: It’s not just an account of history but now also a warning about a possible future.
Read the article here at this link.
The Toronto Comic Jam 