Comics are a simple and engaging style of storytelling with the help of images, visual art and words. The images are arranged in a panel and into a sequential narrative. Words might or might not be used and usually, appear in a box or balloons near the images. The essay discusses MAUS graphic novel, its content and visual strategies used by the illustrator to convey the information. It evaluates as to how some specific concepts of comics are employed by the author of MAUS. When one mentions a graphic novel, it conjures images of illustrated books and comics.
There has been increasing interest in graphic novels and used them to promote literacy and teaching in classrooms. Maus is looked upon to be as an intellectually substantive graphic novels. The medium of graphic novels is considered a medium with its own devices and innovators. The medium has been legitimized in ways unimaginable ever since Maus was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 (Chun 146). American cartoonist Art Spiegelman serializes the graphic novel based on experiences of a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. Jews have been drawn as mice while Germans and Poles are depicted as cats and pigs. Maus attempts to create a functional history of the Holocaust, forcing the readers to take a step backward and make them follow the large scale atrocity of Holocaust with the help of graphics.
The text-driven story is done in black-and-white panels. As one knows, the most fundamental comic book language takes place in the panels. As we look at the visual language used in comics, they conveyed the story by a sequence of images that progress linearly as well as in groupings. (Cohn 680 -2). The panels in comics are arranged physically on the page, and can be detached from each other, overlap each other, or placed next to each other (Cohn 680 -5). The framing of the panels and their structures contribute to the fluency used in comics. We find the use of similar panels in Maus in its black-and-white panels. There are thick black borders around those panels. However, there is a violation of the grid constantly by the artist in his page layouts. In few pages, one finds the graphics without any borderline of panels, and sometimes the graphics take a circular shape. For example, when Spiegelman’s father begins narrating his past and when he was into textile buying and selling, one finds a circular panel on the page (MAUS 12).
The black lines that express each panel are powerful. If one just looks at the page structure, the force of those lines and the function within, it is easy to follow the narrative. The segmentation in Maus graphic events registers different levels of expression. The intensified graphic work forces the readers to take the story seriously, as it gets developed through the visual scenes. Maus follows a conventional approach to the scene, creating a sequence of events that drive the story. The artists rely on visual codes exclusively to create graphic as well as textual effects. Some of those works are deceptively simple, but on closer observation, one finds the visual and textual elements positioned outside or across panels. Spiegelman makes close analyses of important events in the text. Emotions run high in some of those frames and panels. The close-up frames are used to express emotions.
Another essential in a comic book is the speech balloon that can differ in shape and size. Spiegelman uses caption boxes as he feels that they carry the authority of real prose. He uses different voices within the caption boxes with the help of visual cues. The dialogues are contained within the speech balloon, and the linguistic text is high on energy. It is essential to note the two distinct voices for the same character such as the Polish-speaking Vladek when he was younger and the current English-speaking Vladek. Spiegelman provides a visual cue to the reader by showing older Vladek as slouched and bespectacled, with the posture suggesting old age. Whatever text the illustrator wants to show with force or stronger emotions are made bigger n size and bold carryon exclamation marks, such as “shut up” or capitalizing all the letters such as “ VLADEK”.
The minutely detailed drawings present the reader with as much emotion as the narrative itself. For example, when he shows the mouths, they are triangle inverted to represent cries and screams and coming from a mouse, it creates a kind of vulnerability and the kind of vulnerability completes the human face and emotion, and d connects to the rider who can feel the pain of the mouse. The illustrator makes use of the semiotics of comic-book where the line sketches are meant to convey an idea. The simple line sketches of the cartoons create a unique psychological impact. Maus achieves the sense of showing and telling and provides the reader information. There is a heightened understanding of the image because of the enhanced literary qualities of Maus. Spiegelman fills negative space with black or black-and-white lines in Maus or creating,
shadowy tones reminding one of Holocaust memoir. Space cannot be neglected in a graphic novel.
Maus uses symbolic language with semantic connotations to reconstruct the Holocaust reality. For example, the cats are shown to be aggressive and violent while the mouse is victimized and frightened because he is hunted. The illustrator makes use of animal imagery to express the horrific violence of the Holocaust. Sometimes, the same character changes from mouse to cat as a symbolic representation of the supposed racial identity. The cat and mouse are used to reinforce the nature of racial classification.
The graphic medium does a better job here to appeal to the perception of the reader without the need for literacy. Swastika is one of the most common icons in Maus. Thus, one finds the use of icons, line sketches and panels in Maus to convey an idea. The images are abstracted from real appearances but still carry a resemblance to the real thing. Maus makes use of panels as a narrative structure to tell the complicated story in the sequential arrangement. The reader moves through different narrated events, and sometimes different events are placed within one time-frame, to show both past and present. The characters are drawn in a minimalistic style. Still, there is more focus on story and language rather than the artwork. Just like comics, the graphic novel provides a more primal level of reading experience as one’s gaze moves from diagonally and up and down, merging the imagery and words effortlessly. The mechanics of visual storytelling rely on the use of visual means such as the panel sizes, line quality, scales, and use of colors
I think that a graphic novel can be an effective tool to deal with complex issues, and Maus is a successful example of that. It motivates the readers to get emotionally engaged and are able to follow a complex and sensitive issue sin a much easier way. There is scientific attention on how well the readers comprehend graphic display of sequential images. The comic medium has largely been seen as a source of entertainment and lighter reading. However, the success of Maus has changed all of that and shows how graphics and visual narratives with powerful visual language can reach out and make strong connections with the readers, forcing them to take the drawing seriously as well as the message behind. The illustrations, graphics, icons, framing and panel organization in Maus strengthens the referential truth of the works. The graphic novel invests in the visual presentation of the page thus encouraging an immersive and extensive experience for the reader. The line work, framing, color and other graphic features in Maus are substantive and articulate an inexhaustible graphic system.
Works Cited
Chun, Christian W. "Critical Literacies and Graphic Novels for English-Language Learners: Teaching Maus." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 53.2 (2009): 144-53. Web.
Cohn, Neil. "The Architecture of Visual Narrative Comprehension: The Interaction of Narrative Structure and Page Layout in Understanding Comics." Frontiers in psychology 5 (2014): 680- NA. Web.
