MAUS:
Art Spiegelman's MAUS is a really interesting take on how to convey the history of the holocaust. As comics are sometimes considered to be something for children(something we've talked about in this class), this is definitely and absolutely more heavy than most comics(although not the ones I've read in the class)
One of the unique and somewhat profound storytelling elements in this comic is the way Spiegelman portrays different races. It almost plays into the Nazi propaganda of depicting Jewish people as vermin, i.e. mice. The German Nazi's are therefore Cats, since they are "cunning, predators of Jewish people."
What I liked about MAUS is the way that it incorporates "gallows humor" into the comic. The reasoning behind this is that by incorporating little dark humor quips into the story, it lightens the mood a little bit. Its like the joke in the film Se7en directed by David Fincher, when Detective Mills and Detective Somerset(Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, respectively) are preparing to take John Doe in the car at the end, they are shaving their chests to attach microphones, Mills jokes about whether or not cutting off his nipple would be covered by workman's compensation since its technically an on-the-job injury. This not only has the effect of lightening the mood, but by contrast affects the darkness in the rest of the movie. The dark comedy has a similar effect in MAUS. These are little anecdotes from the father about how he survived living in the concentration camps and prisoner of war camps. One instance is where Vladek was in a prison camp waiting to be released, and when he went outside to urinate a guard started shooting at him, and instead just went ahead and peed in his tent.
The heaviness of the subject matter is a fit for the style of art. Art Spiegelman was influenced by Wood Block Prints and it shows. It almost looks as though it was desperately carved into the page. Its stark black and white palette is a very graphic way of depicting the dark subject matter.
