Category Archives: Links

Searchers: Nazi Concentration Camps

After reading Maus II, I thought thought about when I visited the Holocaust Museum. The first link is from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum gives a brief overview of what the Nazis tried to do before the camps were used. there are also many links to various parts of the site and also interviews with the survivors.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144

This second link I found searching google and it has a picture like of the entrance to the camps like in the last pages of Maus I. at the bottom of this link there is another link that shows an article about Auschwitz name change.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/31

On a lighter note, I found that the clash between Spiegelman and Spielberg was interesting and I found in google books a the part where Spiegelman commented about this part in his life.

http://books.google.com/books?id=uhlOpk8bGoEC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=art+spiegelman+steven+spielberg+maus+tails&source=bl&ots=n1fIzC-g5p&sig=7rcoASRM8JZuU8hPIV3ptror4YQ&hl=en&ei=wbDKSo3UDpXdlAfO09SSAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Searchers: “Getting in Touch with My Inner Racist” and “Random Educational Suppliment”

Wow.

So, I found two sources that seemed applicable, and they could not be more different.

First, lets go with The Random Educational Suppliment!
It is a presentation that was arranged to coincide with a lesson for a 100 level course from a college in Canada. It goes into a lot of depth about the various stylistic choices of Maus. It is long, but has some pretty cool points. If you’re just going to skim it, check out “The Beast Fable” section; it talks about the representation of humans as animals, and the precident for such in other fiction.

Now, I found that one, because this next one I found is really interesting, but almost completely irrelevant to our topic…

Art Spiegelman wrote an article entitled “Getting in Touch with My Inner Racist” for a publication called Mother-Jones. It is worth reading, but has very little connection to Maus. The article is a rather candid, albiet cursory, look at Art Spiegelman’s perception of his own (sometimes subconscious) racism. Like I said, this one is a really interesting.
Check it out!

~ Alex Flores

A few things I found…(searchers)

Here’s a link to a list of graphic novels recommended by Alan Moore:

http://www.readyourselfraw.com/recommended/rec_alanmoore/recommended_alanmoore.html

which I thought was interesting as we just finished reading some things from him. Maus made the list, an excerpt of what Moore said is as follows:

“Since discovering his work in the mid 70’s, I have been convinced that Art Spiegelman is perhaps the single most important comic creator working within the field and in my opinion Maus represents his most accomplished work to date…”

And I thought the idea of the Holocaust being depicted through different art forms was interesting so here’s a link to a collection of various(paintings, drawings, etc) of the holocaust:

http://art.holocaust-education.net/

Searchers – Vica (Nazi Propaganda Comics)

Vincent Krassousky, who was Russian born, produced the Vica comic for the Nazi-controlled government in France during World War II. Duke University’s library has made these comics available for viewing online. The comics consist of the main character, Vica, traveling to England, Russia and America only to find the countries to be complete with chaos, debauchery and poverty particularly compared with Germany and France. Vica was an interesting find compared to Maus, in terms of not only story but propaganda as well. Propaganda in comic form might even take on a special subversive quality as it might be more palatable to the masses, especially the youth who is more likely to read a comic than a pamphlet or book.

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/vica/browsepage.html

Art from Auschwitz-Birkenau & Maus (searcher: elisa ortiz)

This is a fascinating and very powerful site on art produced by inmates, specifically at Auschwitz, during their incarceration.  Here we can see how art can transcend the most horrific of circumstances and the power of the image/art as a form of documentation.  The art work is from a number of artist inmates, with varying degrees of proficiency using a number of different medium: scraps of paper, ink, charcoal, etc.  An interesting fact from the exhibit’s site states: “The majority of artists who worked at Auschwitz were Polish political prisoners, while most who died there were Jewish artists.” While we are understanding Maus through Spiegeleman’s understanding (a son of a Shoah survivor) , this site allows you to see the artistic depictions/expressions of actual survivors. http://lastexpression.northwestern.edu/intro_frameset.htm

