OCB and Maus

  A couple weeks ago, I checked out Scott McCloud's book, Making Comics, from the library. Afterward I immediately purchased a copy for myself because of just how valuable it is to me. I could go on for pages about that book and how it helped me. Beneath the invaluable lessons in effective storytelling techniques, it carried a message that hadn't been made quite as clear to me before. Comics is an art form FAR larger and deeper than the action hero genre I've been worshiping since my preteen years. It inspired me to seek out all types of comics with all kinds of stories because, after all, stories are what I'm passionate about.

  I've become best friends with Amazon (one might call it an addiction). It makes it so easy to get lots of books to me quickly, and it's cheaper than a bookstore. Needless to say, the books just keep on coming.

  I started off with a book called Old City Blues, which was a successful webcomic that eventually got published. I love the art in Old City Blues; its what convinced me to buy the book. Sketchy and dynamic lines and inking. It was more of an action book, and the story was a little predictable/cliche, but I still enjoyed it. 

  Next I purchased Maus, which I had heard of for a long time (it won a Pulitzer Prize), and decided now was a perfect time to try it out. Amazing. The story follows the author, Art Spiegelman, as he interviews his father, Vladek, about his experiences in Poland during WWII. Not only are you immersed in the story of the atrocities Vladek endured, but you also view a rickety relationship between father and son. The art is also very good. Spiegelman chose to depict the characters as animals (animal heads on human bodies). Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Poles are pigs, and Americans are dogs. It's no surprise this book won so many awards. It will definitely be remembered as a prominent personal account of the Holocaust.