"BREAKDOWNS was published in 1978, against all odds. There was no demand for a deluxe large-format album that collected the scattered handful of short auto-biographical and structurally 'experimental' comics I'd made between 1972 and 1977—except by me."
"RAW was a magazine of avant-garde comics that I co-edited with (my wife) Françoise Mouly in the 1980s. It was she who dragged me, kicking and screaming, to start RAW as a showcase for what comics could be after I'd vowed never to do such a thing again..."
Topps was the artist's "Medici" from 1966, when he turned 18, 'til 1989. He created novelty trading cards and stickers, ranging from the obscure to the notorious, warping a generation of kids with the MAD lessons that had warped him. After having kids of his own, he sought more reputable employment.
Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize, MAUS is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father, his father's terrifying story, and History itself. In cartoon form, this is a new kind of literature.
Spiegelman created 21 covers for THE NEW YORKER magazine during his tenture as an artist and staff writer from 1992-2001. His work generated both controversy and cohesion on a national level.
Spiegelman lives in Lower Manhattan, and the events of 9-11 "left me reeling on that faultline where World History and Personal History collide." His response to the events of 9-11 and the subsequent war were published in a book called IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS in 2004.
