Being banned from schools isn’t the only thing Maus and Garbage Pail Kids have in common. Both were created by comic book legend Art Spiegelman.
Although at first glance it may seem that the Children’s garbage bucket trading card series and the award-winning historical graphic novel Maus are unconnected, many people might be surprised to learn that both are the creations of the legendary freelance cartoonist Art Spiegelmann. While the two are wildly successful, Maus was widely celebrated not only as an important comic book, but also as an important historical work. That seemed to change for some when in early 2022 Maus has been outrageously banned in some schools. Spiegelman faced similar situations, such as when Children’s garbage bucket debuted in the mid-1980s, they were also banned in schools, but the reasons for these bans are very different.
Art Spiegelman was the art director assigned to Children’s garbage bucket while working for the Topps Trading Card Company. Spiegelman was hired by Topps after an internship in 1966 when he was 18, and only a year later would be the co-creator of Wacky packages. For nearly two decades, Spiegelman worked at Topps while contributing and actively participating in San Francisco’s highly influential underground comix culture, which would inspire many artists who followed, including those who helped create bands. drawn lighthouses. publication heavy metal magazine, who continues to create stunning work to this day. Inspired by previous success with Wacky packagesmanagement at Topps and Spiegelman decided to base the series on an unused Wacky Package map. Spiegelman partnered with Mark Newgarden to develop the series.
Along with co-creating the series, Spiegelman came up with the innovative idea of pairing each character’s name with an adjective, unlocking the formula that would lead to 15 sets of goofy, gross, and memorable characters such as Nasty Nick, Blasted Billy , Joltin’ Joe, and others that are currently fetching high prices on the collector’s market. At the same time, Spiegelman also released Maus, the autobiographical/historical graphic novel about his parents’ survival in the Holocaust and how it would affect them and their families. In 1992, when the second volume of Maus came out, he won an Eisner, a Harvey and a Pulitzer.
Kids bins debuted in 1985 with an 88-card set featuring 44 original paintings by John Pound, which Spiegelman and Newgarden chose from a long list of artists who submitted the project. Although highly successful, the crude and immature nature of the art that was the source of its popularity was also the cause of parental ire. resulting in the card series being banned in schools less than a year after its debut. Children’s garbage bucket remains banned from some schools to this day and is also listed as a prohibited item to ship to some countries, including Mexico, with the Mexico Import Prohibition List SEO “Illustrations showing childhood in denigrated and ridiculous ways, inciting violence, self-destruction or any type of anti-social behavior” as reasoning.
Maus was once a perennial comic included in many school curricula for its honest and uncompromising depiction of the long-term effects of the Holocaust and its impact on its survivors and their families. However, the graphic novel is now seen by some as something that shouldn’t be viewed by children. Given that Maus is a deeply personal story Written through interviews conducted with his father about his experiences during the Holocaust, Spiegelman was understandably upset by the banning of his comic strip in some schools. Spiegelman said in a interview with CNN“,I think they’re so myopic in their focus and so scared of what it entails to have to defend the decision to teach Maus as part of their curriculum that it’s led to this stupidly myopic answer. The problem, of course, is that it oozes autocracy and fascism and there’s a real problem in asking parents to be on board to decide what’s okay to teach children. , and the values are too far from what I can recognize.”
Many have attributed political reasons to the ban on Maus in American schools, as opposed to the prohibition of Children’s garbage bucket, which was made to prevent children from viewing rude and inappropriate material. Despite the difference in reasoning behind them, prohibitions on Maus and Children’s garbage bucket have the same effect of preventing children from discovering comic book work Art Spiegelmann.
Sources: Sentinel of the Sun, fedEx, CNN
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