~Maus~ Week 7

For this week we were ask to read a graphic novel Maus by cartoonist Art Spiegelman. I did not expect that we were going to read this type of graphic novel in class. Even though, I am very excited to read it.

The baseline of the novel is how Art Spiegelman depicted his father’s experiences as a Jew and Holocaust survivor through interviews. Art depicts the races of humans as different kinds of animals, with Jews as mice, Germans as cats and non-Jewish Poles as pigs.

For me I thought Art was genius for making the race of men different types of animals. I think it makes it easier for people to pick up the book because it isn’t like a human getting their head blown off. Also it really stands alone compared to other wartime comics or war inspired comics. Another thing that I liked was how he uses not just any animals but ones that have a strong attack fear complex relationship, like cat and mouse. I feel the each personality of the animal really fits the characteristics, Nazi being a cat and a mouse being Jew.

The book uses a minimalist drawing style while displaying innovation in its page and panel layouts, pacing, and structure.

            Even though the drawing is very simple I like how the drawing is really scratchy in rough looking it really fits the story. With the rough line work and a war story it seals the deal for perfect narrative. On the right I found an image from this comic, which is an example of what I am talking about. In a chunky font it says “The Noose Tightens” then below the type is nine mice with nooses around their necks. In the front there is a mouse with the Star of David on his coat. The artwork is really scratchy and simple for an easy read yet packs a punch. The scratchiness really gives a nitty-gritty that these poor mice are getting strangled and represents what was happening with the Jews in Germany and around the area. A narrative that I got from this image was that the Jews were running out of time because they’re getting killed, going to concentration camps and basically getting exterminated.

            I found that the timing throughout the panels and pages are very innovative and different then the normal everyday layout. An

example on your left is a page out of the Maus. This page layout is really different and I have never really seen this happen before in any type of graphic novel or comic book that I have read. Page is laid out into two columns a small the left and a large on the right. The story does not go straight across the page, drops down then goes straight across again etc. etc. Instead the story goes straight down the column. When it hits the bottom of the page it goes back up to the top to the second column and then continues. Also the size relationship between the two columns is very interesting. The small column on the left is made up of the father talking to the son. Then goes into the larger panels on the right, which is about what was happening to the father in Germany. It makes sense that this is how it’s set up because as a reader you want to see more of what happened in World War II then of the son and the father just talking to each other.

             I found this graphic novel really interesting because it's not like any other documentary or anything I have read about World

War II. It is very personal because it is someone’s life story and you can feel it when you read the novel. Even though the animals are representing people it still doesn't really take out the impact of what really happened or what happened to this poor father trying to survive the Holocaust with his wife. Another thing that I liked a lot was how the book takes place in the past and present. How Art set up each panel and layout, you really get the feeling that the father is talking to his son and telling is holistic story and that you are having this story told to you and interesting way. I would strongly recommend reading this book if you like to read World War II stories.