400 McCLOUD, SCOTT
Artie also refuses to portray his father as a heroic, selfl ess survivor of disaster; rather,
he fi ghts with him over his miserly ways and commiserates with his second wife, Mala,
over Vladek’s poor treatment.
Maus ’s groundbreaking qualities exist in both its approach to Holocaust history and
its role in bringing increased critical attention and literary respectability to the graphic
novel. Spiegelman has noted that he chose his drawing style and animal characters in
reference to the anti-Semitic cartoons included in Nazi magazine Der Stürmer , which
portrayed Jews as rats, as well as period fi lms that contrast portraits of the Nazis as
perfectly proportioned human beings with Jews living in crowded, dirty ghettos. He
also cites his childhood viewing of Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, and Krazy Kat as
inspiration for his characters, though the stark drawings also recall newsreel footage
of survivors staring through the barbed-wire fences of concentration camps. Th e book
acknowledges its own artistic lineage in several ways: it includes “Prisoner on the Hell
Planet,” a 1972 comic whose human characters attempt to deal with the aftermath of
Anja’s suicide; it confronts the guilt produced by the fi rst volume’s commercial success;
and it acknowledges its author’s individual limitations. Spiegelman’s use of sources from
popular culture, politics, and personal life makes Maus not only an essential interven-
tion in Holocaust studies but also a testament to the powerful historical work of graphic
narratives.Selected Bibliography: Chute, Hillary. “ ‘Th e Shadow of a Past Time’: History and
Graphic Representation in Maus. ” Twentieth Century Literature 52(2) (Summer 2006):
199–230; Geis, Deborah R., ed. Considering Maus : Approaches to Art Spiegelman’s
“Survivor’s Tale” of the Holocaust. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.
Jennifer D. RyanMCCLOUD, SCOTT (1960–). Born Scott McLeod in Boston, Massachusetts, comic
book writer, artist, and theorist McCloud is best known for his attempts to understand
the comics art form and reshape the comic book industry. In 1982, McCloud received
his BFA in illustration from Syracuse University and took a job in the production de-
partment at DC Comics. While at DC he began working on his own original comic,
Zot! Eclipse Comics published the fi rst issue of Zot! in 1983 and the series ran for 36
issues. Zot! won the Jack Kirby Award for Best New Series in 1985 and McCloud re-
ceived the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
McCloud wrote the fi rst draft of the Creator’s Bill of Rights for a 1988 summit of
independent comics creators. Th e document articulated rights—such as full ownership
of creations, return of original artwork, and equitable sharing of profi ts from creative
work—that had not generally been granted to creators by the mainstream comic book
publishers.
McCloud’s fame within and far beyond the comic book industry began in 1993 with
the publication of Understanding Comics , a nonfi ction graphic novel that presented
his theories about the inner workings of the comics art form. It is an ambitious work