I taught this book along with “Night” in a very conservative community. The students were curious, fascinated, empathetic- not shamed, upset, afraid. Shouldn’t schools aim to enlighten students?
If you have a moment I have a story about three friends, MAUS and Art Spiegelman. My flawed memory is of an event that took place more than 35 years ago may have some errors, but I promise that what I am sharing is based on a true story.
In the Summer of 1986 I was working at WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston in the design department. My friends Orrin and Jeff and I were avid readers of RAW, the awesome alt comix magazine. Art Spiegelman had been including his ongoing MAUS: A Survivor’s Story in serial inserts in RAW. We were aware of the upcoming release of the collected first volume of MAUS and found out that Mr Spiegelman would be going on a press tour soon to promote the release.
The ever-resourceful Jeff Jones was able to contact Spiegelman’s publicist and put him in touch with a producer at WCVB’s morning show Good Day. We had hoped we might be able to get Spiegelman on the show. Unfortunately, as young twenty-something punk designers, we did not have the influence we imagined and the segment did not happen. But the ever-persistent Mr Jones did manage to impress the publicist and convinced them to allow the three of us to buy Mr Spiegelman lunch at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge.
We were well aware of the cultural significance of MAUS. Orrin has a special connection to Spiegelman’s story as a fellow child of Holocaust survivors. The three of us were fans of the power and raw terror of the story and its telling. I wish I remembered our exact conversations, but the impression of that lunch, on that patio, on that late Summer day in Boston remains vivid.
Spiegelman wore his usual uniform of a white button-down shirt and an unbuttoned black vest. He chain-smoked unfiltered Camels (you could do that at a restaurant in the mid 80s). He was a delightful lunch guest who treated three young fans with respect and humor. I do recall asking him about his thoughts on Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Return”—the popular Batman comic series that was being published at that time. I believe Spiegelman noted the kind of fascist authoritarianism that the Batman character evoked.
We all brought our copies of the first MAUS collection that Mr Spiegelman graciously signed. In mine he drew his MAUS character alongside Batman. The caption reads “For Bill Dawson ’Bats! I shoulda used….’ All the best, Art Spiegelman.”
If you care to see the inscription, please check out @iambilldawson on Instagram.
Maus is astounding. It left an indelible mark on my heart. I can't understand this. Something got lost in translation.
I taught this book along with “Night” in a very conservative community. The students were curious, fascinated, empathetic- not shamed, upset, afraid. Shouldn’t schools aim to enlighten students?
Yes. Except when ignorance is tribalized that can't happen.
Sad but true.
Next up: book burning in the USA -- unless we stop them cold. 🗳
I believe we will. But it will not be pretty. And we need to be okay with that.
Ready for the necessary ugly.
Necessary now.
Tennessee is full of reality deniers and religious fantasists. Great illustration. Conservatism is toxic and self-cannibalizing.
Hey Steve. I particularly love this one.
If you have a moment I have a story about three friends, MAUS and Art Spiegelman. My flawed memory is of an event that took place more than 35 years ago may have some errors, but I promise that what I am sharing is based on a true story.
In the Summer of 1986 I was working at WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston in the design department. My friends Orrin and Jeff and I were avid readers of RAW, the awesome alt comix magazine. Art Spiegelman had been including his ongoing MAUS: A Survivor’s Story in serial inserts in RAW. We were aware of the upcoming release of the collected first volume of MAUS and found out that Mr Spiegelman would be going on a press tour soon to promote the release.
The ever-resourceful Jeff Jones was able to contact Spiegelman’s publicist and put him in touch with a producer at WCVB’s morning show Good Day. We had hoped we might be able to get Spiegelman on the show. Unfortunately, as young twenty-something punk designers, we did not have the influence we imagined and the segment did not happen. But the ever-persistent Mr Jones did manage to impress the publicist and convinced them to allow the three of us to buy Mr Spiegelman lunch at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge.
We were well aware of the cultural significance of MAUS. Orrin has a special connection to Spiegelman’s story as a fellow child of Holocaust survivors. The three of us were fans of the power and raw terror of the story and its telling. I wish I remembered our exact conversations, but the impression of that lunch, on that patio, on that late Summer day in Boston remains vivid.
Spiegelman wore his usual uniform of a white button-down shirt and an unbuttoned black vest. He chain-smoked unfiltered Camels (you could do that at a restaurant in the mid 80s). He was a delightful lunch guest who treated three young fans with respect and humor. I do recall asking him about his thoughts on Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Return”—the popular Batman comic series that was being published at that time. I believe Spiegelman noted the kind of fascist authoritarianism that the Batman character evoked.
We all brought our copies of the first MAUS collection that Mr Spiegelman graciously signed. In mine he drew his MAUS character alongside Batman. The caption reads “For Bill Dawson ’Bats! I shoulda used….’ All the best, Art Spiegelman.”
If you care to see the inscription, please check out @iambilldawson on Instagram.
#RIPJeffJones
Thanks. for this Bill. Art is a good guy. And a genius!! We all have to stand up for this book and all the others to come down this pike!
VIVA MAUS !!
This is chilling.