Discover the Best Books Written by Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel Maus. His work as co-editor of the comics magazines Arcade and Raw has been influential, and from 1992 he spent a decade as contributing artist for The New Yorker. He is married to designer and editor Françoise Mouly and is the father of writer Nadja Spiegelman. 

In September 2022, the National Book Foundation announced that he would receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Spiegelman began his career with Topps (a bubblegum and trading card company) in the mid-1960s, which was his main financial support for two decades; there, he co-created parodic series such as Wacky Packages in the 1960s and Garbage Pail Kids in the 1980s. 

He gained prominence in the underground comix scene in the 1970s with short, experimental, and often autobiographical work. A selection of these strips appeared in the collection Breakdowns in 1977. Spiegelman turned the focus to the book-length Maus, about his relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor. The postmodern book depicts Germans as cats, Jews as mice, and ethnic Poles as pigs, and it took 13 years to create until its completion in 1991. 

It won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and has gained a reputation as a pivotal work. Spiegelman and Mouly edited eleven issues of Raw from 1980 to 1991. The oversized comics and graphics magazine helped introduce talents who became prominent in alternative comics, such as Charles Burns, Chris Ware, and Ben Katchor. It introduced several foreign cartoonists to the English-speaking comics world. 

Beginning in the 1990s, the couple worked for The New Yorker, which Spiegelman left to work on In the Shadow of No Towers (2004), about his reaction to the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001—Spiegelman advocates for greater comic literacy. As an editor, a teacher, and a lecturer, Spiegelman has promoted a better understanding of comics and has mentored younger cartoonists.

Spiegelman's parents were Polish Jews Władysław (1906–1982) and Andzia (1912–1968) Spiegelman. His father was born Zeev Spiegelman, with the Hebrew name Zeev ben Avraham. Władysław was his Polish name, and Władek (or Vladek in anglicized form) was a diminutive of this name. He was also known as Wilhelm under the German occupation and Anglicized his name to William upon immigration to the United States. 

His mother was born Andzia Zylberberg, with the Hebrew name Hannah. She changed her name to Anna upon immigrating to the United States. In Spiegelman's Maus, from which the couple is best known, Spiegelman used the spellings "Vladek" and "Anja," which he believed would be easier for Americans to pronounce. The surname Spiegelman is German for "mirror man."