Maus by Art Spiegelman is set in the 1950s after WWII and is the author's retelling of his father's story in Auschwitz. The cats are the Nazi and the mice are the Jews. It's all black and white, which is appropriate for this story because its a dark subject. It is considered to be the first graphic novel because this book is not recommended for children. This started a whole new genre, and I'm glad because I enjoy this type of style of "comics". I do think this story gives cats a bad name because I see cats as nice and cuddly and in this story that is considered the bad guys,
One image that does a good job of making this novel reflect the horror of this time is the title art for Chapter 4. A group of mice is being hanged. Some have their heads down and some have their mouths open crying for help. I think it's strange that someone would make a comic about the holocaust, I'm sure the people of the 1950s thought the same thing.
It does get a little confusing sometimes when the story goes back and forth between the 1950s and the war. Unlike graphic novels today, they don't show a lot of blood and gore when someone was being beaten. We find out that the artist's mother commits suicide in the end because she can't live with what has happened.
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