When I was in university (all those years ago), I took a class that was essentially called “Understanding Comics” which explored comics as a medium — how it told stories, how it evolved, where it is now, and so on, and there was not a page that wasn’t turned. While the beginnings of the class focused on more obvious things (DC and Marvel), it slowly divulged into stories that DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, etc., might not have touched then, now, or ever, really, the stories that make up Art Spiegelman’s Maus — the first graphic novel to ever win a Pulitzer, showing what the medium could do in more ways. While Captain America fought Hitler and Nazis in his early publishing days, Spiegelman decided to touch upon his own family heritage and their experience with the Holocaust and World War II. Utilizing the stories his parents told him and as well as research (Maus took him 13 years), he shared those stories by way of mice and cats in what is one of the most haunting, beautiful, heart-wrenching, and difficult reads I have ever had the privilege to digest.
Art Spiegelman in documentary ART SPIELGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE. Photo courtesy of Film Forum.
A film could spend its 100-minute run time covering the graphic novel Maus. It could spend it examining how comics are used to tell stories that cannot be told in a different medium while reaching a large audience. The film Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse spends its 100 minutes exploring the life of author Art Spiegelman, highlighting the parts that contributed to and lead to his creation of Maus, and Maus itself. As someone who studied Spiegelman’s work briefly in school and then Maus as a larger subject, Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse expanded my knowledge on both, bringing so much new information, information not readily available through a quick Google search or from my own knowledge bank. This documentary directed by Molly Bernstein (Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay) and Philip Dolin (The Show’s the Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock) is exhaustive and informative and includes talks with Spiegelman himself, discussions on his influence on the medium of comics today, recognition of who he’s inspired, his descriptions of what Maus means to him and his family, and his explanation of why the story was so important to tell.
Art Spiegelman in documentary ART SPIELGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE. Photo courtesy of Film Forum.
Spiegelman started with an interest in comics and wanting to create his own stories, similar to another legendary comic creator, Stan Lee. While having the drive to create something of his own, the path to do so in comics required a crawl through Topps trading cards, including the Garbage Pail Kids, Mad Magazine, and The New Yorker. While the first half of the film details how these and other life moments and experiences contributed to Maus, the second half focuses on Maus and its significance, including its ground-breaking Pulitzer Prize win, its place in education around literature and history and media, and its legacy of influencing and inspiring creators like Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis). Bernstein and Dolin present all of this in an accessible way so that the whole range of people who have read Maus and those who are not familiar with Maus, those who read and love comics and those who have never picked one up, and everyone in between, will understand the true significant impact that Spiegelman and Maus have had on culture, society, and literature.
Art Spiegelman in documentary ART SPIELGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE. Photo courtesy of Film Forum.
Art Spiegelman turned a tragic, horrific event that left a mark on his family into a story to share with and to educate the world on information that wasn’t just text on a page or words spoken on a screen so it could reach a wider audience. It allowed the world to see comic books, specifically graphic novels, as something more than just a passive hobby, to see that they’re a means of telling impactful stories as communicated through drawings and text of various styles a fact further driven home with Maus winning the first ever and only Pulitzer for comics. This legitimized a medium ostracized up until this point, creating a door for other artists and creatives to tell their stories in ways that they knew how. Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse is a fascinating documentary on one of the most influential comic books in the modern space and its creator, and the film coming from an independent publisher feels more timely than ever.
Screening at Film Forum beginning Friday, February 21st, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse website.
To purchase tickets, head to the official Film Forum Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, In Theaters, Recommendation, Reviews
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