Musings on MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman

To break up the mind numbing tedium of tweaking panels and word balloons I gave my synapses a break and devoured Art Spiegelman's memoir of how he created the Pulitzer prizewinning graphic novel, Maus.

Here are comments I found most stimulating.

“…in making this kind of work, one has to inhabit and identify with each character. You have to act out their poses, you have to think them through…it is true that there is a kind of gestalting necessary just to be able to inhabit each character.” P. 35

I've written elsewhere about sub-personalities but this was a nice reminder that I am in my creation.

“I’d conceived of making some long comic book that needed a bookmark…and had to find something actually worth doing. I didn't have the stamina to devote myself to a one-hundred, two-hundred, three-hundred-page book just to serve up a lot of yucks or escapist melodrama.” P. 42

I relate. My work includes humor because "the sweetness of lips increases learning," (Proverbs). But humor isn't the point. My pictures and text will serve a greater purpose, simplifying one of history's most under appreciated existential texts.

“I guess I've always preferred research to writing or drawing.” P. 43

I'm doing hardly any research (other than arranging with a college professor friend of mine permission to take reference photos inside a large classroom). I'm making no trips to Poland or the New York Public library. 

“I remember a line from Shoah. A Jewish commander of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising says, ‘If you could lick my heart it would poison you.’ It indicates just how complete the absence of sunlight can be. To find a tone that could be informed by that bleakness and not be an inevitable prescription for suicide was difficult…To avoid that and still allow for the small moments that are what make a life worth living demanded a tone that I needed to find in Maus: how to avoid despair or cynicism without becoming fatuous. And Pavel’s discussion of what it means to soberly take stock of just how fucking meaningless everything is and what one nevertheless does from moment to moment was very useful for me—not just as a cartoonist, but as a model to aspire to.” P. 70

Dr. Q's bleak pessimism could inspire suicidal thoughts in the vulnerable, so my purpose is to validate his pessimism (if world affairs don't make you depressed you're not paying attention) while hoping to call attention to as Art says, what one nevertheless does from moment to moment. This is the existentialist challenge.

“In 2007 the Anne Frank House published a fictionalized color series of graphic novels specifically for an international teaching aid about the Holocaust. They’re very earnest and drawn in a pleasant Tin Tin style.” P. 127

Oh-oh. Tin Tin has been my inspiration. Looks like Ecclesiastes University will be drawn in a "pleasant" style.

“During that period of groping for a style, I also thought about cutting between the present and the past by having black and white line drawings intercut with gray wash drawings, or using full-color, which would have been way too decorative….” P. 145

And EU will be drawn in a decorative style! If the medium is the message, and the medium is pleasant and decorative, how will that "carry" the angst? The in-congruent juxtaposition may serve me well: an absurd linkage of pleasant decoration with philosophical nihilism may just be the absurd boost I'll need to pull this off.

More musings later.

Tweaking Word Balloons

CREATING SPACES IN WORD BALLOONS

This action makes space for the word balloon “tail” that I’m going to draw by hand in Draft Four (printed hard copy), pointing the “tail” toward the mouth of the character who is speaking.

1. Click on next page number on bottom of the page (pulling up a new page in Draft Three).
2. Place curser in first word balloon.
3. Click on drop down arrow next to page enlargement tool.
4. Click on 400% (which makes the word balloon as large as it can be).
5. Click on Line Tool.
6. Place curser somewhere on the bottom of the text box.
7. Drag it approximately ¼” creating a black line upon line.
8. Click on Line/Border Style Tool.
9. Click on 4 ½ pt. line width.
10. Click on Line Color (white).
11. With that new white line still “selected,” click the copy tool.
12. Slide page movement thingy bob on the bottom of the page to the right which moves the next word balloon into view (still at the 400% size).
13. Click paste. A new little white line (invisible on the white background) magically appears. Click and drag it to the bottom of the text box in the second word balloon.
14. Slide that page movement thingy bob to the right again which puts the word balloon in the third panel in view. Click paste, click and drag the invisible white line to the bottom of the text box and voila! The third word balloon is now ready for my hand drawn “tail.”
15. Slide the page movement thingy bob on the bottom of the page to the left. The page on the screen moves to the left so its left edge appears on the screen. Drag the page movement thingy bob on the right edge of the screen down thereby bringing into view the second row of three panels on the bottom half of the page.
16. Click paste again and position that white line on the bottom of the fourth text box.

Repeat 2568 times.

Someday remind me to describe these chores: re-positioning text boxes (repeat 200 times), connecting text boxes (200 times) and connecting panels (400 times). As tedious as all this is, in the long run it'll prevent reader eye fatigue by allowing me to put different characters in each panel rather than repeating the same character over and over. 

And they say creating a graphic novel is all thrills and chills and tense excitement.