Here is another interesting article about an artist and Auschwitz survivor who did many paintings for Josef Mengele.  Stan Lee, Neal Adams and Joe Kubert got together to create a comic telling the story of Dena Babbitt, the survivor, from her youth and early experiences with art to her arrival at Auschwitz and the art she produced there.  Adams, Lee and Kubert have petitioned for a museum that is housing Babbitt’s work to return them to her, something she has had difficulty convincing the museum to do.  It also mentions a graphic novel by Kubert that is also about the holocaust called Yossel.  Kubert is also Jewish and was born in Poland but grew up in the U.S.  I’m really curious to check his comic out when we finish Maus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/arts/design/09comi.html?ex=1376020800&en=ac17ff225d6d9a07&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

and one more on Spiegelman’s Maus and Jewish comic book artists, Jewish graphic novels and their influence on the comic book universe:

http://reformjudaismmag.net/04spring/comics.shtml

Respondent:Vladek’s Accent and Rhythm in Maus

Respondents: What do you think of the usage of dialect? Is Vladek the only one to speak in accented English? Is it effective? Confusing? Offensive?

I mentioned in class how infectious Vladek’s inverted speech patterns become by the end of Maus; it’s almost as though his story makes no sense being told in anything other than his specific voice.  The cadences of his voice somehow add to the overall detached feel lent to the book by the art style: Vladek’s tone and diction seem quaint and foreign to us, enhanced by the pared down, sparse art.

Additionally, the transcriptions Professor Sample showed us in class on Tuesday really drove this point home to me. Not only does actually hearing Vladek speak the lines from the book really bring to life the flow and bounce of his words, but listening to the rhythm of his pedaling and its stop at points of emphasis, I was struck by the overall rhythm of his speech and how integral it is to the impact of Maus.

I guess, in a way, Vladek’s accent ultimately doesn’t even register to me anymore, on my fifth or so Maus readthrough. It’s no longer a Jewish or Polish sounding voice, or even an accented one: it’s just Vladek’s.

Maus, searcher

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/holocaust/spiegelman.html
This site dives more thoroughly into the historical aspects of Maus (European Judaism) and also explores the various underlying themes of the narrative (Art’s and Vladek’s fractured relationship, Vladek’s burning of Anja’s journals, and Art’s transcription of Vladek’s story).

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/218/projects/oliver/MausbyAO.htm
This site studies the literary form of Maus and how it’s unique delivery casts a different light on the Holocaust.

Searchers – History and Memory After Auschwitz

Dominick LaCapra’s book History and Memory after Auschwitz traces the impact of the Holocaust on survivors, perpetrators, and the generations of people who came after them.  There is a great chapter on Maus that discusses a number of topics, including the use of animals to create some distance between the reader and the horrific details of the Holocaust; and the personalities and difficult relationship between father and son.  The book is not available at the GMU library, unfortunately.  But there is a Google books version that is pretty comprehensive.  There are some pages left out, but you can find most of the chapter pages.

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/3UC0lb

Also, here’s a 1991 review by Lawrence Langer of the NY Times (spoiler alert:  if you have not read Maus II I suggest you do not read this article right away).  Langer writes quite a bit about the relationship between Vladek and Artie, as well as their struggle with the loss of Richieun:  “nearly every Holocaust testimony, written or oral, provides [the same melancholy answer]: the dead, those who did not return, have the last word. How could it be otherwise?

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/spiegelman-maus2.html

link: Fanboys web comic- Jeannie Hilleary

This is one of my favorite webcomics and they happened to do a comic on the Watchmen for the movie release.

http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?comic=323

the comic itself usually revolves around 2 best friends, their cat patches (who should be a pirate) and the girlfriend.  They often do comic commentary on movie releases or video games based off their comic icons or childhood memories.  Just a recommendation I hope you all enjoy!

