aus grew out of a comic strip I did in 1971 for an underground comic book:
a three-page strip that was based on stories of my father’s and mother’s that
I recalled being told a in childhood….In 1977 I decided to do [a] longer work,
[and] I set up an arrangement to see my father more often and talk to him about
his experiences….Although I set about…to do a history of sorts, I’m all to aware
that ultimately what I’m creating is a realistic fiction. The experiences my father
actually went through [are not exactly the same as] what he’s able to remember
and what he’s able to articulate to these experiences. Then there’s what I’m able
to understand of what he’s articulated and what I’m able to put down on paper.
And then of course there’s what the reader can make of that….It’s important to
me that Maus is done in comic strip form, because it’s what I’m most comfortable
shaping and working with. Maus for me is part of a way of telling my parents’
life and therefore coming to terms with it…It’s not a matter of choice in the
sense that I don’t feel I could deal with the this material as prose, or as a
series of paintings, or as a film, or as poetry….In looking as other art and literature
that’s been shaped from the Holocaust- a historic term I feel problematic- that
material is often very high pitched….I feel a need for a more subdued approach,
which would incorporate distancing devices like using these animal mask faces.
Another aspect of the way I’ve chosen to use this material is that I’ve entered
myself into the story. So the way the story got told and who the story was told
to is as important [as] my father’s narrative. To me that’s at the heart of the
work.
aus grew out of a comic strip I did in 1971 for an underground comic book:
a three-page strip that was based on stories of my father’s and mother’s that
I recalled being told a in childhood….In 1977 I decided to do [a] longer work,
[and] I set up an arrangement to see my father more often and talk to him about
his experiences….Although I set about…to do a history of sorts, I’m all to aware
that ultimately what I’m creating is a realistic fiction. The experiences my father
actually went through [are not exactly the same as] what he’s able to remember
and what he’s able to articulate to these experiences. Then there’s what I’m able
to understand of what he’s articulated and what I’m able to put down on paper.
And then of course there’s what the reader can make of that….It’s important to
me that Maus is done in comic strip form, because it’s what I’m most comfortable
shaping and working with. Maus for me is part of a way of telling my parents’
life and therefore coming to terms with it…It’s not a matter of choice in the
sense that I don’t feel I could deal with the this material as prose, or as a
series of paintings, or as a film, or as poetry….In looking as other art and literature
that’s been shaped from the Holocaust- a historic term I feel problematic- that
material is often very high pitched….I feel a need for a more subdued approach,
which would incorporate distancing devices like using these animal mask faces.
Another aspect of the way I’ve chosen to use this material is that I’ve entered
myself into the story. So the way the story got told and who the story was told
to is as important [as] my father’s narrative. To me that’s at the heart of the
work. 