Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse – Watch the trailer for the new documentary about the creator of Maus

This insightful documentary delves into the life and work of Art Spiegelman, the Queens-raised artist who revolutionized comics by exploring dark, complex themes. Shaped by his Holocaust-survivor parents and inspired by MAD magazine’s irreverent satire, Spiegelman’s most famous work, MAUS, is a poignant Holocaust narrative that redefined the medium. The film showcases his resistance to fascism and features rich illustrations from his comics, highlighting his significant impact as an artist and cultural critic. Featuring Robert Crumb among many others.

Check out the official site.

While best-known for the two volumes of Maus (voted by the New York Public Library as one of the 125 most important books of the last 125 years), Spiegelman’s deeply personal body of work also includes In the Shadow of No Towers, Breakdowns, and The Wild Party and he is known for his many provocative covers for The New Yorker magazine where he was a staff artist and writer from 1993-2003. With his wife, Françoise Mouly, Spiegelman published and edited the acclaimed and influential comics magazine RAW from 1980-1991, where Maus was first serialized.

Maus is available to buy here.

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When Maus was banned by a Tennessee school board in 2022, Art, a self-avowed “first amendment fundamentalist,” stepped back into the spotlight as an ardent defender of free speech and against book-banning in both national media appearances and community engagements all over the country. As one of our country’s leading public intellectuals he has used his platform well and continues to do so.

Disaster is My Muse! is a portrait of an artist fully engaged with his past and his present who, with his chosen medium of comics, helps us to understand our turbulent world, and is testimony to the power of art to make sense of our personal and collective histories.

The documentary opens at Film Forum in NYC on 21st February.