Effects

Like any artist Art Spiegelman has his own unique graphic style that is displayed throughout his works. This is demonstrated exceptionally well in his graphic novel Maus. The power of this book doesn’t just come from the story being told by his father Vladek Spiegelman who survived Auschwitz by luck and diligence. But rather, what makes this graphic novel so powerful is the way in which Art Spiegelman tells the story. Spiegleman doesn’t sensationalize or fabricate this story in anyway, which one would expect him to do using this medium of Graphic novel story telling. Furthermore it feels as if he deliberately decided not to exaggerate the story. It’s told with very simple and gentle pacing and simply is not trying to make anyone cry or be anything like a Spielberg production. He uses his own father’s words and most of it being broken English, gives it a very unique and personal side of the story. His choice of using Animals doesn’t render this novel as being cute and in facts, far from it. The animals seem to have no emotions what so ever and can be shown as Art Spielgelman put it “There more like Masks these characters are wearing” which gives the audience a very dark and emotionless, almost too insane to be real feeling. It also delivers the message that Jews were very distinguishable in Nazi occupied Europe, as if they were a completely different species. You have to keep in mind that during the time Maus was being developed there was no such thing as a “serious” comic book, so I think it really has a great impression on the reader and puts the reader in these situations, where a novel simply can’t. Spiegelman's custom black and white illustration praises the theme of his memoir because the Holocaust is an abhorrent subject, and so I think this style without a doubt depicts this.

http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/2006/?id=302

http://mausgraphicmemoir.blogspot.ca/2012/07/art-spiegelman-graphic-style.html

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/graphic-novels/links/1151898/title/art-spiegelman-on-comic-creator