Searchers: “Rorschach Doesn’t Shrug”

http://www.reason.com/news/show/132100.html

Rorschach Doesn’t Shrug
The Watchmen’s hero as Objectivist saint

I found an article that demonstraits a connection between Watchmen to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; the article opens by discussing how initially the characters of Watchmen were going to be Charlton Comic characters. Rorschach’s character would have been The Question, who was created by Steve Ditko. Ditko was hevially influenced by the writing of Ayn Rand. Rorschach is Moore’s vision of an objectivist superhero influenced by Rand. Rorschach is an objectivist because he sees sittuations in black and white. The article views Rorschach as an “objectivist saint” because he is willing to kill “in the name of a higher good” and he sacrifices himself to save millions. I found this article very interesting because I noticed how other literary refrences were used throughout Watchmen and I thought this related well; it also provides some insightful character analysis of Rorschach.

-Alexa Romano

Searchers: Watchmen in 5 Panels

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/comics-in-5-panels/3535-watchmen

Here is the briefest of brief summaries you could possibly have of “Watchmen.” It gives a very short description of what some of the characters are like, but in the end it tries to point out a huge flaw with the premise of Adrian’s plan. (Unsuccessfully because it had such a small timeframe to work in). It has no time to explain why Adrian’s plan would ultimately fail, instead simply stating that “a common sense of inter-nation politics” would explain it. I would agree though that unless this alien invasion was to happen again, the countries would essentially forget about the event and move on.

-Colin Kitler

Dr. Manhattan: The Superman Exists and He’s Human

In Chapter 6, the complexities of Dr. Manhattan as a supernatural being are explored further. While searching for more in-depth character analysis of Dr. Manhattan, I came across this blog post by Dave Jones on thehogshead.org (which is primarily a Harry Potter blogging site, but still a particularly good analysis). Jones describes Dr. Manhattan’s talk on Mars with Laurie as his realization about humanity through perseverance in the face of adversity that leads him to “a strange moment of poetry.” As the God-figure, he is humanized in his escape to Mars and his sort of, stumbling upon a miracle in Laurie. I think the post does a good job of connecting Dr. Manhattan’s detachment from humanity as a recognition to his own humanity.

Searcher: Article Discussing Differences Between Watchmen Graphic Novel and Film

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00022337.html

The article discusses some of the plot/narrative differences between Watchmen in its original graphic novel form and recent film adaptation, which, if memory serves, most people in the class have seen. Reading about some of the points of departure between the two mediums I think can serve nicely to highlight certain moments of the narrative and spur thought about how these selected moments and scenes add to, detract from, or otherwise color the overall product. I also feel as though a story that gets transferred between different mediums can be worth studying to help understand the limitations and/or benefits of working within those respective mediums.

Deconstruction and Realization of The SuperHero

http://www.unm.edu/~ithomson/Hero.pdf

The university of New Mexico had this really awesome PDF file of a short article written about Watchmen and the superheroes within it. It displays the de-familiarization of the normal superhero in our eyes and shows how Watchmen in a way made superheroes not only slightly more popular but also more uncanny and real version of these superheroes. The article hits on points of the deconstruction of the “normal superhero” but also the unhappy realization of fantasy and and fantasy characters.

one of the best points of the articles is that the philosophy of “idea is destroyed by its own realization” can be shown in the superhero, and the realization of the superheroes in Watchmen where “the hero is destroyed by the superhero, who is more heroic than any hero, but whose extreme heroics are no longer recognizable as heroics ” which all in all is the basic concept of Watchmen.

Searchers: Feasability of Dr. Manhattan

Well i managed to find a few links that might be interesting, so i figured that i’d include them all.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-motion-captured/posts/2009-1-8-an-open-letter-from-watchmen-producers

This is a letter from the producers of the movie version of Watchmen, basically giving their point of view on the transferring of media.  He talks about why it took so long to get the movie of the ground and the difficulties of filming an “unfilmable” graphic novel, because of lack of support, 911, etc.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-accurate-is-watchmen

This was released right before the movie came out, and its a scientific look at just how possible the stuff in this movie/comic book is.  I just think its interesting how the perception has changed from comic books never being taken seriously, to being taken seriously to the point that movie execs and scientists alike are worried about scientific credibility.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/09/alan-moore-on-w.html

Interview with Alan Moore, telling his view on Watchmen and how it was strictly for the comic book medium, and a little more information about him, and other past and future projects.