Maus

By Art Spiegelman

There are three comic series credited with moving the medium out of it's juvenile superhero origins towards more mature genres, all published in the early 80s. The two most popular are Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' and Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight Returns'. These were still superhero books but they both had a very dark tone and political overtones that are not to be found in earlier comics. (Miller's the guy who writes 'Sin City' as well, by the way.) The third series is 'Maus', which won a Pulitzer prize ("like the Oscars for books") and it is most definitely not a superhero book.

'Maus' is the true account of the author's father's experience during the Second World War, as a Jew living under the Nazi occupation. The twist is that Spiegelman has drawn all the characters as animals, the species being dependent on the character's race or nationality. The Jews are mice, the Poles are pigs, the Germans are cats and the Americans are dogs. You might expect such a whimsical conceit to soften the grimness of this nasty holocaust story, but it doesn't.

It's a very personal story, with large sections set in the present as the son attempts to get the whole story from his father, who's a very eccentric, difficult fellow. And there are also scenes later on where the author pontificates about what he's trying to achieve by telling the story.

The story itself is of course unpleasant (as all holocaust stories are), but it's still an engaging read and it's somewhat inspiring to read about the senior Spiegelman's resourcefulness in surviving Auschwitz for almost a year. Of course the real life details make everything a lot less clear and clean cut than most stories. Our protagonist, as we see him in the present day, has a number of significant character flaws, to put it mildly. I was particularly surprised by his racist attitude towards a black guy near the end of the book, as it's not something you'd expect from a holocaust survivor. I guess the half of the story set in the present is more about the author working out his parental issues more than anything to do with history.

The art is a little crammed and busy, with lots of text, but it's still quite nice. I especially liked the looks of the characters, different cats, dogs, mice and pigs are all made to look either sinister or pathetic, while still retaining exactly the same features.

Final verdict: good book. Something to wave in the face of anyone who thinks comic books can't be serious and mature.