Art Spiegelman

Infobox Comics creator
name = Art Spiegelman


imagesize =
caption = Spiegelman at the 2007 Alternative Press Expo.
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1948|2|15
location = Stockholm, Sweden
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = artist, writer
alias =
notable works = "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" "Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began" "In the Shadow of No Towers"
awards = full list

Art Spiegelman (born February 15, 1948) is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel memoir, "Maus."

Biography

Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden to Vladek Spiegelman and Anja Spiegelman (nee Zylberberg), Polish-Jewish refugees. Spiegelman grew up in Rego Park in Queens, New York City, New York and graduated from the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. Spiegelman attended Binghamton University, called Harpur College at the time. He did not graduate but received an honorary doctorate from there 30 years later. At Harpur, Spiegelman audited classes by the innovative filmmaker Ken Jacobs and became friends with him. Spiegelman has acknowledged being strongly inspired by Jacobs' work and thought. [ [http://64.23.98.142/indy/winter_2005/chute/index.html Indy Magazine ] ]

He had one brother named Richieu who died before Art was born. Richieu was caught in the conflicts of World War II and was sent to live with an aunt, Tosha, since the Zawiercie ghetto where she resided seemed safer than the Sosnowiec-Środula ghetto. When the Nazis started to deport people from the Zawiercie ghetto, Tosha poisoned herself, Richieu, her own daughter (Bibi) and her niece (Lonia). ("Maus", Volume 1) Art mentions in "Maus" that he felt like he had a sibling rivalry with a photograph, since his parents were still upset over the death of their first-born son. The second volume of "Maus" was dedicated to Richieu and to Spiegelman's daughter Nadja.

In the late winter of 1968, he suffered a brief but intense nervous breakdown, an event occasionally referred to in his work. [cite journal | author=Gordon, Andrew | title= Jewish Fathers and Sons in Spiegelman's Maus and Roth's Patrimony | journal=ImageTexT | year= 2004| volume=1 | issue=1 | url=http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/volume1/issue1/gordon/ ] After his release from a mental hospital, his mother, Anja, committed suicide. [ Comic book reference | Cartoonist =Art Spiegelman | Story =Prisoner on the Planet Hell | Title =Short Order Comix | Issue = 1 | Date = 1972 | Publisher =Head Press And see "Maus I": Prisoner on the Hell Planet, p. 100.] Spiegelman was a major figure in the underground comics movement of the 1960s and 1970s, contributing to publications such as "Real Pulp", "Young Lust" and "Bizarre Sex". He co-founded two significant comics anthology publications, "Arcade" (with Bill Griffith) in San Francisco during the early 1970s and "Raw" with his wife, artist (and, later, Art Editor of the "The New Yorker") Françoise Mouly, in 1980.

In 1973 he co-edited with Bob Schneider "Whole Grains: A Collection of Quotations", featuring the notable words of countercultural icons like Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan before they got much play in such mainstream reference works as "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations". The book was mistakenly racked on the "Cookbook" shelves at some bookstores.

Together with many other innovative works, "Raw" serialized "Maus", which retraces his parents' story as they survived the Holocaust. In 1986, he released the first volume of "Maus" ("Maus I: A Survivor's Tale", also known as "Maus I: My Father Bleeds History") The second volume, "Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began" followed in 1991. "Maus" attracted an unprecedented amount of critical attention for a work in the form of comics, including an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

Spiegelman has also worked in more commercial forums: After a summer internship (when he was 18) at Topps Bubble Gum, he was hired as a staff writer-artist-editor in Woody Gelman's Product Development Department. During his 20 years with Topps, Spiegelman invented Garbage Candy (candy in the form of garbage, sold in miniature plastic garbage cans), the Wacky Packages card series and countless other hugely successful novelties. With Mark Newgarden, he co-created Garbage Pail Kids stickers and cards.

After 20 years of asking Topps to grant the creators a percentage of the profits, and after other industries (such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics) had grudgingly conceded, Topps still refused. Spiegelman, who had assigned Topps work to many of his cartoonist friends or students, left over the issue of creative ownership and ownership of artwork. In 1989 Topps auctioned off the original artwork they had accumulated over the decades and kept the profits.

Hired by Tina Brown in 1992, Spiegelman worked for "The New Yorker" for ten years but resigned a few months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The cover created by Spiegelman and Mouly for the September 24 issue of "The New Yorker" received wide acclaim. At first it appears to be totally black, but upon close examination it reveals the silhouettes of the World Trade Center towers in a slightly darker shade of black. Spiegelman states that his resignation from "The New Yorker" was to protest the "widespread conformism" in the United States media. Spiegelman is a sharp critic of the administration of President George W. Bush and claims that the American media has become "conservative and timid."

