The Istoriaphile’s Corner

I’ll admit it, I’m a snob when it comes to comic books.  Early in my reading career it became apparent that an inverse relationship existed between the number of illustrations in the book and the expected IQ of the reader.  (i.e., more pictures meant lower IQ).   As soon as I figured that out, I headed for chapter books at high speed.  Oh, I still enjoyed a great illustration once in a while but I knew better than to focus on them.  And I couldn’t grasp why so many males in my generation continued to buy, read and discuss comic books after they reached legal maturity.   It was like being trapped in a life-long, joke-less episode of “Big Bang Theory”.    People could call the publications graphic novels or comics, I didn’t care.  They were still just “funny books” for dorks. So I didn’t see Maus coming.  Maus, if you haven’t seen it, is a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman about the Holocaust.   And it’s animated, because Mr. Spiegelman is an illustrator.   And, to put the icing on the cake, Mr. Spiegelman drew the characters in his work as animals.  It sounds crazy but, believe me, it’s a work of genius. The…