The publication of Maus I preceded the release of An American Tail by three months. Spiegelman thought that, if he waited until he completed both volumes of Maus, people would believe he had gotten the idea from Spielberg instead of the other way around.
Spiegelman decided to publish the book in two volumes because he learned Steven Spielberg was making An American Tail, an animated film about a family of Jewish mice fleeing Cossacks and cats in early-20th-century Russia. Chapters of Maus-in which Jews were shown as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs-had been appearing in Raw magazine regularly since 1980. The second part, Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, came out in 1992. Maus came out in two parts: The first part, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History, came out in 1986. It was RANDOM!įor years after that, when anyone suggested that the people who escaped from Europe- that my family who escaped from Europe-got out because they were smart or admirable, I would conjure up that scene. But it wasn’t the BEST people who survived, nor did the best ones die. Life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are blamed.
Does that mean it’s NOT admirable to NOT survive?Īrt: Whoosh. Therapist: Then you think it’s admirable to survive. Therapist: So do you ADMIRE your father for Surviving?Īrt: Well-sure I know there was a lot of LUCK involved, but he WAS amazingly present minded and resourceful…