In September 2004, he released "In the Shadow of No Towers", in which he relates his experience of the Twin Towers attack and the psychological after-effects. Since Fall 2005, Spiegelman's new series "Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!" has appeared in "The Virginia Quarterly Review".

In 2005, "Time Magazine" named Spiegelman one of their "Top 100 Most Influential People." [ [http://www.time.com/time/2005/time100/ TIME Magazine: The 2005 TIME 100 ] ]

In the June 2006 edition of "Harper's" magazine, he published an article on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy which had occurred earlier in the year. At least one vendor, Canada's Indigo chain of booksellers, refused to sell the particular issue. Called "Drawing Blood: Outrageous Cartoons and the Art of Outrage" the article contained a survey of the sometimes dire impact of political cartooning on its creators, ranging from Honoré Daumier (who was imprisoned for a satirical work) to George Grosz (who was exiled). The article raised the ire of Indigo because it seemed to promote the continuance of racially-motivated cartooning. [James Adams, [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060526.wxchapters27/BNStory/Entertainment/home "Indigo pulls controversial Harper's off the shelves"] , "Globe and Mail", May 27, 2006]

Spiegelman is a prominent advocate for the medium of comics. He taught courses in the history and aesthetics of comics at schools including the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the School of Visual Arts in New York. He tours the country giving a lecture he calls "Comix 101." An anthology of interviews with Spiegelman, spanning 25 years and a wide variety of printed venues, was published by University Press of Mississippi in 2007 as "Art Spiegelman: Conversations."

Together with Françoise Mouly, he published three hardcover anthologies of comics for children, called "Little Lit", and in 2006, "Big Fat Little Lit". He is an advisor for Mouly's newest publishing project, the TOON Books, a groundbreaking line of hardcover comics for young readers, which will be released in 2008.

He lives in downtown Manhattan with Mouly and their two children, Nadja and Dashiell.

Other media

Spiegelman played himself in the 2007 episode "Husbands and Knives" of "The Simpsons", alongside actor Jack Black and other comic book writers Dan Clowes and Alan Moore.

In 1973 he co-edited with Bob Schneider "Whole Grains: A Collection of Quotations", featuring the notable words of countercultural icons like Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan before they got much play in such mainstream reference works as "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations".

Awards

* 1982: Yellow Kid Award, Lucca, Italy, for Best Foreign Author cite web | last =Immagine-Centro Studi Iconografici | title =15° SALONE, 1982| url =http://www.immaginecentrostudi.org/saloni/salone15.asp | language =Italian ]
* 1987: Inkpot Award
* 1988: Adamson Award, Sweden, for "Maus"
* 1988: Angoulême International Comics Festival, France, Prize for Best Comic Book, for "Maus"
* 1988: Urhunden Prize, Sweden, Best Foreign Album, for "Maus"
* 1990: Max & Moritz Prize, Erlangen, Germany, Special Prize, for "Maus"
* 1992: Pulitzer Prize Letters award, for "Maus"
* 1992: Eisner Award, , for "Maus"
* 1992: Harvey Award, Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work, for "Maus"
* 1993: Angoulême International Comics Festival, Prize for Best Comic Book, for "Maus" part 2
* 1993: Sproing Prize, Norway, Best Foreign Album, for "Maus"
* 1993: Urhunden Prize, Best Foreign Album, for "Maus" part 2
* 1999: Eisner Award, inducted into the Hall of Fame

References

* [http://www.readyourselfraw.com/profiles/spiegelman/profile_spiegelman.htm Art Spiegelman profile] ReadYourselfRawFootnotes

External links

* [http://www.barclayagency.com/spiegelman.html Official biography for Art Spiegelman at the Steven Barclay Agency]
* [http://lambiek.net/artists/s/spiegelman.htm Art Spiegelman biography] on Lambiek Comiclopedia
* [http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2005/fall/spiegelman-portrait1/ Excerpt from "Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@?*!"] on the "Virginia Quarterly Review" website.
*
* Audio interview on The Sound of Young America: [http://libsyn.com/media/tsoya/tsoya102205.mp3 MP3 Link]
* [http://tcj.com/2_archives/i_spiegelman.html Gary Groth interviews Art Spiegelman] (Lengthy excerpts from The Comics Journal 180 & 181).
* [http://www.greencine.com/article?action=view&articleID=256 GreenCine interviews Art Spiegelman on Comics and Film, conducted by NPR's David D'Arcy]
* [http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/2006/?id=302 Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work]
* [http://www.toon-books.com/ The site for the new publishing venture for which Spiegelman is an advisor: "TOON Books", hardcover comics for beginning readers]