Author and illustrator Art Spiegelman to speak on evolution of comics

DALLAS (SMU) – Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman, author of the illustrated Holocaust narrative Maus, will discuss the evolution of comics on February 28 at SMU as part of the Al and Sadye Gartner Honors Lecture Series.

Titled “What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?”, the lecture is from 5 to 7 p.m. in Crum Auditorium in the Cox School of Business' James M. Collins Executive Education Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for Maus, which portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. Maus II continued the remarkable story of his parents’ survival and their lives in the United States. In his lecture at SMU, Spiegelman will take a “chronological tour” of comics, while explaining the value of this medium.

“Comics echo the way the brain works,” Spiegelman says. “People think in iconographic images, not in holograms, and people think in bursts of language, not in paragraphs.”

David Doyle, director of the University Honors Program at SMU, says, “Students in the first year of the University Honors Program read Maus and Maus II, which address some of the darkest days of the 20th century in comics form. They lead our students to reflect on genocide, war, emigration and family relationships, and we’re honored to have the opportunity to discuss these issues with the author himself.”

The Al and Sadye Gartner Honors Lecture Series brings noted authorities in the humanities and sciences to SMU; past speakers have included Lady Bird Johnson, Victor Frankl and Harold Bloom.

The series was established in 1969 by friends and associates of Al Gartner upon his retirement from the Zale Corporation. In 1999, the series established a partnership with the University Honors Program to continue bringing noted academics, business leaders, civic figures and cultural experts to SMU to freely discuss issues with the University community and the public.

Learn more at smu.edu/univhonors.